Ghostbusters 3 director Jason Reitman has confirmed that original cast members Bill Murray, Sigourney Weaver, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson have all read the script for the upcoming sequel. Released in 1984, the original Ghostbusters came out of nowhere to become a pop culture phenomenon as well as a massive box office hit. A sequel followed in 1989, and afterward fans clamored loudly for more Ghostbusters on the big screen.

Unfortunately for those fans, a third Ghostbusters starring the original cast was just not in the cards. 2016 did see the arrival of a reboot film featuring a new all-female Ghostbusters team, but the movie was largely rejected by the male portion of the fanbase (for sometimes irrational reasons) and fared poorly at the box office. Now, Jason Reitman, the son of original Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman, is putting together his own sequel featuring teenage paranormal investigators. Teens Finn Wolfhard and McKenna Grace have already signed on to join the cast, together with adult Carrie Coon. As for the original Ghostbusters cast, they will have some involvement in the new movie, as Sigourney Weaver recently revealed.

Related: Ghostbusters 3 Character Breakdowns Reveal Two Of The New Young Leads

Following up on Weaver’s revelation about her and fellow original cast members Bill Murray and Dan Ayrkoyd’s involvement in the new movie, Jason Reitman has confirmed that his script has indeed made the rounds of the old school Ghostbusters crew. Speaking to the audience at Ghostbusters Fan Fest, Reitman said (via the Ghostbusters official Twitter account) “Sigourney has read the screenplay...Dan has read it...Ernie’s read the script...Bill Murray has read the script.

Ghostbusters Original Cast

Murray, Aykroyd, Weaver and Hudson were of course all coaxed into doing cameo appearances in the 2016 reboot, as was fellow original cast member Annie Potts, though none of them played their “real” characters. Presumably, the above named actors would all play their “true” Ghostbusters characters in the new movie, though it remains to be seen how large their roles would actually be (it's worth noting that none of them have been officially confirmed for the movie yet, but it looks like that's a formality at this point). No doubt, Jason Reitman’s main ambition with his film is to establish his new characters, while using the original cast members to act as a bridge to the older movies (a common practice in reboot films).

Given that Ghostbusters 3 won’t be releasing until 2020, fans are still a long way away from finding out what exactly Jason Reitman has in store for the beloved franchise. Ghostbusters fans proved just how rabid they can be with the backlash to the 2016 reboot, and no doubt many of those same fans will be angry at Reitman’s version no matter what he does. Thus far though, it seems Reitman is doing everything he can to keep fans happy, starting with confirming that many of the original movie’s cast members will indeed be back. Arguably, one of the biggest mistakes made by the 2016 reboot was the decision to relegate Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and company to token cameo appearances, so look for Reitman to offer the original Ghostbusters squad more meaningful roles in his film.

More: Why Ghostbusters 3 Took 31 Years To Make

Source: Ghostbusters

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