Jason Reitman Says His Dad Hated Sequels Despite Making GHOSTBUSTERS II; and He Reveals a Mistake in the Film

The Ghostbusters franchise kicked off in 1984 when the first film, directed by Ivan Reitman, was released. Five years later, the sequel was released, but as it turns out, it wasn’t because Reitman was trying to make it happen.

The studio must have made him an offer he couldn’t refuse, as his son, who went on to write and direct the franchise’s comeback film decades later, said his dad was not fond of sequels.

During a recent interview on the Blocks Podcast with Neil Brennan, the younger Reitman talked about his film career, and he revealed what his dad said when he shared the script for Ghostbusters: Afterlife with him.

Jason explained: “My dad never understood sequels. My dad was like, ‘I don’t know why people want to return to this stuff.’ 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?’

“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. I don’t care.’ He made Ghostbusters II and then there’s nothing for years.”

I get where he’s coming from, and I can appreciate not using your previous material as a crutch. But franchise fans do love a callback. I think as long as the story is strong, you can give a wink to things that have already been established in the universe.

Jason went on to talk about a feature in Ghostbusters II that he questioned his dad on: “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.

“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 was like, ‘Yeah, that was probably a mistake.’”

That’s pretty funny that someone decided to add the sequel logo instead of the original, and no one caught that! But if Ivan Reitman was just kind of phoning it in, it makes sense that he missed it. It turned out to be a fun movie though, despite his apathy.

Jason Reitman went on to make the great comeback sequel Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), and he co-wrote the fourth film Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024). It’s unclear where the franchise will go from here, but I’m glad Jason was more excited about sequels than his dad was.

via: CinemaBlend