The second full trailer for Ghostbusters: Afterlife has been released, and it contains evidence that the ghost of Egon Spengler will play a major role in this franchise outing. The original Ghostbusters was a huge hit upon its 1984 release. However, a variety of issues mean that a third Ghostbusters movie has taken decades to release.
Released in 1989, Ghostbusters II was a financial hit that nonetheless underperformed in comparison to the original and failed to earn a warm critical reception. A 2016 reboot of the series proved critically divisive and commercially unsuccessful, with many fans saying the new movie failed to recapture what made the first movie so special. Now, original director Ivan Reitman’s son Jason Reitman has taken over the franchise and helmed a long-awaited third canon installment in the upcoming Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
The new Ghostbusters movie is not a reboot like 2016's Ghostbusters, but rather a continuation of the original canon. The untimely death of comedy legend and original Ghostbusters series star/co-writer Harold Ramis led the creators to kill off his character Egon Spengler, with almost all the rest of the original cast confirmed to return in the upcoming movie. However, the Ghostbusters: Afterlife trailer suggests Egon will have a role to play in the new installment from beyond the grave. Fittingly for a Ghostbusters movie, Egon’s spirit could be instrumental to the plot of Ghostbusters: Afterlife if this theory proves to be true.
Egon Spengler Is Dead By The Start Of Ghostbusters: Afterlife
The long-awaited Ghostbusters: Afterlife was always going to have a hard time explaining away the absence of Egon Spengler. With the rest of the original cast confirmed to be reprising their roles, killing off the character before the action begins was likely the smartest route for the new movie to take. The earliest trailers for Ghostbusters: Afterlife confirmed that Egon Spengler is canonically dead before the sequel begins by having his daughter and her children inherit a farmhouse from him, thus setting up the movie. This both offers a tidy in series explanation for Egon’s absence and serves as a tasteful tribute to Ramis, who was a major creative contributor to the original movies.
The Afterlife Trailer Hints Egon Is Haunting His Family
However, just because Egon is dead does not mean that all traces of the character are gone for good. The Ghostbusters movies always featured many poltergeists and restless spirits and, judging by the second Ghostbusters: Afterlife trailer, this outing will be no exception. There are typical "haunted house" tropes throughout the trailer, whether it is the general appearance of the rundown multi-story Victorian farmhouse that the family inherited from Egon or its flickering lights. However, there is also one part of the trailer that will be of particular interest to fans of the franchise, where it seems as if Egon’s spirit could be communicating with his daughter. At around 1:29 in the trailer, Carrie Coons’s character watches a lamp moving in the darkness.
The lamp appears to move on its own and it seems as though Egon’s daughter is being directed to look at something by the lamp - and possibly by Egon’s spirit, which could be commanding the object. Frustratingly, the action-packed teaser soon cuts to Paul Rudd’s character being accosted by the Mini-Pufts in a grocery store, meaning this monetary glance is the only glimpse viewers have of Coons’ character interacting with what could be Egon’s spirit. However, there is another reason to believe that this theory could be true.
Egon's Ghost Can Explain Afterlife's Title
The title Ghostbusters: Afterlife is an interesting choice and one that could potentially imply that the movie will contain a role for franchise favorite Egon despite his death occurring before its action begins. Already, the title is a fitting one for a movie that harkens back to the nostalgic prime of the franchise despite the death of one of its major players. Meanwhile, with the trailer boasting appearances from both a Terror Dog and Stay-Puft offspring, it is clear that Ghostbusters: Afterlife aims to breathe new life into the original mythos rather than ignoring or over-writing the earlier outings.
Thus, the title Ghostbusters: Afterlife may refer in literal terms to the role that Egon, one of the original Ghostbusters, will play in helping set up a replacement team after the death of his character. The fact that his young grandchildren discover and refurbish the Ectomobile supports this claim, as the kids can be seen using the vehicle to pursue Muncher at the end of the movie’s most recent trailer. Thus, given the shot of Coon's character seemingly being led by a lamp, it is not a stretch to suggest that Egon’s spirit may play an even more direct role in guiding his grandchildren (The Haunting of Hill House’s McKenna Grace and Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard) throughout the action of the sequel.
Afterlife Would Revive A Lost Ghostbusters 3 Idea
During the decades that the sequel spent in development hell before both this outing and the 2016 reboot, there were numerous earlier attempts to write a script for Ghostbusters 3. Although the treatments varied in tone, almost all of them had one thing in common: one member of the team was a ghost in the draft. Interestingly, it was Bill Murray’s Venkman who was killed off in these drafts as, according to IGN, the creators were concerned about the star having limited shooting time for the sequel. In one draft of Ghostbusters 3 written by Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, Venkman was already dead by the end of the first act and a younger team of Ghostbusters took over from the original squad. Meanwhile, in a second draft written by Etan Cohen, he was killed off but became a ghost before the ending. Elements of both of these drafts could resurface in Ghostbusters: Afterlife if the theory outlined above turns out to be true as Egon may not only become a ghost, but also be instrumental in leading a new generation of Ghostbusters into taking up the mantle that he, Venkman, Ray, Winston, and Ray vacated years earlier.
