Dan Aykroyd, who has been a key supporter in the Ghostbusters franchise, says the movies no longer need the original members.
When there’s something strange in the neighborhood, the first people you’re gonna call are the Ghostbusters. But you better leave Ray Stantz off the list because Dan Aykroyd says he has no place in saving the world anymore.
Speaking with the New York Post, Dan Aykroyd confirmed that he doesn’t see a place for himself – or any of the original Ghostbusters – in the future of the franchise, simply because of how it has progressed over the last couple of entries. “I don’t see that coming. I don’t see where they would need us to carry it on. They’ve got a whole new cast, and they’ve got whole new ideas.”
While Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters – which Dan Aykroyd defends to this day – worked in cameos from the original surviving cast, none of them played their Ghostbusters characters, with Aykroyd as a taxi driver, Bill Murray as an anti-paranormal champion and Ernie Hudson as Leslie Jones’ uncle (Harold Ramis had passed away in 2014.). But the official sequels, 2021’s Afterlife and this year’s Frozen Empire, worked to pay respect to the original crew, using them as legacy characters who could help bring the Ghostbusters to a new generation.
And this is apparently working, as those two movies took in over $400 million worldwide. With a third entry moving forward, the team has established that the likes of Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace are the future of the Ghostbusters franchise (hey, somebody’s got to stop those mini Stay-Pufts). With all of this lined up, the series doesn’t really need Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray or Ernie Hudson (sorry, Ernie, we know you got the shaft in the promos!), as much as it might pain us to say. Then again, it’s not as if we truly want them there anyway – what we really wanted was a legitimate Ghostbusters 3 in the ‘80s…
Across all five films in the series so far, the Ghostbusters movies have grossed over $1.1 billion worldwide, with 1984’s original actually standing as the top earner when adjusted for inflation.
Do you think the future of the Ghostbusters franchise needs the original members? Should it even continue?