SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION Actor Bob Gunton Was the Stand-In for Egon in GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE

One of the things I loved most about Ghostbusters: Afterlife was that Egon Spangler was at the heart of the film, and at the end, we got to see Harold Ramis's Egon make one final appearance on screen. It was quite an emotional experience for a lot of fans, especially seeing him standing shoulder to shoulder with Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson.

Director Jason Reitman did a wonderful job executing all of this, and in order to pull it off they needed some great CGI and a stand-in. That stand in was Bob Gunton, who is a great character actor that we’ve seen in several films over the years. One of his most well known was the villainous Warden Norton in director Frank Darabont's The Shawshank Redemption.

While we don’t recognize him in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, it’s pretty cool that he was involved with the film and played a part in bring Egon back to the big screen. The VFX team also used a scan of his face to help age up their photo-real Egon, which was created using his look from the original film. 

When talking about bringing Egon back for the movie and what it meant for the story Reitman said, “The idea was about generational forgiveness and being able to say goodbye and to accomplish that, we were going to have to create an impossible moment on screen, a moment in which the four Ghostbusters stand next to each other one last time, a moment in which the original Ghostbusters get to say goodbye to Egon, who was my favorite Ghostbuster. And a moment in which a granddaughter gets to meet her grandfather for the first time and a woman gets to forgive and embrace her father."

He went on to say that, “This is a movie that doesn’t end with an explosion. It’s a movie that ends with a hug.” I loved that about this film!

Source: The Wrap