Ghostbusters: Nightshift as funny and scary as ‘anything you’ve ever seen in Ghostbusters’

Following the first look at Netflix’s Ghostbusters: Night Shift, Deadline has published an extensive interview with the creative team behind the upcoming animated series, offering new insight into the show’s canon status, horror influences, and overall creative direction.

While the Annecy presentation established that Night Shift takes place in New York City in 1994, five years after Ghostbusters II, executive producer Amie Karp revealed that one of the earliest questions driving the project was whether the team could create “an animated series that is in canon.”

That philosophy ultimately shaped every aspect of the production, with co-showrunner Elliott Kalan explaining that the goal was to capture the tone of the films so completely that the new heroes could “walk off the television, onto a movie screen and interact with the pre-existing characters if they wanted to.”

Kalan went on to call the Ghostbusters films “miracles,” praising their “very specific tone” and unforgettable characters while explaining that the team sought to preserve that feeling “in all aspects”.

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FIRST LOOK stunning images and details from highly anticipated Ghostbusters: Nightshift series

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That creative approach is already evident in several details revealed during yesterday’s Annecy presentation, including the appearance of Ray’s Occult Books, the series taking place during Walter Peck’s first mayoral campaign, and confirmation that Ghostbusters: Night Shift serves as a canon bridge between Ghostbusters II and Ghostbusters: Afterlife, writes Jason from Ghostbusters News.

The interview also expanded on the creative philosophy behind the series’ horror elements. Jason Reitman said returning Ghostbusters to animation meant delivering something “as funny as anything you’ve ever seen in Ghostbusters, and as scary as anything you’ve ever seen in Ghostbusters.” 

Executive producer Gil Kenan agreed, arguing that animation is “a perfect medium for horror,” while showrunner Ben Hibon explained that the ghosts were intentionally designed to remain “inventive, fleshy and ethereal,” leaning into elements of body horror rather than being simplified for animation.

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Reitman also pointed to The Real Ghostbusters as a major inspiration, recalling how the animated series embraced a level of creativity that often exceeded what was possible in live action. He noted that its creators “felt this freedom to be odder, funnier and scarier” than even the films, adding that Hibon’s earliest ghost concepts immediately demonstrated just how frightening animation could become when freed from the limitations of live action.

With Ghostbusters co-writer Dan Aykroyd serving as an executive producer, the creative team also spoke about the importance of having one of the franchise’s original architects involved. Kalan described Aykroyd’s support as “a dream,” calling his involvement “hugely powerful” throughout development, while Reitman offered perhaps the interview’s highest praise, telling Deadline that Kalan is “one of the only people I’ve ever met who can write like Dan Aykroyd.”

That same creative spirit also extends to the series’ willingness to embrace the franchise’s stranger side, with Kalan recalling that Netflix and Sony Pictures Animation repeatedly encouraged the team to “go weirder, go weirder.” Reitman joked the directive was entirely in keeping with Ghostbusters, quipping, “Remember the amount of drugs the originators were on when they created this.”

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