Hot on the success of 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, a direct sequel to 1984 and 1989’s Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2, Sony has teamed up with Netflix to continue the franchise in a brand new animated series.
The series was announced during Netflix’s “Geeked Week,” a five-day event highlighting the nerdy side of Netflix’s programming, everything from sci-fi to fantasy to superheroes.
More Life After AfterLife
Ghostbusters: Afterlife writers Jason Reitman (who also directed the film) and Gil Kenan will act as executive producers on the new series. It’s unclear how the series will fit into the Ghostbusters lore, but it’s likely that it will follow the newest set of characters, including Phoebe and Trevor Spengler (played by Mckenna Grace and Finn Wolfhard respectively in the film).
This isn’t the first cartoon series to come from the Ghostbusters franchise. The first film spawned the popular The Real Ghostbusters in which the original team of ‘busters befriend the green ghost, Slimer. Though the series is not exactly canon in how it ties in with the films, it was nevertheless very successful, running for five years with a total of 140 episodes.
The second foray into animation, Extreme Ghostbusters, premiered in 1997 and was a grittier take on the franchise. This series focused on Egon Spengler and his training of a new team of Ghostbusters. Though Extreme Ghostbusters has its fans, it was less accepted and lasted only 40 episodes.
It will be interesting to see how the latest animated series ties into the overall Ghostbusters mythos. Will it bring back some elements from the previous series, like the Boogeyman and Samhain, or will it work to create and establish new threats for a new audience? I’d love to see it find a balance between both because I’d love to see the return of some of the earlier animated adversaries. I’d also like to see what Reitman, Kenan, and the writers are able to come up with.
Let us know how excited you are about the series in the comments section!
