The First Ghostbusters: Afterlife Trailer Presents a Solemn, Stranger Things-Esque Look at the Past

Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside. The debut trailer for Ghostbusters: Afterlife takes the spectral hunting out of the city and into a small town, where a family with surprising connections to the original Ghostbusters is forced to return to their roots and bust some rural ghosts.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife, directed by Jason Reitman and produced by Ivan Reitman, presents the next chapter in the Ghostbusters series—and it’s quite different from its predecessors. The sad, somber trailer centers around a single mom named Callie (Carrie Coon), who moves into a mansion owned by her late father, who she never really knew.

It turns out, her father was Dr. Egon Spengler, played by the late Harold Ramis in the original Ghostbusters and its sequel. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, given how his granddaughter Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) is his spitting image. However, it does raise some questions about when Spengler had a child, why she wasn’t part of his life, and why Callie was seemingly kept secret from everyone he knew. Considering a few of those old friends of Egon will be appearing in Afterlife, it’ll be an intriguing mystery to uncover.

As Phoebe and her brother Travis (Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard) explore the old and creepy mansion, they learn all about their grandfather and his legacy as a member of the Ghostbusters—partially thanks to their science teacher, played by Paul Rudd. Together, they uncover a strange, supernatural occurrence underneath their small town and have to work together to stop it. I’m guessing it’s going to involve the busting of some ghosts—because of course—including Slimer, who makes a mischievous appearance during the trailer.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife arrives in theaters in summer 2020.

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