Netflix announced a Ghostbusters animated series back in 2022, but the development of the series has been quiet until now. 1984’s Ghostbusters became such a hit with children around the world that before a sequel arrived in 1989, the franchise spun off into a popular animated series titled The Real Ghostbusters, which ran for seven seasons. A follow-up, Extreme Ghostbusters, aired in 1997 for one season. For nearly three decades, there have been attempts to get a new Ghostbusters series off the ground, but with little success.
According to Variety, Netflix has finally given the green light to a new 3D-animated Ghostbusters series. Elliot Kalan, who previously worked with Netflix as the head writer on their revival of Mystery Science Theater 3000, as well as being a writer on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, will serve as the series writer, showrunner, and executive producer. The series is produced by Sony Pictures Animation and has Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan of Ghost Corps, Inc. onboard as executive producers. Ghost Corps. was established in 2015 to oversee and develop Ghostbusters-related projects.
Who Will the Ghostbusters Animated Series Be Aimed At?
It is unclear what direction the new animated Ghostbusters series will take and whether it will be a continuation of The Real Ghostbusters and The Extreme Ghostbusters or a unique series. With Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan onboard, there is a good chance it will have connections to 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife and 2024’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, with Reitman having directed the former and Kenan directing the latter. Many animated shows are now aimed at more mature audiences, but whether the new Ghostbusters series will be one of them is something we just don’t know.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire made about the same amount of money at the domestic box office, the same as the 2016 all-female-led reboot Ghostbusters: Answer the Call. This seems to imply that the franchise is not growing and just catering to the older fanbase. The Real Ghostbusters helped the franchise reach an entire generation of kids, but whether that is something that a new animated series can possibly do – in a time when kids TV is aimed more at a YouTube generation – is something that could play a part in exactly how the series pans out.
Related
There Were 3 Ghostbusters TV Shows, but Only 1 Was Real
The Ghost Busters, Ghostbusters, and The Real Ghostbusters. Three TV shows all with similar names. How did this happen?
Bringing in a writer like Elliot Kalan suggests the series might aim for a more adult-skewing demographic. After all, the original Ghostbusters movie was a comedy film made by some of SNL‘s biggest names, so returning the franchise to its roots as a straightforward comedy from a writer best known for irreverent Gen X humor projects like Mystery Science Theater 3000 and The Daily Show might be just what the series needs to gain back its edge. Netflix has plenty of animated projects aimed at older audiences, like Kevin Smith’s Masters of the Universe: Revelations or the upcoming anime Terminator Zero. This might be the route Netflix and Sony want to take Ghostbusters in with the franchise’s latest venture.