Bill Murray says Harold Ramis and Rick Moranis are "greatly missed" in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. The former not only played scientist Egon Spengler in the original Ghostbusters, he also wrote the screenplay with his costar Dan Aykroyd (who played Ray Stantz). Sadly, Ramis passed away in 2014 before he and the rest of the Ghostbusters cast could reunite for the long-developing third film in the series. In contrast, Moranis played the comic relief Louis Tully in the first movie and reprised the role for Ghostbusters II. However, he semi-retired from acting in the late '90s to raise his kids after his wife died from cancer.
With Moranis planning to return to live-action acting in the upcoming Honey, I Shrunk the Kids sequel, Shrunk, there's been some speculation about him possibly also revisiting the Ghostbusters franchise (in secret) in next year's Afterlife. But based on recent comments by Murray, who's reprising his role as Peter Venkman for the movie, that's not happening and Moranis will join Ramis on the list of Ghostbusters (1984) veterans missing from the latest installment.
During an interview on The Ellen Show, Murray said Ramis and Morranis are "greatly missed for so many reasons" in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, before adding "They were so much a part of the creation of [Ghostbusters] and the fun of it." He went on to tease Egon being "featured in the story of the movie. So, it will be very interesting."
In terms of story, Ghostbusters: Afterlife follows a single mom (Carrie Coon) and her two children (Mckenna Grace and Finn Wolfhard) as they move to a small town and discover the truth about their connection to the original Ghostbusters team. It's not confirmed just yet, but the popular theory is Grace and Wolfhard are playing Egon's grandkids, and there's a lot of evidence in the Afterlife trailer to support this (including, Grace's character finding Spengler's old Ghostbusters uniform). If so, it's a smart way of making Ramis/Egon an integral part of Afterlife and has the potential to give film some real heart to go with all the zany paranormal hijinks audiences expect from a Ghostbusters movie. This should also allow Afterlife to bring characters like Stantz and Venkman back into the mix without it feeling contrived.
As for Moranis, he's admitted to being selective about which roles he tackles, now that he's getting back to working on live-action movies again. He already passed on making a cameo in the Ghostbusters reboot a few years ago, saying he didn't think it made sense for him to revisit the franchise for such a minor thing. It's possible he passed on Ghostbusters: Afterlife for similar reasons, seeing as the Louis Tully character probably wouldn't have had much to do in the movie. And while it might've been fun if he popped up anyway, one can understand where he's coming from.
Source: The Ellen Show
