Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Director Teases the Future of the “Phoebe Spengler Saga”

While everyone has their favorite member of the Ghostbusters, the first two films in the series are definitely ensemble experiences, but between Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, filmmaker Gil Kenan considers these outings to be two parts of a “Phoebe Spengler saga” that could continue with another entry. Even though Frozen Empire featured more characters than ever in a Ghostbusters movie, whatever the future might hold for the series, fans should expect McKenna Grace’s Phoebe to be the key component that links together all of the figures, with her journey potentially concluding in the next chapter. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is currently in theaters.

“Well, like we did in Afterlife, we had a sense of where we wanted to see our characters go and what scope of stakes we wanted them to have to confront. But we left a lot of invention to the actual act of writing,” Kenan explained to The Hollywood Reporter. “So much of the joy for us is sitting down with a blank sheet of paper and beginning to imagine. And if we’re lucky enough to get to tell another one of these films, Jason [Reitman] and I are primed and ready to continue the Phoebe Spengler saga. We agree that the single most important decision we had to make at the start of this process was to take this from something that was a group of people who came together with a shared purpose, which was starting a business, to making it about a family saga with one character at the center of it. And that was Phoebe Spangler.” 

He continued, “So watching her character mature in lockstep with Mckenna as a young performer is one of the joys of telling a story that spans years. In real time, we’re seeing her and her character mature, and that means that the obstacles and the personal stakes mature and develop in equal measure. It’s a really fun way to tell a story because it feels like it is growing in front of your eyes, and so we’re hoping we get to tell the rest of that story.”

Afterlife showcased how Phoebe was responsible for reviving the Ghostbusters, based on her unexpected investigation into her grandfather Egon’s gear, though with the number of characters involved in Frozen Empire, she didn’t get quite as much screen time. If there is audience interest in another entry, Phoebe sounds as though she’ll be thrust back into the spotlight of the story.

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 is in theaters now.  

Are you excited to see more of Phoebe? Let us know in the comments!