There’s one cameo in the Ghostbusters franchise that has always been puzzling, but it’s gotten even weirder over the years. The Ghostbusters franchise came back from the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ in the 21st century, with new legacy sequels attempting to tell a new story with new characters. Not all of these characters make sense though.

The newest era of the Ghostbusters franchise has a different atmosphere to the first two movies from the 1980s. While Ghostbusters II is often derided as a flop, the original movie is a nostalgic classic. Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire clearly hope to honor the original, but they have their own style.

As the Ghostbusters reboot movies have tried to forge their own idenтιтy in the 21st century, it hasn’t always been the smoothest transition. With a more reverent tone and a commitment to sci-fi spectacle, the new era of Ghostbusters movies is still finding its feet in some ways. This change has had many unintended side effects, including some cameos that make no sense.

J. K. Simmons’ Role In Ghostbusters: Afterlife Feels Like A Missed Opportunity

Simmons’ Talents Are Completely Wasted

The cast of Ghostbusters: Afterlife features actors of all ages, as the franchise set up its future by introducing the next generation of Ghostbusters. Perhaps the most surprising part of the legacy sequel was the fact that the original Ghostbusters only appeared for a brief moment, but this wasn’t even the movie’s weirdest cameo.

J. K. Simmons plays Ivo Shandor, the deceased leader of a cult devoted to worshipping Gozer. Ghostbusters fans might remember this name from the original movie, since Shandor is the architect who designed the Manhattan building which serves as an antenna to concentrate spiritual energy and bring Gozer to the human realm.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife brings Shandor back, but he is killed almost instantly by Gozer. This is a shocking way to prove that Gozer is an agent of chaos without any semblance of a human moral code, but it feels like a huge waste of potential for the character, not to mention J. K. Simmons.

Ivo Shandor Could Have Returned In Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

J. K. Simmons’ Role Looked Like A Sequel Tease At The Time

Casting such a talented and well-known actor to play Ivo Shandor signals to the audience that he has an important part to play. The fact that he was then killed off so quickly felt like a huge anti-climax. Of course, big actors have cameos in movies all the time, but they’re usually part of a joke or a reference, or there’s some good reason for casting them.

Shandor would have been an interesting villain for Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Since this wasn’t the case, it seemed as though Simmons’ appearance might have been a tease to set up Frozen Empire, with Shandor serving as the main antagonist of this new era as a ghost. The Ghostbusters franchise went in another direction, making Simmons’ role as Shandor look pointless.