Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Director Reveals Influence The Real Ghostbusters Series Had on Sequel
The animated series served more as a spiritual inspiration for the sequel.
Movie fans were given two live-action Ghostbusters films in the '80s, but for younger viewers of silly and spooky adventures, the spirit of the concept was kept alive in the animated series The Real Ghostbusters, which ran from 1986 to 1991. With 2021's Ghostbusters: Afterlife including Easter eggs to obscure corners of the franchise's lore, some fans have wondered if Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire would find ways to honor the animated series, though co-writer/director Gil Kenan confirmed that he and Jason Reitman did look to that series, yet more for tonal inspiration as opposed to something to lift references from. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire hits theaters on March 22nd.
"We both do love Viggo [from Ghostbusters II], but we felt like because Gozer made their return in Afterlife, the onus on us was to lead boldly into the unknown with creating our villain and go off the map to discover their mythology and their story," Kenan revealed to ComicBook.com about franchise inspiration for the new sequel. "We did watch a lot of episodes of Real Ghostbusters as a cleansing and as a heart-opening process before we started writing, because that show is, first, so good and super fun and it is also wild with its boundary-breaking, in terms of pulling from mythologies and stories you may have heard of and giving corners of the city supernatural attention in a way that films just don't have the screen time to do. So watching those shows, actually, was really inspiring, not in a literal way, but in a broader, thematic storytelling and spiritual way."
These recent comments echo remarks Kenan previously shared with Empire Magazine, where he noted that he drew inspiration for the series' penchant for offering up "wild, original, and weird-as-f-ck villains."
"We wanted to bring that show's looseness and fearlessness to this movie," the director added. "I think it's going to surprise people just how big this film is."
In Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, the Spengler family returns to where it all started – the iconic New York City firehouse – to team up with the original Ghostbusters, who've developed a top-secret research lab to take busting ghosts to the next level. But when the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes an evil force, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second Ice Age.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire lands in theaters on March 22nd.
What do you think of the filmmaker's remarks? Let us know in the comments!