Dan Aykroyd has written a Ghostbusters prequel called Ghostbusters High

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Director Jason Reitman, son of GHOSTBUSTERS and GHOSTBUSTERS II director Ivan Reitman, will soon be going into production on a sequel to his father's films that is set to star Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, and Mckenna Grace as a family that has mysterious ties to the previous films. Speaking with 660 News, original GHOSTBUSTERS co-writer/co-star Dan Aykroyd, who will be serving as a producer on the new film, talked a bit about what the younger Reitman has in store for us – and where the GHOSTBUSTERS franchise might go in the future.

Aykroyd said that Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan have 

written a beautiful script, I can’t say too much about it but it’s going to get made and hopefully there’ll be some familiar faces … This just takes it to a new generation and a new direction that is so warm, heartfelt and indeed, quite scary when you confront some of the issues that are being discussed."

In previous interviews, Aykroyd has expressed displeasure with Paul Feig, director of the 2016 GHOSTBUSTERS reboot, and the fact that the budget of that film was out of control. Aykroyd shifts the blame from Feig to himself in this interview and praises the work that film's stars did, saying he should have kept a closer eye on the budget as a producer. Because the reboot only made $229 million worldwide on a budget of $144 million, the budget of Reitman's film will be much lower – "as little as we can spend".

Aykroyd has plans for more GHOSTBUSTERS projects beyond Reitman's film, and has even already written the script for a prequel that he calls GHOSTBUSTERS HIGH, which would center on teenage versions of the characters Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler, and Peter Venkman (who were played by Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Bill Murray in the original films). The story would begin when

they meet in New Jersey in 1969 and we’re looking to do that as probably a glorified feature or pilot within the next maybe five years…. And it would lead to a television project and I thought of (Jason Reitman) immediately for that. It’s on his desk but that’s years away from the current project. But it’s a neat idea for a prequel. Imagine casting the three characters as teenagers!"

Aykroyd reiterates that GHOSTBUSTERS HIGH would be "way, way down" the line – we probably have to see how Reitman's movie is going to do first, and if there are going to be sequels to that one.

The idea for GHOSTBUSTERS HIGH goes back at least a year and a half, as Aykroyd mentioned it in an interview with CinemaBlend in late 2017. When asked if there was any chance we could someday see a live action GHOSTBUSTERS series on Netflix, Aykroyd replied, 

Yes. Absolutely. Sure. Sure. I can see several possibilities there. You know? Take a cue from these guys in Stranger Things and maybe have the Ghostbusters in high school or something."

As it turns out, he really wants to pursue that idea.

We'll have to wait and see if it's going to happen. In the meantime, we have the July 10, 2020 release of Jason Reitman's GHOSTBUSTERS to look forward to.