Ghostbusters: Afterlife Delayed Until Next Year Due to Coronavirus

Ghostbusters: Afterlife has been pushed from its July 10 date to March 5, 2021. Sony Pictures on Monday shifted its slate amid the coronavirus pandemic that has brought the entertainment industry to a standstill, also pushing the Marvel Comics-inspired Morbius from its July 31 slot to March 19, 2021, and moving back the Tom Holland-starring Uncharted from March 5, 2021, to October 8, 2021. Other delays include Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, once set for August 7, now opening January 15, 2021, and an Untitled Sony Marvel production that will now open TBD after being scheduled for October 8, 2021.

The Jason Reitman-directed Afterlife is the canonical third film in the original Ghostbusters franchise launched by Reitman’s father, Ivan Reitman, with 1984 summer comedy hit Ghostbusters. The new film follows a family — single mom Callie (Carrie Coon), gearhead son Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and science-whiz daughter Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) — who relocate to the sleepy town of Summerville, Oklahoma, following the death of founding Ghostbuster Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis).

When strange rumblings impacting the town are investigated by seismologist and school teacher Mr. Grooberson (Paul Rudd), Egon’s descendants discover a connection to surviving former Ghostbusters Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) and Peter Venkman (Bill Murray).

“Jason Reitman wrote a beautiful, heartfelt script that takes the real DNA from the first two movies and transfers that directly to the third, the next generation. It hands the legacy off to a new generation of stars, and players, and actors, and characters,” Aykroyd, a producer on Afterlife, previously said on The Greg Hill Show, where Aykroyd also confirmed the returns of original Ghostbusters co-stars Sigourney Weaver and Annie Potts.

“It was really exciting working around this new idea, a new take on the story which Jason — who’s a really incredible and fine filmmaker — came up with. So I’m pretty excited,” Aykroyd continued. “You never know in the film business. Nobody knows about anything. ‘Nobody knows nothing,’ as the great writer William Goldman said. Nobody knows anything, you don’t know what’s going to be a hit or not. But I have really good feelings for this, just because of the quality of the stars we’ve got there.”

The sequel is “gonna be scary, it’s gonna be thought-provoking, it’s gonna be very heartfelt,” he added. “You’ll feel it, if you have loved ones that you miss and that you’ve lost, and you want to get back with. It’ll be very evocative that way.”

Ghostbusters: Afterlife now opens March 5, 2021.