Ghostbusters: Afterlife Star Says the Film Is "Really Faithful" to Originals

Set 30 years after they saved New York City from ghouls, the upcoming Ghostbusters: Afterlife relocates the action to Summerville, Oklahoma, where single mother Callie (Carrie Coon) and her children — gearhead son Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and science-whiz Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) — come to discover the dusted secrets of Callie's father: late co-founding Ghostbuster Egon. The new film seems to be taking the formula of "The Force Awakens" and applying it to the Ghostbusters franchise with an all-new, in-universe adventure, and Wolfhard says that it be faithful to the older films but still offer something new for newcomers.

"Older Ghostbusters fans will find it's a really, really faithful approach to the series," Finn Wolfhard told NME. "While young people, if not everyone, will find that, first and foremost, Ghostbusters is about family and the relationships that these people have made. It's also really funny, so I'm really excited for people to see it."

The Stranger Things star also spoke about how flattering it was for him to be part of the franchise since the original film and the other movies starring the cast members were staples in his home while crowing up.

"When I was really young, my parents were really big fans of the original movies, so I grew up watching them. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Rick Moranis – all of those were big, big people in our house. So getting to be a part of that legacy now is very flattering."

Wolfhard's comments sound similar to what his in-movie mother Carrie Coon previously said about the movie, calling it a "love letter" to the franchise.

"It's really a family story. It's still very funny and I just feel like it's very warm in a way that we, perhaps, need right now," Coon told IndieWire. "It's a real balm for the soul. I think that will actually surprise people. I think it's for everyone. People will be grateful for the escape that it's going to offer from the world."

Jason Reitman, the son of Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II director Ivan Reitman, will step behind the camera for the new film, co-writing the script for the new movie with Monster House's Gil Kenan. The Juno filmmaker previously admitted he was "intimidated" making a long-awaited sequel to his father's original pair of films.

Though still set for a July 10 release date by Sony, it's unclear if Ghostbusters: Afterlife will be released at that time or if it will be delayed in the face of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.