Ghostbusters fans got a pleasant surprise this week when it was announced that Jason Reitman, son of director Ivan Reitman, is set to helm a new film set in the same continuity as the first two movies, and now it seems we may have confirmation that the surviving members of the original cast will also be back.
Speaking to The Daily Mail, Ernie Hudson (Winston Zeddemore) suggested that he and his co-stars Dan Aykroyd (Ray Stantz) and Bill Murray (Peter Venkman) were both on board: “Ivan Reitman is there and everybody is in. Now whether the studio will do it, I’m the guy who sits by the phone and waits for the call. So if they call, I’ll answer. If not, I’ve got other stuff that I’m doing.”
Hudson also went on to discuss his late co-star Harold Ramis (Egon Spengler), who passed away back in 2014: “We miss Harold, because Harold was really the glue that I think held everybody together. He was always my go-to point and anything that was a little bit weird, or whatever, Harold was the guy who would sort of say, ‘Ernie, just…’ and explain the world to me. And I miss him, but his spirit is there.”
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So, can we take Hudson’s comments as official confirmation on the returning cast? As he says himself, he’s still waiting on the call, so with filming reportedly due to get underway in the next few months we’d have to assume it’s not quite a done just yet, at least with regards to a Winston appearance.
That being said, Aykroyd did state back in November that a script was being written which offered up the “possibility of a reunion with the three remaining Ghostbusters,” which is presumably this very same project. And given that Hudson, Aykroyd, Murray, Sigourney Weaver and Annie Potts all popped up in the 2016 reboot, we’d have to expect there’s a strong chance of them returning for the new film too (Rick Moranis… well that’s another question).
While details on Reitman’s new Ghostbusters movie are being kept tightly under wraps, a production listing surfaced this week which states: “The main characters will be 4 teens: 2 boys, 2 girls. A family moves back home to a small town where they learn more about who they are.”