They had us at the collection of spores, mold, and fungus.
After the Ghostbusters movie of 2016 – acceptably well made, but mired in internet trolls – we had some reservations about the new film Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Fan theories and speculation were running wild for months as to what the new film would be like.
Now, at long last, Sony Pictures has released the first official trailer for the new movie, and we no longer have to guess.
We’re finally here. Ghostbusters: Afterlife party, table for a few million, please.
It’s the real deal. The original Ghostbusters were saving New York in the 1980’s, but nobody’s seen a real ghost in more than 30 years. Enter a single mom and her two kids. At the end of their rope financially, they leave the big city to drive to the middle of nowhere. The last thing they have in the world is a broken down old farmhouse left to them by the kid’s grandfather – who just happens to turn out to have been Egon Spengler, one of the original Ghostbusters.
Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potz, Sigourney Weaver reprise their famous roles as Dr. Peter Venkman, Dr. Raymond Stantz, Dr. Winston Zeddmore, Janine Melnitz, and Dana Barrett. The film stars Carrie Coon, who plays Callie, mother to Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard). Every hero’s journey needs the old wise mentor charactr to set the adventurers on their path, and Paul Rudd stars as a summer school teacher who fills that role for the kids. Finn Wolfhard of Stranger Things, by the way, stars as one of the kids. Word has it that he was worried he might not be considered for the role because of a bit he did in Stranger Things where his character donned a fake Ghostbusters uniform.
“I was auditioning, and for that exact reason, I thought, ‘Jason Reitman is probably not even going to look at my tape because I’ve already done it in Stranger Things,’” Wolfhard told The Hollywood Reporter. “I guess he just identified a lot with my tape, and it ended up working out for the best.”
There are so many Easter eggs in the trailer it’s hard to keep track of them all. The ghost trap is a huge tie-back to the original movies. There’s Peter Venkman’s uniform, the proton pack on the workbench, and of course the discovery of that iconic car, the original classic Ghostmobile.
What else can you find? Watch the trailer a few times and tell us what you see in the comments below.
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