Ghostbusters: Afterlife Hid a Major Retcon for Ghostbusters II

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is now playing in theaters and it features appearances from many of the movie’s original stars. Carrie Coon plays the daughter of Egon Spengler in the film, the iconic character played by the late, great Harold Ramis in the original Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II. In the movie, it’s revealed that Coon’s character was alive in the late ’80s, which has folks wondering where her character was during Ghostbusters II, which was made in 1989. Recently, Uproxx had a chat with director Jason Reitman who confirmed the retcon. 

“Oh, yeah,” Reitman replied when asked if Egon had a kid in Ghostbusters II. “Correct,” he added when Uproxx clarified, “We just don’t know that at the time when we’re watching Ghostbusters II.” 

The new Ghostbusters movie has actually led to a lot of speculation about the original sequel. During the chat, Reitman was also asked about the Ghostbusters logo, and the choice to revert it to the original instead of keeping the updated version from the 1989 movie.

“I wish I could talk to you about that,” Reitman replied when asked if Egon changed the logo of the ghost holding up a “two” back to the original at some point. “I’m just saying that’s a plot that is not in this film and we have ideas moving forward.” He added, “Ghostbusters II, definitely canon. There are references to Ghostbusters II in Afterlife. We meet Ray working at Ray’s Occult. The toaster from Ghostbusters II is in the kitchen in the farmhouse. There’s actually lots of lost of Ghostbusters II details but nobody knows Ghostbusters II outside of Vigo the Carpathian and the Ghostbusters II logo. So there’s this assumption that it is not canon but it is definitely canon.” 

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is currently up on Rotten Tomatoes with a 62% critics score after 204 reviews and a 96% audience score after 2,500+ reviews. ComicBook.com‘s Spencer Perry gave the movie a 2 out of 5, saying it has “abysmally forced references” and while “it’s not poorly made on the whole, it’s just exhausting.”

Ghostbusters: Afterlife focuses on a family played by Carrie Coon, McKenna Grace, and Finn Wolfhard. In the movie, the trio is forced to move to a family home in a small town where a connection to the original Ghostbusters team and the secret legacy hidden there by the children’s grandfather, Harold Ramis’ Egon Spengler). The surviving original Ghostbusters — Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson — will return for the film with Annie Potts and Sigourney Weaver also set to reprise their roles from the original films. Paul Rudd is also starring in the new film. 

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is now playing in theaters.