Ghostbusters 5 has been announced but in order to evolve the franchise, it must break its odd reliance on origin stories. Dan Aykroyd conceived of the original Ghostbusters concept, which was inspired by his own belief in the paranormal. His original idea was dubbed Ghost Smashers and saw the titular team functioning like firefighters who would battle supernatural threats across different dimensions. While the director Ivan Reitman and writer Harold Ramis saw the potential of the idea, they knew Aykroyd's take would be too sprawling and expensive, so Ramis came on to scale it down.
The result was Ghostbusters, a combination of comedy and blockbuster that became an immense success in 1984. While it was always intended as a one-off, the studio recognized they had a potential franchise on their hands. They followed up with cartoon series The Real Ghostbusters - which needs a reboot - and eventually reunited the cast for 1989's Ghostbusters II. The franchise has returned to the big screen twice since then, with 2016's Ghostbusters: Answer The Call and 2021's legacy sequel Afterlife.
Sony confirmed in April 2022 that Ghostbusters 5 was being developed, though story details or returning cast has yet to be confirmed. Of the four Ghostbusters live-action movies, it's notable that three of them are origin stories. Ramis believed that the best way to introduce audiences to the central concept was to watch the characters establish the business, which was an inspired touch. 2016's Answer The Call was something of a remake so it followed that same formula, while Ghostbusters: Afterlife then acted as an origin for Egon Spengler's family as they uncover his legacy. That entry ended by hinting the team would be back in New York again to restart the business, but Ghostbusters 5 needs to finally find the paranormal hunters up and running instead of another origin of sorts.
With both the original film and 2016's Ghostbusters, audiences saw the title group build their equipment and business from the ground up. If Ghostbusters 5 does feature Egon's grandchildren or new recruits re-opening the classic firehouse, then it must avoid that particular setup. Even Ghostbusters II featured a re-introduction of sorts as the gang spends the first act getting back to business, instead of starting with them already established.
In keeping with The Real Ghostbusters or even Extreme Ghostbusters, the freshest angle Ghostbusters 5 could take is just having the business functioning when the story begins. Like Aykroyd's original outline, the Ghostbusters - which has many cameos in its classic music video - should be a part of everyday life already, until a new threat (preferably not Zuul again) forces them to up their game. The team has been introduced many times to viewers over the years, so Ghostbusters 5 needs to drop the origin angle and let them just get on with cleaning up the town.