Jason Reitman talks Slimer, Vigo, Diablo Cody and the future of the Ghostbusters franchise

Well, Ghostbusters: Afterlife has been out for a couple of weeks now and we’re getting caught up on some of the news we missed over the last few weeks.

We had a bit of a disaster with the folks that host our website and, as a result, we lost two months of content.

But we’ll not let that hold us back.

It seems that co-writer and director Jason Reitman has an idea where he wants to go next in the series and a potential Afterlife sequel.

“I wish I could talk to you about that,” he says about why the Ecto-1a seems to have been forgotten about in the new movie: “I’m just saying that’s a plot that is not in this film and we have ideas moving forward.”

He’s keen to point out that, despite many fans’ worries, Ghosbusters II is definitely canon: “Ghostbusters 2, definitely canon!” he says.

“There are references to Ghostbusters 2 in Afterlife… We meet Ray working at Ray’s Occult. The toaster from Ghostbusters 2 is in the kitchen in the farmhouse. There’s actually lots of Ghostbusters 2 details but nobody knows Ghostbusters 2 outside of Vigo the Carpathian and the Ghostbusters 2 logo. So there’s this assumption that it is not canon but it is definitely canon.”

What about the fact that Slimer, the green ghost from the first to movies and The Rea Ghostbusters series, didn’t appear? Well, that’s quite simple, actually, Reitman explains: “You know, the movie takes place in Oklahoma. And see, we wanted to work with ghosts that were going to be native to the actual area, really for us, it was just, you know, every culture has their own ghost stories, and we want to see all of them. And this is a story that takes place in Summerville, Oklahoma.”

Makes sense…

As for the big villain from Ghostbusters II, Vigo the Carpathian, Reitman things that, should the story need it, he could make a return. Fans will recall that, in GBII, Vigo entered our world through a portrait that was painted of him… and that could happen again: “There is a lot of time and opportunity for Vigo The Carpathian to make his return. Look, are you saying that’s the only painting of Vigo The Carpathian? Maybe, he’s riding a horse in another one, maybe, impaling someone in another one.”

While actors Wilhelm von Homburg (who played Vigo) and Max Von Sydow (who voiced him) are both dead, Vigo could certainly make a return, I would just hope that they wouldn’t retread the story that much, they did with Afterlife and it worked, but I wouldn’t want them to do it again for a sequel.

As for future installments, Reitman has previously said he would love to see Ghostbusters stories from all over the world and from all sorts of film-makers and it seems he already has discussed this with Diable Cody, screenwriter and frequent collaborator of Reitman’s: “If you don’t think I haven’t had this conversation with [Diablo Cody], then you don’t know our relationship well enough. Yeah, we have [spoken about Ghostbusters]. I’d love to see a Diablo Cody Ghostbusters movie. She’s one of the best storytellers alive, we’ve made four movies together, and I’d love to make a fifth.”

I would love to see Ghostbusters, in the future, go global and bring in writers and talent from every corner of the globe, a Ghostbusters International universe, after all, it’s a franchise that would easily lend itself to that.

What do you think? Are you excited to see more Ghostbusters movies? Let me know…

Sources: GamesRadar, GhostbustersNews, Happy Sad Confused,