Well here’s something we never thought we’d say: Bill Murray may soon once again strap on his proton pack as Peter Venkman. The 68-year-old comedian recently revealed that he’s willing to appear in Jason Reitman’s upcoming Ghostbusters sequel — all the director has to do is ask.
This will come as a surprise to many because for years, decades even, Murray acted as the main roadblock to a third Ghostbusters movie getting made. He steadfastly refused to reprise his role despite Dan Aykroyd’s best efforts to convince him otherwise, and after Harold Ramis’ death in 2014 and the franchise moving on with a reboot in 2016 (in which Murray cameoed as a different character), it truly looked like the ship had sailed on Ghostbusters 3. But now with original director Ivan Reitman’s son Jason Reitman spearheading a sequel to the original duology at long last, it looks like Murray will finally return to his most iconic role.
Murray dished on his history, and future, with the franchise while promoting his new film The Dead Don’t Die at the Cannes Film Festival. “This franchise paid for my son’s college. We made this thing. We are the caretakers of it. It’s a great thing and it was a really fun movie to make. It’s a real movie with some really funny stuff in it,” Murray told Indiewire. “They’re wonderful people. “Danny [Aykroyd], Ernie [Hudson], Harold [Ramis], Rick Moranis, Annie Potts — they’re some of the coolest people and they had real careers. They treat people well. They really understand what it is to be a movie actor. It’s a complete collaboration … The relationship you have with those people as collaborators is not necessarily the relationship I have with Sony. For years, [Sony] said, ‘We can’t make another Ghostbusters because Bill Murray won’t change the deal he made in 1984.’ Well, no, I never did. And you know what? They made the movie. You’re the new guys, I’m the old guy. It was good enough for the other people so it’s going to have to be good enough for you.”
The way Murray tells it, his decision to not revisit Ghostbusters sounds more like a disagreement over the business aspect of returning than a plain disinterest or creative refusal. And as he goes on to say, it seems that whatever hangups he had in the past will not prohibit him from appearing in the next Ghostbusters in some capacity, just as he appeared in the last one. “I was in [Ghostbusters 2016] just because they asked me, and I knew if I said no, I was saying I didn’t support that movie,” he said. “I felt like, OK, I’m going to support them because I support them as people. So I did that one and I would do this next one.”
And there it is: I would do this next one. It seems all Jason Reitman has to do is ask Murray to appear in the next Ghostbusters and the legendary actor will show up, proton pack in hand. And with Ghostbusters 3 slated to hit theaters on July 10 of next year, we recommend that Reitman get on that ASAP.
