Ghostbusters Fans Suspect New Movie Characters Are Egon Spengler’s Family

The first cast photo from Ghostbusters 2020, tweeted Friday by writer-director Jason Reitman, has some fans theorizing the family is somehow related to original Ghostbuster Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis).

Fans are pointing to the familiar-looking glasses worn by star Mckenna Grace as a sign the pictured family — which includes a teen boy (Finn Wolfhard) and a single mom (Carrie Coon) — are the descendants of the bespectacled Egon, who wore similarly round glasses.

Grace’s unnamed 12-year-old girl was described in early audition materials as a “science kid” who has difficulties connecting emotionally. Audition tapes showed the girl, who innocently makes comments others find offensive, dutifully studying a joke book to make other people “feel more comfortable.”

When confronted about plainly asking her teacher if she’s “stopped dieting again,” the girl says, “I’m not a machine, I just don’t pick up on traditional social cues,” suggesting she may be on the autism spectrum.

It was this character who inspired Reitman to develop a sequel to father Ivan Reitman’s 1984 original, which will play a role in the form of repurposed footage that was unearthed from the Sony archives.

“I didn’t know who she was, or why she popped into my head, but I saw her with a proton pack and this story began to form. And it formed over many years, actually,” Reitman said during June’s Ghostbusters Fan Fest. “It started with a girl, and all of a sudden it was a family.”

Reitman wouldn’t divulge any story details, saying only GB20 is “a new movie about a new set of characters” that takes place in “a new location.”

Ivan Reitman said previously the script left him in tears, telling EW the script the younger Reitman penned with Monster House‘s Gil Kenan is “so emotional and funny.”

“Jason came up with this idea, which is just so good, everybody got it right away and understood. It will connect, better than anything, to the first movie,” producer Dan Aykroyd, who scripted the original Ghostbusters with Ramis, later told GameSpot.

“That’s about all I can say about it, but the two movies will connect, in a way that hasn’t been done before.”

GB20 is now filming for a July 10, 2020 release date.

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