Dan Aykroyd Is Ready To Move On From 'Ghostbusters'

Getting a Ghostbusters sequel made was a difficult task for decades. Hell, some would argue that making a sequel was hard the first time. Regardless, it’s not like there weren’t ideas or scripts in development. Dan Aykroyd wrote a script that sent the Ghostbusters (and Manhattan) to Hell, and would have (ideally) involved Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, and Chris Farley as new members. Didn’t happen. Harold Ramis enlisted The Office writers Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg to pen a script. It never got out of the firehouse.

Were these ideas and scripts bad? Maybe! We’ll never really know. So why did they keep getting shot down? Bill Murray. That’s honestly the easiest answer. Murray, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, Ivan Reitman, and Sony had a deal that required all parties to approve a sequel. Murray was a holdout pretty much every time. Notably, he once replied, “No one wants to pay money to see fat, old men chasing ghosts!” Oh, how your tune will change when a film gets shut down due to your behavior.

While Murray was dragging his feet, Dan Aykroyd has always been a proponent of new films. Once Harold Ramis passed, Aykroyd took on producing duties for the 2016 reboot. He praised the cast and crew and blamed himself for letting the budget balloon. He’s been incredibly supportive of Jason Reitman’s new films Afterlife and Frozen Empire, appearing in the former and having a full 30-minute arc in the latter. After 40 years in the franchise he helped create, Aykroyd seems ready to step away.

Aykroyd recently spoke with the New York Post. When asked whether he and Murray would appear in more films, the actor closed the door on that possibility. “I don’t see that coming,” he noted. “I don’t see where they would need us to carry it on. They’ve got a whole new cast, and they’ve got whole new ideas.” I would have liked to see Aykroyd say something like this for Frozen Empire. I wasn’t the biggest fan of that film, but its overreliance on the past cast is one of its weaker aspects (and yes, Afterlife struck that balance perfectly, why are you making that face?).

When asked about the future of the franchise, Aykroyd acknowledged the need for the new cast to be allowed to go out on their own. “I think probably they’re going to move on to advancing it beyond the originals, which they should,” he explained. They won’t be on their own entirely. Ernie Hudson’s character, Winston, has been set up as a mentor appearing in the new films and a video game (with more appearances to occur), and he deserves those flowers and more.

It looks like the end of the road for Aykroyd. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bummed about that! He’s been a champion for this brainchild he and Ramis created. There have been many bumps and tragedies on its road. At least he gets to leave it on his terms.