Ghostbusters Franchise Director Ivan Reitman Speak on Afterlife Tribute to Harold Ramis

Fan demand for a proper third Ghostbusters movie essentially ceased after one of the original four of the group, co-writer Harold Ramis, tragically passed away back in 2014. The 2016 feature film from Paul Feig paid tribute to him and the upcoming Ghostbusters: Afterlife is built around paying homage to his absence. In the context of the movie, Carrie Coon’s character is the estranged daughter of Ramis’ Egon, inheriting a busted farm house from him after his passing which happens to contain all of his old Ghostbusters equipment which his grandchildren happen to find. Speaking in a new interview with ComicBook.com, franchise producer and original Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman opened up about making the new film without his longtime collaborator.

“Yeah, I mean I felt that right from the beginning that he was no longer with us,” Reitman said. “It’s the reason that I couldn’t even contemplate doing a Ghostbusters sequel myself and when Jason came forward with this great idea, we gravitated to it so quickly and appreciated the cleverness of the storytelling and as a vehicle for introducing a whole new generation of people that could perhaps become the future Ghostbusters.”

“One of the most palpable things about being in this film was feeling the absence of Harold,” Coon told Yahoo!. “He was such a huge part of writing the [original Ghostbusters] script with Dan Aykroyd, and then they invited Bill Murray in to bring his special Bill Murray nature to all of it. You know, I live in Chicago now and Harold occupies such a special place in that city, as does Bill. I think we all felt like we were honoring Harold in an appropriate way. The tribute just feels really, really loving.”

Ahead of the release of Ghostbusters: Afterlife it’s already been confirmed that much of the rest of the cast from the first two movies. The other three main Ghostbusters, Bill Murray as Peter Venkman, Dan Aykroyd as Ray Stantz, and Ernie Hudson as Winston Zeddemore, are all set to appear, and they’ve previously expressed sadness at reuniting on screen without their comrade.

“To have that formation without that man standing right there on the line with us was a pretty serious adjustment,” Aykroyd previously shared with Entertainment Weekly. “He will be very well represented in the new film, I can tell you that. He’s very honorably represented.”

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is slated to hit theaters on November 19, with previews taking place tonight.