The first details behind Ant-Man and Avengers: Endgame star Paul Rudd‘s role in Ghostbusters 2020 have been revealed by producer Ivan Reitman. When Rudd was added to the cast of director Jason Reitman‘s sequel to Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II in late June, his role was identified only as a teacher — we now know Rudd will play a seismologist and summer school teacher drawn to a small town by strange seismic activity. That town is home to a family of three: a mother (Carrie Coon), her son (Finn Wolfhard) and her daughter (Mckenna Grace), who was previously identified as the film’s middle school-aged protagonist.
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“Well, he’s a seismologist who’s come to this small town because they’ve been having mysterious earthquakes. He’s also teaching summer school there,” Ivan Reitman revealed to ET Online when asked about Rudd, who Reitman says is “extraordinarily funny.”
Franchise co-creator and producer Dan Aykroyd, who recently confirmed he’ll appear alongside the new cast when reprising his role as Ray Stantz, added the long-awaited Ghostbusters 3 “feeds beautifully into the first two stories, and hands it off to a new generation.”
It remains to be seen if Rudd will suit up with his own Proton Pack as part of the newest generation of Ghostbusters.
“I’ve been wanting to work with Paul Rudd since my short film opened for Wet Hot American Summer at Sundance,” Jason Reitman previously told Variety when announcing Rudd’s involvement. “I’m thrilled he’ll be joining this new chapter in the original Ghostbusters universe.”
Story details remain closely guarded. Aykroyd previously teased the new movie will “connect, better than anything, to the first movie,” telling GameSpot the first and third movies will be bridged “in a way that hasn’t been done before.”
In June, Reitman teased the new characters’ mysterious connection to the original class of Ghostbusters that included Aykroyd’s Stantz, Ernie Hudson’s Zeddemore, Bill Murray’s Venkman and Harold Ramis’ Spengler.
“This is what I’ll say. You don’t know their connection,” Reitman said at Ghostbusters Fan Fest, “and they don’t know their connection yet either.”
Reitman also unearthed unused footage from the original 1984 horror-comedy and assembled a think tank that involved crew members who worked on the beloved original movie to ensure “that we make the right film.”
“I’m hoping that [the fans] join me on this one, because these characters are amazing,” Reitman said at Fan Fest when teasing the characters conceived with co-writer Gil Kenan (director of Monster House). “Amazing, and I can’t wait to introduce you to them.”
Also added to the cast in July in unknown roles are fresh faces Celeste O’Connor and Logan Kim. Sony Pictures opens GB20 July 10, 2020.
