Jason Reitman explains why Ghostbusters 3 with director Ivan Reitman and the original cast never happened. After the success of the first Ghostbusters movie in 1984, Reitman reteamed with Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson for 1989’s Ghostbusters 2. Though reviews for the sequel weren’t as positive as those for the original, the movie was still a major box office hit. Despite this, the franchise then lay dormant until the poorly-received reboot in 2016, followed by Ghostbusters: Afterlife in 2021, which continues elements of the original movie’s story.

During a recent appearance on Neal Brennan’s Blocks podcast (via People) Ghostbusters: Afterlife director Jason Reitman, Ivan’s son, explains why his late father never wanted to make a sequel after Ghostbusters 2. According to the younger Reitman, his father was generally uninterested in making sequels and revisiting previous projects, and he actually pushed back against including elements of the original movie in Afterlife:

“My dad never understood sequels. My dad was like, ‘I don’t know why people want to return to this stuff.’ When I wrote Afterlife, and you meet this girl, and she, like, goes out to Oklahoma, and she finds a proton pack, and my dad’s like, ‘This is great.’ And then terror dogs showed up, which is the same thing as ’84, and he’s like, ‘Why Gozer? Why do we need to go back?’ He’s just like, ‘Can I just have a new story?’

“I think it’s one of the reasons the Ghostbusters franchise didn’t flourish, like, consistently over decades is cause my dad, after Ghostbusters was like, ‘I’m gonna go do Twins.’ He made Ghostbusters II and then there’s nothing for years.”

After stressing that his father was more interested in going on to make new movies instead of revisiting old ones, Reitman also shares a funny story about the Ghostbusters logo on the Ecto-1 in the sequel and how it shows how little thought his father gave to sequels:

“This is how much my dad cared about sequels: on the Ghostbusters car in Ghostbusters II, it has the [Ghostbusters II logo]. That doesn’t make any sense. I asked him years later, I was like, ‘Why does the Ghostbusters movie logo for the sequel appear on Ecto-1? Are they aware that they’re in a sequel? Is that why they have the Ghostbusters ghost with a two on the side of their physical car?’ My dad just was like, ‘Yeah, that was probably a mistake.’ Like, he just didn’t [care].

“That thing that people love about Marvel, where every part of that franchise, whether it’s a lunchbox or a comic book, is touching on a collective story. That is the opposite of my father. My father was just like, ‘I just wanna go tell a new story.'”

What Ghostbusters 3 Not Happening Meant For The Franchise

Recent Ghostbusters Movies Have Really Relied On Franchise Nostalgia

On Rotten Tomatoes, the first Ghostbusters movie has an impressive critics’ score of 95%, with the audience score not much lower at 88%. The sequel, on the other hand, scored only 55% from critics and 61% from audiences, even though Reitman returned as director. Despite this, Ghostbusters 2 still grossed $215 million worldwide, a decline from the original movie’s $296 million, but enough to suggest that audience interest in the franchise remained strong.

Instead of making a third movie, which likely would have performed similarly well at the box office, no new installment with original characters was released for 32 years. Ironically, though the Ghostbusters: Afterlife reviews were generally positive, the film was criticized for leaning too heavily on franchise iconography and nostalgia. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire reviews, too, took issue with just how much it leans on what has come before, struggling to balance legacy characters with the new cast.

Our Take On Ghostbusters 3 Not Happening

Where Does The Franchise Go From Here?

After Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire disappointed at the box office, grossing only $201 million, the franchise’s future now remains up in the air. Ivan Reitman was generally uninterested in returning to the same creative well multiple times, and that’s now the challenge that the franchise faces. At a certain point, the franchise must move beyond nostalgia to tell new stories with new characters, and the lackluster reception to Frozen Empire suggests that now is the time to do that.

If a Ghostbusters 3 had happened, it could have given these beloved legacy characters a proper sendoff, concluding the trilogy. That alone makes it an exciting proposition, but it’s certainly understandable that Reitman wanted to instead pursue new creative ventures outside the world of Ghostbusters.

Source: Blocks (via People)