“Ghostbusters Day” News Round-Up: New Films, Animation, Comics & VR Experiences
You might not have been aware, but yesterday was “Ghostbusters Day” (i.e. the anniversary of the release date of the original film in 1984). To celebrate this, Sony Pictures set up an “Ecto-Fest” event, which announced a stack of new ‘Ghostbusters’ related things, including VR projects, new comics, more movies and animation. Here is a round-up of the big news from the day.
A Sequel To ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’
Following the success of ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’, it should come as no great surprise that director Jason Reitman and co-writer Gil Kenan are developing a sequel film. Whilst they didn’t reveal much about the content of the film, they did give us its codename – “Firehouse”.
It will be the “next chapter in the Spengler family story,” commented Reitman. “The last time we saw Ecto-1, it was driving back into Manhattan, the home of Ghostbusters. That’s where our story begins.”
They did also confirm that “the character of Winston Zeddemore and Zeddemore Industries figures strongly into the future of Ghostbusters,” with Ernie Hudson returning to the role.
An Animated ‘Ghostbusters’ Feature AND Series On Netflix
Ghostbusters will be returning in animated form on Netflix, not only in a new series but also with an animated feature. The feature comes from Sony Pictures Animation with a creative team including directors Jennifer Kluska (‘Hotel Transylvania: Transformania’) and Chris Prynoski (‘Metalocalypse’), and writer Brenda Hsueh (‘How I Met Your Mother’, ‘Mr. Corman’).
In addition to the film, there is a new animated series from Netflix and Ghost Corps, Inc., with Reitman and Kenan exec producing. This would be the third animated series for the franchise following the hugely popular 80s/90s show ‘The Real Ghostbusters’, which ran for 140 episodes, and the slightly less successful ‘Extreme Ghostbusters’, which ran for 40 episodes. There is currently no writer attached to the new series.
“This was a passion project of my father’s and it’s easy to understand why,” said Reitman. “The world of the unknown can only be properly explored through the limitless reach of animation.”
New ‘Ghostbusters’ Comics From Dark Horse
There is a new limited comic book series due to land at the end of 2023. Not much was revealed about its content, but they have said it will be “in-canon” and part of the growing ‘Ghostbusters’ story that began in 1984. “We’ve got a unique story that we want to tell exclusively in a limited edition series,” said Reitman, which rather implies Reitman and Kenan will either be writing it themselves or at least overseeing the storyline of the project.
IDW had been the most recent comic book publisher, running issues from 2008 until 2020.
‘Ghostbusters VR’ Coming to PSVR2 & Location-Based VR Experiences
Lastly, there were a couple of gaming announcements at the event. Firstly, the previously announced ‘Ghostbusters VR’ game, which was previously announced for Meta Quest 2, will also be coming to Playstation VR2 as well. The game allows players to track, blast, and trap ghosts in gripping encounters by wielding iconic equipment, either solo or in co-op.
For those of you who don’t have VR at home, they also announced a way more comprehensive “Location-Based” VR experience – Ghostbusters VR Academy. This new, fully immersive training simulator is broken up into two distinct games, set in the world of Ghostbusters, and will be available globally for Hologate’s “Arena” and “Blitz” platforms at over 400 locations by the end of 2022.
In the “Arena” game, academy members in training will strap on their proton packs and work together as a team in high-risk ghost encounter scenarios – all under the safeguard of academy grounds.
In the “Blitz” game, trainees will have the opportunity to take the wheel in the prototype ECTO vehicle, a vehicle exclusively available for evaluation at the academy. Players will compete to see who is the fastest, most skilful driver in a high-speed ghostly race, putting the prototype vehicle to the test and choosing if it is worth joining the ranks of future Ghostbusters equipment.
For the UK, there are currently 3 Hologate locations based in Skegness, Woking and Milton Keynes. You can find a map of all locations here.
“Between gaming, comics, television, and movies, we are going to tell the untold history of Ghostbusters while reaching into the future with characters you haven’t met from places you haven’t gone,” concluded Gil Kenan. It certainly seems like ‘Ghostbusters’ are back in a big way!
You can watch the full event below:
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