The Real Reason Director Ivan Reitman Never Made Ghostbusters 3

Following the limited box-office success of "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire," there's an argument that now might finally be the time to give up the ghost (corps) for good. Five films in, and the numbers suggest that the franchise isn't what it used to be. But then, had Ivan Reitman had his way, he probably wouldn't have let it get that far. During an appearance on Neal Brennan's "Blocks" podcast, Reitman's son and director of "Ghostbusters: Afterlife," Jason Reitman, revealed why his father never returned to the firehouse after "Ghostbusters II" to give the world a "Ghostbusters III." In an industry that thrived on giving us more of the same, Ivan Reitman was happier doing anything but, and might've preferred shutting the trap for good after "Ghostbusters" in 1984.

"My dad never understood sequels. My dad was like, 'I don't know why people want to return to this stuff,'" Jason Reitman explained. When it came to his own sequel in the franchise, the young director got a mixed reception from his father. As he tells it:

"When I wrote 'Afterlife,' and you meet this girl, and she, like, goes out to Oklahoma, and she finds a proton pack, and my dad's like, 'This is great.' And then terror dogs showed up, which is the same thing as '84, and he's like, 'Why Gozer? Why do we need to go back?' He's just like, 'Can I just have a new story?'" 

This enthusiasm for Hollywood's most commonly used formula also explains his lack of interest in one of the franchise's most perplexing creative choices.

While it's still a popular entry for many, there's no question that in the ranking of the "Ghostbusters" movies, "Ghostbusters II" just doesn't hit the spot among fans like its predecessor. Appearances of Lady Liberty and Vigo the Carpathian (Wilhelm von Homburg) aside, not as much care is put into the second outing with the team as before, including the poor attention to care given to their ride, the Ecto-1. "This is how much my dad cared about sequels: on the Ghostbusters car in 'Ghostbusters II,' it has the ['Ghostbusters II' logo]. That doesn't make any sense," Jason Reitman stated, pointing out an issue that hadn't gone unnoticed by fans but that his father had very little concern about.

It would be some time before the younger director in the family got an answer (if you could call it that). "I asked him years later, I was like, 'Why does the 'Ghostbusters' movie logo for the sequel appear on Ecto-1? Are they aware that they're in a sequel? Is that why they have the Ghostbusters ghost with a two on the side of their physical car?' My dad just was like, 'Yeah, that was probably a mistake.' Like, he just didn't [care]." It's this disinterest in the world's most beloved paranormal investigators that created such a vacuum in the history of the team and why Jason Reitman saw potential in bringing them back to bust some ghosts once more.

As time passed, audiences' love for follow-ups hasn't changed. While Jason Reitman acknowledges that it's the landscape of the movie industry now, it's not what his father was about. "I think it's one of the reasons the 'Ghostbusters' franchise didn't flourish, like, consistently over decades is cause my dad, after 'Ghostbusters' was like, 'I'm gonna go do 'Twins.' He made 'Ghostbusters II' and then there's nothing for years." It wouldn't be until 2016 that the absence of a ghostbusting team would come to an end, only to be met with a fairly negative reception. Paul Feig's "Ghostbusters: Answer the Call," while earning some fans, was bombarded with negative reactions from a bunch of insecure crybabies thanks to the decision to cast (cue gasp) an all-female cast for a brand new team, even though Dan Aykroyd still stands by the decision.

Then in 2021, we'd return to the slime-filled well with Jason Reitman connecting dots left untouched for over three decades. By this point, the director was already aware of what he was going up against by firing up the proton packs again. "That thing that people love about Marvel, where every part of that franchise, whether it's a lunchbox or a comic book, is touching on a collective story. That is the opposite of my father. My father was just like, 'I just wanna go tell a new story.'" Ultimately Ivan Reitman was happy laying things to rest, and maybe that's what should've been done from the start.