Credit: Sony PicturesUpdated: Sony Pictures has now moved the release date for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire to March 22, 2024.
A new trailer for the sequel to Ghostbusters: Afterlife wipes the floor with Frozen Empire.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024) is now just a few months from release. Following on from Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), it unites Ghostbusters old and new as they battle a new supernatural entity known as Garraka, who plunges New York City into an eternal winter.
The first trailer dropped last November, and while fans are undoubtedly excited to see the fifth film in the series (which, yes, includes the widely hated 2016 reboot you’d rather pretend didn’t exist), there doesn’t seem to be too much of a buzz surrounding it.
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But Frozen Empire isn’t the only sequel to Afterlife, nor is the upcoming comic book series Ghostbusters: Back in Town (2024), which bridges the gap between both films.
The first sequel to the 2021 film is Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed (2022), a multiplayer video game set in NYC, where Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) and Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) have re-launched the paranormal elimination business from the iconic Firehouse.
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Since its release in October, 2022, the game has enjoyed several DLCs (downloadable content), from “skins” that allow players to look like characters from the animated series The Real Ghostbusters (1986 — 1991), to iconic villains from said-show such as Samhain. More importantly, the game has featured new storylines in addition to that of the base game.
Now, a new cinematic trailer for the game, which is canon with the films, chronicles the story so far. Titled “The Ghostbusters Always Pull Through! — Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed Story Trailer,” it feels more like a movie than a video game.
Check it out below, per Illfonic:
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There’s no denying that this new trailer has way more energy than the trailer for Frozen Empire. As entertaining-enough as that trailer is, especially when the ice storm hits the East Coast before working its way inland until it reaches the Ghostbusters Firehouse, there’s just something lacking. Call it energy, charm, whatever you want — it’s just quite boring.
But the new Spirits Unleashed trailer has the right idea. In true Ghostbusters fashion, it’s compelling, colorful, camp, and far from being overly serious, striking that fine line between comedy and terror pretty well. Hearing the voices of Ernie Hudson and Dan Aykroyd also helps. Though they appear in the Frozen Empire trailer, we don’t see them say or do all that much.
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As solid as Afterlife is, it leans far more into drama than the Ghostbusters movies were ever interested in doing. It is, by all means, a lot better than Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016), but then neither film manages to capture the tone of the original two films. At times, Afterlife feels quite serious, while Answer the Call goes too far in the opposite direction.
It’s unlikely Frozen Empire will strike the happy medium fans are looking for, especially considering Afterlife duo Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan are back on board (this time, Reitman is co-writing while Kenan is directing). But here’s to hoping the next trailer will at least give us a reason to be excited to see another Ghostbusters movie in theaters.
Check out the trailer for Frozen Empire below, per Sony Pictures:
Related: ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ Trailer Breakdown
Frozen Empire stars Carrie Coon (Callie Spengler), Paul Rudd (Gary Grooberson), McKenna Grace (Phoebe Spengler), Finn Wolfhard (Trevor Spengler), Celeste O’Connor (Lucky Domingo), Logan Kim (Podcast), Dan Aykroyd (Ray Stantz), Annie Potts (Janine Melnitz), William Atherton (Walter Peck), Ernie Hudson (Winston Zeddemore), and Bill Murray (Peter Venkman).
The film will now be released on March 22, 2024.
This article was originally published on January 8.
Are you excited about Frozen Empire? Or do you think Spirits Unleashed is already a better sequel to Afterlife? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!