Sony has announced the news that you were hoping for (some of you must have been anyway), that they are moving forward with a Ghostbusters 5 movie after the success of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, but there is no news as of yet regarding any potential cast members or even a director.
The Ghostbusters franchise stretches all the way back to 1984 with Ghostbusters which was directed by Ivan Reitman and consisted of unforgettable stars like Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson. The success of this film launched into a huge multimedia franchise that included a sequel, some animated shows, and countless toys, comics, and video games. The franchise was triumphant, exceeding far greater expectations than first thought, and yet, the series fell off a cliff of sorts… until the unsuccessful reboot of 2016, starring Melissa McCarthy and directed by Paul Feig.
The 2016 Ghostbusters, although a box office success, just couldn’t live up to its massive budget or live with the misogynist outcry that came with it either. So, it was time for another reboot (a reboot of a reboot, now that’s a first), and Sony answered that call by creating Ghostbusters: Afterlife with this film actually having a connection to the original, due to the characters being grandchildren of the Harold Ramis character Egon Spengler.
There was a hefty weight on the shoulders of this film now though, would it emulate the failings of the 2016 film or the success of the original? Well, it was the latter, and the film – who had added Paul Rudd and Carrie Coon to the cast in the meantime – generated good box office scores and the fans loved it. This was good news for the franchise as it meant it now had strong foundations to build on and hopefully (fingers crossed), it can carry on into a fruitful series once again.
We have no other details about the film other than it has been given the green light, but due to the confirmation being so rapid, it would be sensible to assume that this would be a direct sequel, and Jason Reitman (son of Ivan) could even take up the reigns once again. It wouldn’t be wrong to expect to see the same young cast getting on board too, but this is all hearsay, you’ll just have to keep your ear to the ground for some Ghostbusters 5 information when it drops.