'Ghostbusters' Animated Series Officially in the Works at Netflix

By Daniel S. Levine

Netflix is teaming up with Sony Pictures Animation for a new Ghostbusters animated series. Ghostbusters: Afterlife writers Jason Retirman and Gil Kenan of Ghost Corps, Inc. will serve as executive producers of the new show, reports Variety. Reitman also directed Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the long-awaited follow-up to the original two Ghostbusters movies directed by Reitman's late father, Ivan Reitman.

Plot details are unknown for the new project. No writer is attacked. Netflix and Ghost Corps Inc. will produce the series. The news broke on Ghostbusters Day, which marks the 38th anniversary of the hit first film's release.

If the new series moves ahead, this will be the third Ghostbusters animated series. The first was The Real Ghostbusters, which aired between 1986 and 1991 and included over 140 episodes. The short-lived Extreme Ghostbusters aired in 1997 and featured Egon Spengler as a mentor for a new batch of younger Ghostbusters.

The new animated series also probably won't need to have "The Real" added to the title. The Real Ghostbusters title stemmed from a dispute Columbia had with Filmation, the studio that produced the 1975 live-action sitcom The Ghost Busters. Filmation later produced an animated sequel series called Ghostbusters, which debuted just five days before The Real Ghostbusters. Filmation did reach a deal with Columbia to allow them to produce an animated series based on their Ghost Busters.

The Ghostbusters franchise kicked off with the beloved original 1984 film, directed by Ivan Reitman and written by stars Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. In 1989, Sony released the sequel, Ghostbusters II, which was also a big hit but a disappointment for critics. Sony spent decades trying to revive the franchise, first with the 2016 reboot Ghostbusters: Answer the Call. Last year, Sony released Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which grossed over $204.6 million during the pandemic. During Sony's CinemaCon presentation, the studio confirmed plans to make another Ghostbusters movie but offered no details about the project.

In 2020, Ernie Hudson told PopCulture.com it was "too soon to say" if there would be more Ghostbusters after Afterlife. He admitted to being disappointed they never made more movies immediately after Ghostbusters II. "There [were] all kinds of reasons why I'm told, I don't know what's real and what's not real. All I know is, it didn't happen until now," he said. 

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