Ghostbusters fandom is tricky, but Frozen Empire’s director knew ‘the boundaries’

21.03.2024 - 17:45 / polygon.com / Gil Kenan / Finn Wolfhard

For Gil Kenan (Monster House), the chance to co-write Ghostbusters: Afterlife was a dream come true. Directing the sequel was an even taller order — and one he jumped to take. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire brings the series back to New York, expands the roles of both the legacy Ghostbusters cast and the new additions introduced in Afterlife, and pushes the spectacle level to contend with modern blockbusters.

Die-hard fans of the original Ghostbusters traditionally haven’t taken well to change — see the reactions to Paul Feig’s 2016 reboot of the franchise. But in an interview with Polygon ahead of Frozen Empire’s release, Kenan says his lifelong love of the original 1984 Ghostbusters (and the animated series The Real Ghostbusters) helped him “know what the boundaries are” for rejuvenating the series while respecting Ghostbusters’ essence.

Continuing the story of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the sequel pairs the living old-timer ’busters (Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts) with their next-generation successors, descendants of their old friend Egon Spengler. The new ’busters (Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Celeste O’Connor, Logan Kim) get drawn into a bigger adventure this time, facing an ancient evil. By the end, Ghostbusters new and old have to come together to stop yet another angry god.

“The first challenge was writing to their voices,” Kenan says. “And then it was about creating a safe space for each of them to share their gifts with the camera. I love the scenes where we were able to have them all share the screen together and to feel like there was a merging of the new comic sensibilities with the original ones.”

How did Kenan settle on his big choices for Frozen Empire? Where did he find room for Easter eggs? Where could the series go next? We get into it all below.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Polygon: How much of the direction you went in with Frozen Empire was related to reactions to Afterlife ?

Gil Kenan: We knew when we wrote Afterlife that the next story would come back to New York City, and that the story would need to grow. This is a big city. It’s the opportunity for big stories! So I know that we wanted to have a larger supernatural presence in this new film. That was something we talked about even before we finished Afterlife.

And we were going to be able to make the stakes a lot greater than in Afterlife, because there, we were rekindling a spark that was almost 40 years old. With this story, we’re now able to recontextualize and grow and make a more urgent need for ghostbusting. And so that created an opportunity for new mythology, a new villain, and a threat that was scaled up in a dramatic way.

How do you evolve a franchise like