Although his return had already been teased by Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray has now officially confirmed that he’ll be back in the role of Peter Venkman this summer in director Jason Reitman’s hotly-anticipated sequel Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
“Well, we are a man down,” Murray told Variety, referring to the absence of the late Harold Ramis (Egon Spengler) in the new movie. “That’s the deal, and that’s the story that we’re telling, that’s the story they’ve written. The script is good. It’s got lots of emotion in it. It’s got lots of family in it, with through lines that are really interesting. It’s gonna work.”
Murray had always been notoriously stand-offish whenever the subject of Ghostbusters 3 was raised over the past three decades, and rejected the opportunity to reunite with Ayrokd, Ramis and Ernie Hudson back in 2012 when Sony has tapped Etan Cohen (Tropic Thunder) to develop a script for a third movie. He did however agree to a return to the franchise for a cameo in Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, and now fans can finally look forward to seeing him strapping on the proton pack for another outing as the wise-cracking Dr. Peter Venkman.
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In Ghostbusters: Afterlife, when a single mom and her two kids arrive in a small town, they begin to discover their connection to the original Ghostbusters and the secret legacy their grandfather left behind.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife is directed by Jason Reitman and stars Carrie Coon (The Leftovers), Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things), Mckenna Grace (Captain Marvel), Paul Rudd (Avengers: Endgame), Bokeem Woodbine (Spider-Man: Homecoming), Celeste O’Connor (Wetlands), Oliver Cooper (Mindhunter) and newcomer Logan Kim, along with returning Ghostbusters cast members Dan Aykroyd (Ray Stantz), Bill Murray (Peter Venkman), Ernie Hudson (Winston Zeddemore), Sigourney Weaver (Dana Barrett) and Annie Potts (Janine Melnitz). The film is set for release on July 10th 2020.
