Ghostbusters: Afterlife Interview: Finn Wolfhard & Mckenna Grace

Flashback to August 2021. It was my first trip outside of Canada since the start of the pandemic, and I was in Las Vegas for CinemaCon. Naturally, all of the exhibitors there were pretty nervous because the theatrical model was in chaos. However, Sony, a studio dedicated to preserving this model, had an ace up its sleeve. On the opening night of the conference, they showed us one of their biggest releases of the year – Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Suddenly, the mood throughout the conference changed, as the film delivered everything a distributor could want in big, broad family entertainment.

I loved the film, so I was thrilled to be invited to participate in Sony’s press junket for the film. I was pretty excited to talk to all of the stars but particularly interested in speaking with the two leads, McKenna Grace and Finn Wolfhard. Grace is only fifteen, but she’s been headlining movies since Gifted back in 2017. So she was pretty psyched to take on the lead here, as Phoebe, the brainy descendant of the great Egon Spengler, who unleashes some surprising ghost-busting abilities of her own once ghosts overrun her town. I enjoyed talking to Grace, who joked that Ghostbusters: Afterlife was a nice change of pace, as she’s used to playing the young version of Hollywood’s most popular stars (indeed – she was young Tonya Harding in I, Tonya and young Carol Danvers in Captain Marvel).

She was joined by Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard, who turned out to be a super nice guy and a lot of fun to talk to. One thing we often forget about these Stranger Things stars is that they’re growing up, and Wolfhard seemed pretty thrilled to be embarking on (hopefully) another big franchise with Ghostbusters: Afterlife. I’ve got to say, both Grace and Wolfhard were pretty easy to talk to, and I’m rooting for them to be able to continue as Ghostbusters in a couple of sequels.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife opens this Friday exclusively in theatres!