Ghostbusters: Afterlife will bring back the original Ghostbusters, but one member will be missing. Harold Ramis, who played Egon Spengler in the original Ghostbusters, died in 2014. Although Ramis may not be in the movie, Dan Aykroyd has revealed that Afterlife will "honorably represent" the comedy actor.
"To have that formation without that man standing right there on the line with us was a pretty serious adjustment," Aykroyd told Entertainment Weekly. "He will be very well represented in the new film, I can tell you that. He’s very honorably represented."
Ghostbusters: Afterlife will ignore the events of Paul Feig's female-led Ghostbusters, released in 2016. Instead, the new movie will follow on from the events of Ghostbusters II, although initially following all-new characters, including Stranger Things' Finn Wolfhard and Ant-Man actor Paul Rudd. Afterlife is being directed by Jason Reitman, son of the original Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman.
"He’s passing the DNA of the first two movies directly to the new generation," Aykroyd said of the new director. "It’s just a lot of fun to see these terrific young actors slinging the old Cadillac around and having the equipment in their hands.
"The story that develops from that is scary and funny and heartfelt and also funny. And it feeds into the possibility of more follow-ups with this group and with others who want to join."
Recently, it was confirmed that Bill Murray will appear in Afterlife with the actor teasing that the script contains "lots of emotion". Meanwhile, the movie's release date was recently pushed back into 2021 due to the ongoing pandemic.
