Next ‘Ghostbusters’ Will Tackle Asian Spirits, Reintroduce The Original Crew

We all know that last year’s Ghostbusters was a total flop, and the director of the much more popular 1984 original wants to reinvigorate the Ghostbusters franchise by shaking up the location for the next film. Ivan Reitman says a major city in Asia or some similarly exotic locale would be a fresh and fun new setting for a Ghostbusters film, and he adds that he would like to bring back at least some of the 1984 Ghostbusters‘ cast.

“All those great traditions in the world have all these tales and things those people are afraid of,” Reitman observed in a Facebook Q&A yesterday.

He’s not wrong. From Mexico’s wispy La Llarona to Saudi Arabia’s two-faced Djinn to Russia’s sneaky Domovoi, every nation the world over has multiple distinct mythical monsters or ghosts that could serve as fascinating antagonists for a Ghostbusters movie. The possibilities are virtually endless, and this seems like a natural next direction for the series.

Reitman expounded that, even though pretty much any foreign culture would provide plenty of great material, he is especially partial to the idea of taking Ghostbusters to Asia in its next installment, naming Korea and China as the most intriguing possibilities he is considering.

It’s a very cool idea, Reitman said, that the New York City Ghostbusters headquarters is just the main office, and the Ghostbusters organization has dozens or hundreds of other chapters located in other metropolises around the globe. Not only does it accomplish loads of world-building just through implication, but it also creates virtually infinite opportunity for sequels and spinoffs that reference each other. As the Inquisitr recently noted, cinematic universes are the hottest thing in cinema right now, and this looks like an obvious way to create a Ghostbusters universe.

So who will populate these new locales that Ghostbusters will be taking on? Reitman did not list any brand new names, but he did reveal that he wants to see the original Ghostbusters team make a return.

“I think one thing that fans have clearly wanted, and so did I, that somehow we tie the worlds together. I think it was a little awkward that it wasn’t connected, and we certainly heard a lot from everybody out there. So I would definitely want to connect to all of that.”

Technically, some of the original crew did reappear in the 2016 version of Ghostbusters, but not in the capacity Reitman meant. Instead, Bill Murray would appear as a scientist or Dan Aykroyd would show up as a cab driver. The parts had nothing to do with their original leading roles in 1986’s Ghostbusters, and /Film comments that the cameos felt very phoned-in and gratuitous.

Reitman does make it clear, though, that the new movies would focus on local branches native to the foreign cities they are set in rather than the American Ghostbusters team traveling the world and combating specters along the way. Because of this, it stands to reason that, if the original Ghostbusters were going to show their faces, they would either be tackling completely new roles again or appearing as mentors of sorts to the foreign Ghostbusters members. Either way, it seems that Asian Ghostbusters would actually be played by Asian or Asian-American actors.

Above all else, Reitman stressed that he himself has been “doing a lot of work about where do we go next with Ghostbusters.”

Although he did not state it explicitly, that makes it sound as if Reitman will be returning to the director’s chair to do right by his beloved franchise in a modern-day continuation. Fans of the original and its 1989 sequel will undoubtedly be happy with that news.

If not America, where would you like to see the next entry of Ghostbusters set? Make yourself heard in the comments section below.

[Featured Image by Al Powers/Invision/AP Images]