Netflix’s ‘Ghostbusters: Night Shift’ Series Promises the Franchise’s Scariest, Funniest Return Yet
For years, fans begged for a true sequel to the original Ghostbusters films. After the misguided reboot directed by Paul Feig, Sony Pictures recalibrated the franchise and delivered two canon sequels that finally bridged the gap between the first two films. But while Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan were developing those movies, they realized there was an entire decade of Ghostbusters history nobody had explored.
That missing chapter became Ghostbusters: Night Shift, the new animated series debuting on Netflix this fall. An animated feature is also in development, but Night Shift is first out of the gate, and the first images and story details have finally arrived.
Now, in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Reitman and Kenan revealed that the series was actually born while writing Ghostbusters: Afterlife. As Reitman explained, they started asking themselves where Phoebe’s proton pack came from before realizing they had stumbled onto a much bigger mystery. “Wait a second, what about that whole decade in between? What happened in the ’90s?” Reitman told the site. “That was the birth of this show.”
Even more exciting is the tone they’re chasing.
Anyone expecting another version of The Real Ghostbusters cartoon is apparently in for a surprise. Reitman joked to THR that fans who think they’re getting an ’80s-style animated series “are in for a surprise,” promising that Ghostbusters: Night Shift is “funnier” and “scarier,” adding that it captures what made the 1984 film so special by letting audiences think they’re in for a few laughs before it “spooks the shit out of you.”
Somewhere over the years, people started remembering Ghostbusters as a straight comedy, but the original film was creepy as hell. The Library Ghost, Dana’s possession, the subway tunnels, the cab driver… those moments stuck with kids because they were genuinely frightening. Kenan told the site that’s exactly the balance they’re trying to recreate, calling the original’s ability to be “genuinely terrifying and laugh-out-loud funny” the true DNA of Ghostbusters.
Just as important is the setting.
Rather than a polished version of Manhattan, Night Shift returns to New York before it was cleaned up. Kenan described it as “the greatest city on the face of the earth, and also disgusting,” explaining that the team wanted audiences to feel like they were walking through the unpredictable New York of the 1990s, “when pretty much anything could happen.”
That feels like the perfect backdrop for a Ghostbusters story.
And while longtime fans will undoubtedly be hunting for connections to the original films, Reitman insists this isn’t simply an exercise in nostalgia. He told THR that existing fans will “see a version of the story they’ve never seen before,” while newcomers couldn’t ask for “a better entrance to the franchise.” Kenan agreed, saying the connective tissue is there whether your first Ghostbusters experience was the 1984 classic, Afterlife, or this new series.
If these first details are any indication, Ghostbusters: Night Shift isn’t trying to recreate The Real Ghostbusters. It’s trying to recapture what made the original movie lightning in a bottle: genuine scares, big laughs, and a filthy, haunted New York City where anything can happen.
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