Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire director Gil Kenan has explained why Dana Barrett and Louis Tully didn’t appear in the movie.
So maybe Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire hasn’t exactly been a worthwhile installment in the ongoing franchise (then again, what has since the ‘80s?). But it has at least given fans another slice of nostalgia, bringing back the surviving core Ghostbusters, not to mention Janine and that dickless Walter Peck. But there are still a few familiar faces that are sorely missing. So, where were Dana and Louis? Well, it turns out they weren’t really even considered for returns.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Frozen Empire director Gil Kenan partly dodged why both Rick Moranis’ Louis Tully— the one-time possessed neighbor of Sigourney Weaver’s Dana Barrett, was absent. “That would be a Jason Reitman question. That was more of an Afterlife story. We never wrote a role for Louis Tully in Frozen Empire. We’ve got enough characters in this story. I love Tully by the way. I’m a huge Rick Moranis fan. Louis Tully was an indelible element of Ghostbusters.” Notably, Moranis has been on a hiatus from acting, although was in talks to return for a sequel to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. In fact, he hasn’t appeared in-person in a movie since 1997’s Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves.
And so what about Weaver’s character, who we actually got a cameo from in 2021’s Afterlife? As Kenan tells it, “Dana Barrett is also one of my favorite characters in these films, but there was no story for Dana Barrett in Frozen Empire. But if we’re lucky enough to make more of these films, I would love for Dana to have more to do in these stories.” Certainly she is deserving of it, playing love interest-turned-wife to Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire may not have worked out as most of us had hoped but we all know that even the inclusion of characters such as Louis and Dana — or even Vigo the Carpathian — couldn’t have saved it from being an unbalanced follow-up to Afterlife. Even still, seeing a number of the original cast members does keep fans going and hoping for more should the series continue.
What do you think? Would more original Ghostbusters cast members have helped Frozen Empire? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.