Director Jason Reitman’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife is very obviously a follow-up the original Ghostbusters (watch it it HERE), but its connection to Ghostbusters II (watch that one HERE) is more subtle. So subtle, that I’ve seen some fans say the movie basically disregards the second film. But in an interview with Uproxx, Reitman confirmed that Ghostbusters II is still canon – and while discussing the franchise on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, he even hinted that we could see the return of Ghostbusters II villain Vigo the Carpathian someday.
Here’s the Ghostbusters II canon confirmation:
I actually do want to know, at what point before the events of this movie, when Egon’s living in Oklahoma, did he look at the Ecto-1 and decided he needed to remove the Ghostbusters II logo with the ghost holding the two up and go back to the original logo?
I wish I could talk to you about that.
That’s actually a secret?
Well, I’m just saying that’s a plot that is not in this film and we have ideas moving forward.
I see.
And Ghostbusters II is canon.
People keep wondering if it is or not.
No, Ghostbusters II, definitely canon. There are references to Ghostbusters II in Afterlife. We meet Ray working at Ray’s Occult. The toaster from Ghostbusters II is in the kitchen in the farmhouse. There’s actually lots of lost of Ghostbusters II details but nobody knows Ghostbusters II outside of Vigo the Carpathian and the Ghostbusters II logo. So there’s this assumption that it is not canon but it is definitely canon.
The second plot question, when we see the pictures of young Carrie Coon they are from the late 1980s. So Egon has a kid in Ghostbusters II?
Oh, yeah.
Okay. We just don’t know that at the time when we’re watching Ghostbusters II.
Correct.
And here’s where Reitman teases the revenge of Vigo:
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.”
I would rather see future Ghostbusters movies deal with new villains instead of bringing back old ones, but Vigo was such a memorable foe that I wouldn’t be surprised to see him make some kind of appearance down the line.
Written by Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan, Ghostbusters: Afterlife stars Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, and Mckenna Grace as
a family with single mom Callie and her two kids, Trevor and Phoebe, who move into a beaten-down farmhouse in Oklahoma only to discover that there’s something strange in the neighborhood. Unexplained quakes shake the town. There’s an old mine nearby that bears the name of Ivo Shandor, who built the Manhattan high-rise in the 1984 film that channeled the forces of evil.
Paul Rudd plays “a local teacher who’s been documenting the unexplained phenomena, befriending Callie and her kids, and helping make the connection between the current weirdness and the events of three decades before”. Also in the cast are Bokeem Woodbine, Tracy Letts, and Oliver Cooper, with Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, and Annie Potts reprising their roles from the first two films.
Reitman’s father Ivan Reitman, who directed the first two films, produced Ghostbusters: Afterlife, with Aykroyd serving as executive producer alongside Jason Blumenfeld, Michael Beugg, Aaron L. Gilbert, Jason Cloth, and Kenan.
Our own Chris Bumbray gave Ghostbusters: Afterlife an 8/10 review you can read at THIS LINK.