Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Trailer Takes The Franchise To Epic Levels
The highly anticipated Ghostbusters: Afterlife sequel finally has a title and a trailer to go with it. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire looks like it has the potential to be the most epic Ghostbusters adventure yet. Don’t let the name fool you; this trailer is fire!
The trailer starts off innocently enough, with a radio voice describing record temperatures as people bust open fire hydrants and frolic on the beach. The implied heatwave is soon cut short, however, when the sky grows cloudy, and giant icicles start falling from the sky, sending beachgoers scurrying out of fear of impalement. Soon, the menacing clouds spread over New York City as spears of ice start growing out of the ground, skewering cars and people alike.
Patton Oswalt, a new addition to the Ghostbusters cast, mentions that for the first time in history, humans are freezing to death on the streets of NYC in the middle of July. From there, the Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire trailer shows us what we came for—the Ghostbusters themselves. Following in Afterlife‘s footsteps, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire features a mixture of new and old Ghostbusters from all three previous films.
Long-time fans will be psyched to see that Dan Ackroyd and Ernie Hudson are once again portraying Ray and Winston, but perhaps the biggest news is the return of Bill Murray as wise guy Peter Venkman. Murray has historically been cantankerous when it comes to new Ghostbusters projects. He famously didn’t want to be a part of 1989’s Ghostbusters II, and while he was miraculously convinced to participate in Ghostbusters: The Video Game in 2009, his line readings sound like someone doing the absolute minimum to get paid.
So it came as a nice surprise when Murray, after years of going back and forth about whether he would be involved with a third Ghostbusters film, popped up in 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire wastes no time on speculation and puts Murray smack dab in the middle of the first trailer. It’s only a quick blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot, but it’s enough to make Ghostbusters fans everywhere smile.
Meanwhile, the new crew led by Paul Rudd’s Grooberson and McKenna Grace’s Phoebe are also present in the Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire trailer. Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Celeste O’Connor, and Logan Kim are all returning for Frozen Empire. The trailer also featured a few new faces like the aforementioned Oswalt as well as Eternals‘ star Kumail Nanjiani.
One returning face that no one expected to see in another Ghostbusters movie is that of William Atherton, AKA Walter Peck. While the jerky EPA worker doesn’t actually appear in the trailer, he’s listed under the film’s cast on IMDb. With any luck, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire will give fans the rematch between Walter Peck and Peter Venkman that they’ve been dreaming of for the last 40 years.
As far as Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire‘s big bad, the trailer doesn’t give us much to go on aside from a shot of a menacing silhouette with piercing ice-blue eyes. Meanwhile, Dan Ackroyd’s Ray identifies the cold affecting everyone as the “Death Chill,” a phenomenon he describes as “the power to kill by fear itself.”
We’ll reserve our final judgment until more trailers come out closer to the 2024 film’s spring release but just based on this first trailer, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire looks like a worthy addition to the Ghostbusters franchise.
