- Aykroyd has been part of the Ghosbusters franchise for 40 years
- He believes the new characters can carry the franchise
- Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire likely to be his swansong in the series
It appears we may have seen Ray Stantz in a Ghostbusters movie for the final time – as actor Dan Aykroyd doesn’t see himself playing the character again.
New cast, new ideas
Indeed, Aykroyd – one of the writers and stars of the original 1984 film – has told The New York Post that he doesn’t think his other surviving co-stars from that film, Ernie Wilson (who played Winston Zeddemore) and Bill Murray (Peter Venkman) will feature either.
Aykroyd believes that the new set of characters, first introduced in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, are now the focus of the films and can carry them in any new ones that are made.
“I don’t see where they would need us to carry it on,” he said. “They’ve got a whole new cast, and they’ve got whole new ideas.”
In Ghostbusters: Afterlife, a new generation of characters were introduced, focusing on original Ghostbuster Egon Spengler’s grandchildren, Phoebe (played by Mckenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), as well as their mother Callie (Carrie Coon) and Gary Grooberson, Phoebe’s teacher (Paul Rudd).
The surviving members of the original Ghostbusters movie – Harold Ramis, who played Egon Spengler, died in 2014 – all reprised their roles in cameos in Afterlife and Frozen Empire.
Maybe more films
However, it is not certain that we will have more Ghostbusters movies as Frozen Empire had something of a frosty reception from critics and theater goers when it was released earlier this year. But the team behind the film have teased that there may be more films to come in the franchise.
Gil Kenan, who wrote and directed Frozen Empire, said he and Jason Reitman are “continuing the conversation of telling big Ghostbuster stories on the big screen.” Nothing has been greenlit at the time of writing.
