Bill Murray will be reprising his role in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, 31 years after he first played the wisecracking scientist.
Jason Reitman – the son of Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman – will be directing the forthcoming sequel, which also stars Finn Wolfhard, Carrie Coon and Paul Rudd.
Now, after much speculation, it has finally been confirmed that 69-year-old Murray is now once again set ot play Dr Peter Venkman, after making the character famous in Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II (1989).
Murray also showed up in Paul Feig’s all-female reboot (2016), but played a different character.
Murray told Vanity Fair in a behind-the-scenes interview: “The script is good. It’s got lots of emotion in it. It’s got lots of family in it, with through lines that are really interesting. It’s gonna work.”
The actor’s co-stars Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson will also return as Dr Ray Stanz and Winston Zeddemore, respectively.
Harold Ramis, who played Dr Egon Spengler, died in 2014.
In his interview, Murray seemed to hint that his co-stars legacy will live on the follow-up film.
“We are a man down,” Murray continued. “That’s the deal – and that’s the story that we’re telling, that’s the story they’ve written.”
Several clues in the trailer in Afterlife point to the theory that Coon’s character is in fact Dr Egon, including am Easter egg that shows his unmissable rounded spectacles.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife will be released in cinemas on 10 July.
