We got one! After a lengthy hiatus, the Ghostbusters are coming back to the world of animation. A new CG-animated series has been greenlit at Netflix, according to Variety. Plot details on the new series are currently under wraps, but it is said to be of a piece with Ghostbusters: Afterlife and its sequel, Frozen Empire. No word yet on whether the series will feature the new junior Ghostbusters characters of those films, as well as the “legacy” Ghostbusters from the 1984 original and its sequel.
The series will be written, showrun, and executive produced by Elliott Kalan. A comedy veteran, Kalan is the former head writer of Mystery Science Theater 3000‘s Netflix revival and The Daily Show. He has also written for comic books, including Spider-Man and the X-Men, Disney’s Hercules, and Harley Quinn, as well as the creator-owned Maniac of New York, and co-hosts the long-running podcast The Flop House, which excoriates bad movies on a weekly basis.
What Other ‘Ghostbusters’ Animated Series Are There?
Ghostbusters first made the jump to animation in 1986 with The Real Ghostbusters; the “Real” qualifier was needed thanks to a rival animated series based on the 1975 TV series The Ghost Busters, which featured two human ghost hunters and their gorilla sidekick. The Real Ghostbusters took off from where the 1984 film left off, with freelance paranormal exterminators Venkman, Stantz, Spengler, and Zeddemore hunting spooks, specters, and ghosts all over the five boroughs of New York City and beyond, with secretary Janine and tagalong ghost sidekick Slimer in tow.
Showrun by a pre-Babylon 5 J. Michael Straczynski, the show was a massive success, running for seven seasons and 140 episodes. It was revived in 1997 with the sequel series Extreme Ghostbusters, which featured Spengler and Janine mentoring a new team of Gen-X Ghostbusters; long before Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig answered the call, the series featured the first-ever female Ghostbuster.
The new animated series will be produced by Sony Pictures Animation, with Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan of Ghost Corps, Inc. executive producing. Reitman, whose father directed the original two Ghostbusters films, wrote and directed Ghostbusters: Afterlife and produced its sequel, Frozen Empire. Kenan co-wrote Afterlife and directed Frozen Empire, which made $202 million at the box office earlier this year on a reported $100 million budget. Frozen Empire drew inspiration from The Real Ghostbusters‘ bizarre villains for its own antagonistic ghosts.
Netflix’s new Ghostbusters animated series is in development; no release date has yet been announced. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates. In the meantime, the original film is available to rent or buy on Prime Video.
via Collider