Original Ghostbusters Actors Praise Afterlife Co-Star Paul Rudd Taking Over From Bill Murray

By Russ Burlingame

In an appearance on The Tonight Show, original Ghostbusters actors Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, and Dan Aykroyd heaped praise on Ghostbusters: Afterlife and its star Paul Rudd, with Aykroyd saying that he believes Rudd is the best leading man of his generation, in the same way that Murray was in his prime. The film, which is set in the same timeline as the original two movies and pays homage to the late Harold Ramis, who starred as the fourth member of the Ghostbusters troupe, is set for a release this weekend, and hype is building even as the reviews are polarizing.

They took time out to praise McKenna Grace and Carrie Coon, as well, but it was Rudd -- People's sexiest man alive -- who really got Aykroyd excited. It wouldn't be hard to imagine a follow-up of some kind in which they have Rudd suiting up himself.

You can see the exchange below.

Directed by Jason Reitman, the son of original Ghostbusters filmmaker Ivan Reitman, the movie is rumored to be an Easter egg-packed nostalgia fest, giving the vocal fans who objected to the franchise's 2016 reboot what they wanted. The degree to which Ghostbusters, which hasn't had a blockbuster hit since the original installment in 1984, can hope to bring in the kind of revenue that modern blockbusters demand is still up in the air, and if it takes bringing back Bill Murray to do it, the question then becomes how Sony can move forward from there, since it's clear the original cast will not be coming back every couple of years to hunt more ghosts and make them more money. In the meantime, the reboot continuity has been abandoned (although in the comics from IDW Publishing, the two sets of Ghostbusters teamed up when it as discovered they were from parallel Earths).

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is set to star Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Paul Rudd, Bokeem Woodbine, Celeste O'Connor, and Logan Kim. The movie is also expected to see the return of classic cast members such as Annie Potts, Sigourney Weaver, Ernie Hudson, Dan Aykroyd, and Bill Murray, all seemingly playing their original characters from the 1980s classics.

In Ghostbusters: Afterlife, when a single mom (Coon) and her two kids (Wolfhard, Grace) arrive in a small town, they begin to discover their connection to the original ghostbusters and the secret legacy their grandfather left behind.

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