Paul Feig wanted to go international with his planned Ghostbusters sequel. The original Ghostbusters proved to be a massive success in 1984, but since it was produced during an era where sequels weren’t a given, a follow-up took years to develop. The success of The Real Ghostbusters cartoon series and assorted merchandise convinced the studio to push the cast for another movie. While Ghostbuster II was another hit, it didn’t receive the same acclaim as the original, and since it came out during a crowded blockbuster season in 1989 – which included Batman and Lethal Weapon 2 – the box office proved disappointing.

Still, the studio wanted a third movie but Bill Murray’s disappointment with the second movie and reluctance to commit led to Ghostbusters III falling into development hell for decades. Various scripts were written and rejected by Murray – when he took time to read them – but any hope of a direct sequel ended with the passing of Harold Ramis, who played Egon and co-write the original movies. Sony instead decided to reboot the series, appointing director Paul Feig (Spy) to direct a gender-swapped take on the concept.

Ghostbusters 2016 had a bumpy road leading up to release, following a vocal backlash to the idea of an all-female team and a poorly received first trailer. Despite setting up the return of famous villain Zuul in a post-credit scene, the movie’s lukewarm box office killed off sequel plans. Now Paul Feig has revealed in a new podcast interview with Happy Sad Confused that if a sequel had gone ahead, he wanted to take the team overseas.

I definitely wanted us to go to another country. Because when we were doing the press tour, the international press tour, every country the reporters would come with these drawings or artist renderings of that country’s ghosts. And every country has these really wild ghost stories and ghost characters that they scare kids with or keep people in line with. I really loved the idea of the Ghostbusters going to like Asia. Yeah, so there’s a lot of fun stuff that we could have done.


All three Ghostbusters movies have been set in New York, so the idea of taking a sequel to a different country and exploring the ghosts of a different culture could have been very interesting. It would have broadened the scope of the series too, but while Feig remains proud of his reboot, he seems resigned to the idea a direct follow-up is unlikely to happen now.

The current status of the Ghostbusters series is unknown. There was talk of an animated movie that would be told from the POV of a ghost, but nothing has been heard about that project in a long time, and its unlikely to make its projected 2019 release date. Ghostbusters is ultimately too valuable and beloved a brand to leave sitting on a shelf for long, so a new project – be it a movie, TV show or video game – will likely be announced within the next few years.