Original Ghostbusters Star Reprises Classic Role in New Commercial

Who ya gonna call? QuickBooks! Ghostbusters star Annie Potts, who played receptionist Janine Melnitz in the 1984 original film and its 1989 sequel, reprises her role in a new advertisement for QuickBooks Live Bookkeeper. "I used to be a little cranky," admits Janine, who is seen calmly answering a phone without asking the caller, "Whaddaya want?" The mellowed-out Janine credits the live bookkeeping service for her change in demeanor, freeing her up to focus on bigger, greener problems: like little spud ghost Slimer, who slimes an unsuspecting man delivering a formerly fresh batch of Ghostbuster uniforms.

Potts, who made a cameo appearance as a hotel desk clerk named Vanessa in the Paul Feig-directed Ghostbusters reboot, previously hinted at her involvement in Jason Reitman's Ghostbusters: Afterlife before Potts' co-star Dan Aykroyd in November confirmed the return of the original cast in the new movie.

In Afterlife, the canonical third movie and a direct sequel to Ivan Reitman's 1980s classic films, Potts and Aykroyd return alongside Sigourney Weaver, Ernie Hudson and Bill Murray in their original roles. The movie focuses on the family of late founding Ghostbuster Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) as his grandchildren — Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) — uncover something strange in their neighborhood: the otherwise sleepy town of Summerville, Oklahoma, now the site of worrying paranormal activity.

"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," Afterlife producer Aykroyd said during a recent appearance on The Greg Hill Show, where he confirmed the involvement of the original Ghostbusters cast.

Beyond a cast of "terrific young actors" that includes Celeste O'Connor and newcomer Logan Kim, who appear alongside franchise newcomers Carrie Coon and Paul Rudd, Afterlife possesses a "great story" and a "great setting."

"It's gonna be scary, it's gonna be thought-provoking, it's gonna be very heartfelt," Aykroyd 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."

When a single mother and her two children move to a new town, they soon discover that they have a connection to the original Ghostbusters and their grandfather's secret legacy.

Sony Pictures releases Ghostbusters: Afterlife July 10, 2020. Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.