Dan Aykroyd Wants to Create an Entire Ghostbusters Universe

Is it possible we’ve been focusing on the wrong multi-platform franchises this whole time? Sure, there’s Marvel with its Avengers and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Iron Man. And there’s DC Comics with Batman and Superman and Gotham and Arrow. They’re huge, ever-expanding franchises with billions of dollars in budgets and an impossibly deep wealth of source material. The problem is, none of them fight ghosts. The Ghostbusters do, and Dan Aykroyd wants to make the franchise as ubiquitous as Marvel and DC Comics.

In recent months, talk of a third film—possibly with an all-female cast—has ramped up, though director Ivan Reitman dropped out back in March shortly after the death of long-time collaborator Harold Ramis (Reitman is still signed on to produce). Aykroyd believes there could be much more to it than that though.

“It’s beyond just another sequel, a prequel, another TV show. I’m thinking what does the whole brand mean to Sony?” he told The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday, adding that the goal should be, “not just another movie or another TV show, but what’s the totality of it? The whole mythology from the beginning of their lives, the end of their lives. Ghostbusters at nine years old, Ghostbusters in high school.”

To die-hard Ghostbusters fans, this probably sounds like a dream come true. On the other hand, die-hard Ghostbusters fans are probably aware that this kinda-sorta already exists for the Ghostbusters. They have the two movies (and soon a third, possibly a fourth, if everything that’s been reported has any truth to it), they had a pair of animated television series (The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters) and still have a comic book series, along with a slew of video games.

It’s unclear what other media Aykroyd hopes that Ghostbusters will explore, or where he and Reitman would find the material to provide for an entire universe, complete with spinoffs. But there’s little denying that Ghostbusters is big business (the two films did nearly $500 million total at the worldwide box office). Here’s to hoping that a universe will capture Bill Murray in its grasp.

[THR]