Bill Murray is set to reprise his famous role as Peter Venkman in the upcoming Ghostbusters sequel, slated for release in the summer of 2020. Murray won't be the only familiar face, as Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Ernie Hudson, and Annie Potts are all picking up their roles from the first two Ghostbusters movies. The addition of Murray will make the 2020 movie feel like a proper reunion, at the same time as handing over the baton to a new generation of Ghostbusters.

Esquire quoted Aykroyd on The Greg Hill Show, where the actor spoke of his excitement to be collaborating with the likes of Murray and Weaver once again. Quite how the old and new faces will come together remains to be seen. The plot is purported to follow a family as they move back home to a small town where, of course, things are not necessarily what they seem. Carrie Coon is set to head the cast by playing a single mother, while Paul Rudd features in a currently unspecified role.

Ghostbusters 2020 will have a far greater connection with the original movies than the 2016 reboot. Despite receiving critical praise for the comedic performance of the cast (which included Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon), the 2016 film failed to capture the magic of the originals. Crucially, it also failed to capture the imaginations of cinemagoers, with the movie proving to be a considerable flop at the box office.

By ensuring that there are more explicit ties with the classic 80s films, Sony are hopeful that Ghostbusters 2020 will succeed where the 2016 iteration failed. Bringing Murray, Aykroyd, and Weaver on board is one way to arouse the interest of fans of the originals, while the director Jason Reitman also brings continuity in unique fashion: he is the son of Ivan Reitman, the director of the first two movies. Sony will be keen for this movie to mark the start of a new franchise. While the Ghostbusters brand has never looked like fading into pop culture obscurity (shout 'who you gonna call?' in any public place, and you're bound to get the appropriate answer), it does feel like the very concept of Ghostbusters should have produced movie after movie. However, Ghostbusters has managed to retain relevance in other ways.

The 1980s animated series The Real Ghostbusters was updated for a new generation, with Extreme Ghostbusters hitting television screens for 40 episodes in the 1990s. The Real Ghostbusters gave the brand great exposure through its run on ABC, while the innovative slot game Ghostbusters: Triple Slime, available at online casino sites like Casimba, similarly enjoys a popular platform from which to spread Ghostbusters' distinctive mixture of spookiness and comedy. The slot, like many other Ghostbusters-inspired projects, utilise the franchise's classic aesthetics and characters to create a modern-yet-retro experience.

Casimba hosts slots from all of the leading developers, including Triple Slime creators IGT. Their developers have utilised the franchise's classic spooky retro aesthetic and motifs to create an immersive online spinner. That spooky retro vibe may soon become commonplace in the cinema once again, as Ghostbusters 2020 could be the start of a dominant decade for the franchise. If it proves to be a box office hit, then the Ghostbusters brand will have the prestige and popularity to sustain its success without the need to call on the likes of Murray.

The movie is unlikely to arrive in cinemas still with the title Ghostbusters 2020, with Geek Tyrant reporting that one likely leaked name for the movie is Ghostbusters: Afterlife. That would be an apt name for the film. With the presence of Murray and the other original stars involved, the film will inevitably reflect on the past life of the Ghostbusters. The film will also mark the beginning of the next stage of the Ghostbusters' story, with new characters to take over the bustin' in future movies.

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