Ghostbusters: Afterlife director hopes film 'sets the table' for sequels

Ghostbusters: Afterlife director hopes film 'sets the table' for sequels
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The Afterlife of the Ghostbusters franchise will be long and prosperous, if filmmaker Jason Reitman has anything to say about it.

The director of Ghostbusters: Afterlife joined his father, original Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman, and some of the stars of his movie — Carrie Coon, Mckenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Celeste O'Connor, and Logan Kim — at New York Comic Con, where he teased what could be in store for Ghostbusters after the film hits theaters.

"We wanted to make a movie that opened the universe to all kinds of stories," Reitman said during the panel moderated by EW's Clark Collis. "I want to see Ghostbusters movies from all of my favorite directors, and we hop that this movie sets the table for that."

Ghostbusters: Afterlife
Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Columbia Pictures Mckenna Grace in 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife'

Reitman then surprised attendees at the panel with a screening of the full movie. No spoilers, but there does seem to be room to further this franchise.

The director passed along a message to those in the room, and also on social media, to keep secrets close to the vest, especially with regards to the ending. "You'll know why soon!" he wrote in a letter.

Grace and Wolfhard star in Ghostbusters: Afterlife as siblings Phoebe and Trevor, who move with their mom Callie (Coon) to an old farm house in a rural town when it's left to them by their grandfather. There, they begin to learn about their family history.

Phoebe is "this weird awkward little girl" who's "different" from her family, Grace said, while Wolfhard described Trevor as someone who's "really looking for friends and wants to be a part of the community."

"My whole life I was asked, 'Would you make a Ghostbusters movie?' And I made the incorrect, egotistical assumption that people wanted to see my Ghostbusters movie when the truth was people wanted to see a Ghostbusters movie," Reitman said.

He envisioned a little girl picking up a proton pack in the middle of a field. "When [original Ghostbusters star] Harold Ramis passed away," Reitman added, "I knew who they were. They were the Spenglers, and I needed to tell their story."

Ghostbusters: Afterlife will premiere in theaters on Nov. 19.

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