Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Director Recounts Pitching Sequel to Ivan Reitman

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire director Gil Kenan shared the story of how he pitched the sequel to Ivan Reitman. ComicBook.com managed to catch the filmmaker before the anticipated movie hit theaters. In our conversation, he explained how Jason Reitman recruited him to tell this story after Ghostbusters: Afterlife. The response to that movie was so enormous that a sequel was always going to be in the works. Kenan is a longtime Ghostbusters fan. So, he felt the pressure to do right by all the characters and the world that Reitman built. Check out our interview up above and read it right here!

“I can’t tell you how meaningful it was first to make Afterlife as a co-writer with his son, Jason Reitman who brought that film to the screen so beautifully as director. I had a front row seat to that process as a writer, as a participant in that creative process. And I’ve, as a filmmaker, changed my life as a fan.” 

“I mean, I watched the first Ghostbusters as one of my first big movies. Uh My dad took me to see it when I was a little kid and it completely floored me,” he added. “I remember exactly where I was sitting for Ghostbusters too at a movie theater in the San Fernando Valley. When Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman character says you couldn’t go anywhere, you could have caught it. The beautiful San Fernando Valley and the whole audience started erupting in cheers. And I remember as a kid looking around being like you idiots, he’s making fun of us. And, and so as an outsider, as a fan, I was so incredibly honored to be able to have a seat at the table creatively for telling the next chapter of these stories with Afterlife.” 

Explaining The Plot To Reitman

“And as that film was coming together, Jason and I started on our own to have a conversation about what the next step of this journey was gonna be where the story was gonna go,” the director revealed. “And we just started to have these ideas that began to feel exciting and those ideas started to kind of take shape to the point that a few weeks before afterlife opened, we went up to uh Montecito to Ivan’s house and sat and told him the story of Frozen Empire.” 

“We pitched the entire three act structure of this film and got uh the warmest reception, his blessing, his validation for the direction we wanted to take these characters in and this franchise in,” he shared. “And so that was wind in our sails for making this film, and Ivan’s voice, his presence, his brilliance was always there with us making this film. So, I it’s only fitting that this film should end with his name. And, that he get the producer credit that he deserves.”

What’s Coming In Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire?

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 stars Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Logan Kim, Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, Celeste O’Connor, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Bill Murray, Annie Potts, James Acaster, and Emily Alyn Lind. The film is scheduled to release in theaters on March 22, 2024.

Are you looking forward to Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire? Let us know down in the comments!