Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Makes It Clear: For The Love Of Gozer, Retire The Original Cast
This article contains mild spoilers for "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire."
When I was a kid, three major unifying interests defied gender at my school: Pokémon, Power Rangers, and anything related to the Ghostbusters. The line in the sand is often drawn between pink and blue, but when it came to these three areas, it was generally accepted that everyone loved these worlds. We traded Pokémon cards on the playground and huddled around the kid with the GameBoy during recess, friend groups delegated which color Power Ranger each person was, and hangouts where Super Soakers doubled as "proton packs" were what scorching hot summers were made of. This is to say I love all things "Ghostbusters," so everything I'm about to say moving forward is rooted in a deep adoration for the franchise and all of the people involved who helped bring this zany supernatural comedy about a ragtag group of eccentric parapsychologists who start a ghost-catching business in New York City to the lionized status it enjoys today.
The time has come for our faves to hang up their jumpsuits and allow the new characters to fully take control of the series.
Having a conversation about retirement is one of the hardest things a person can do. It's an emotionally fraught pill to swallow, but a necessary conversation to have for the betterment of everyone. This isn't to say that our adored characters of Peter Venkmen, Ray Stantz, Winston Zeddemore, or Janine Melnitz can't pop up from time to time in smaller capacities, but both "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" and now "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire" haven't been able to escape the shadow of the original films because the shadows are still hanging around, front and center.
It's time to pass the neutron wand
When Jason Reitman's "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" was first announced, many thought it was the result of the extreme backlash to Paul Feig's "Ghostbusters: Answer the Call," a film that people were Very Normal about, and by "normal" I, of course, mean "brought the fury of a prehistoric b***h who needs to be shown how we do things downtown." However, viewing "Afterlife" as nothing more than a perceived course-correction of the "Ghostbusters with Girls" movie does a disservice to Reitman, whose father Ivan not only created the franchise but served as a producer before his passing in 2022. Still, after the toxic wave of unrepentant pissbabies crying out about how a movie starring women apparently went back in time and murdered their childhood or something, it was difficult not to see the excessive Easter eggs, references, and cameos in "Afterlife" as a means to appease the frothing beasts of fandom.
Where "Afterlife" was strongest was the addition of the expanded Spengler family (and Gary Grooberson) because their newfound amazement at the possibilities of supernatural science injected the wonderment of Ghostbusting back into the series. Namely, with the addition of Phoebe Spengler (Mckenna Grace), the granddaughter of deceased OG Ghostbuster Egon Spengler (the late, great Harold Ramis), who proves the science whiz apple doesn't fall far from the curly hair and round glasses tree. The fan service and gigantic dip back into the nostalgic well in "Afterlife" wouldn't feel as overwhelming if it meant moving forward that the series would be in the extremely capable hands of the Spenglers and this was the farewell to our bustin' buddies, but that's not what happened. "Frozen Empire," at times feels like three different "Ghostbusters" movies fighting for the spotlight, and every time it feels like they're going to do something fresh or unique, the focus shifts back onto the same characters we've been following for decades. How is this story going to move forward if one foot is permanently cemented in 1984?
Well, the easiest way to fix things is to use the guidance of storytelling in professional wrestling. I'm serious. Stay with me here.
Dan Aykroyd needs to pull a John Cena
For the most part, films are contained stories that have an ending. There are, of course, franchise exceptions, but until very recently, the idea of a film's story continuing long after the credits have rolled was a bit of an anomaly. Sure, James Bond and Godzilla have been making movies for decades, but the characters and even actors playing them are constantly evolving. It's only been in the last 10 or so years that bringing back actors to play characters they made famous decades prior has become commonplace. And until now, the only real art form to embrace this practice is professional wrestling. Wrestling is and has always been a business of legacy storytelling because stories in wrestling never truly end. Even so, the quickest way to move things forward to prevent being stuck in the past is when legacy acts put over new talent ... and no one does it better than John Cena.
John Cena is a wrestler so famous that even before his pivot to Hollywood, non-wrestling fans knew his name and face. Big Match John loves to show up for a huge event, sometimes even at WrestleMania, and go face-to-face with a new talent to elevate their status in the eyes of fans, often losing so the new guy looks strong and impressive. This allows the nostalgic fun of seeing your favorites again and again, but without sacrificing progress. The alternative is carting out legacy talents and allowing them to steal the thunder of the new class, which, after a while, makes audiences grow resentful of the people they once loved. This is a series about ghosts told and retold by generations, which means it's also a series about death, legacies, and what happens after. "Frozen Empire" posits Dan Aykroyd's Ray Stantz as the OG Ghostbuster most capable of ushering in the new generation — so the series needs to let him pull a John Cena and put over the new talent.
A direction for the fresh talent
No disrespect to Paul Rudd's Gary, Carrie Coon's Callie, or Finn Wolfhard's Trevor, but the future of the "Ghostbusters" franchise lies with Mckenna Grace's Phoebe Spengler. She was the heart of "Afterlife," she's the heart of "Frozen Empire," and as the youngest member of the Ghostbusters, she has the most room for character growth and development. In the latest outing, Phoebe is at the center of one of the most interesting things a "Ghostbusters" film has done in years — befriending a ghost. A majority of the ghosts in the universe of the films are grotesque, goopy creatures or decaying nightmare beings that look like a possessed Spirit Halloween decoration, but there are a handful of exceptions like the Jogger Ghost in "Ghostbusters II" and now, Melody (Emily Alyn Lind). Phoebe is feeling scorned after being told she can't join the family ghostbusting as an unpaid minor in a dangerous field and finds solace with this spectral sweetheart lingering around Central Park. While "Frozen Empire" doesn't outright say it, Phoebe is so very clearly romantically interested in Melody, and these feelings for a ghost inspire a bit of a crisis.
Melody tells Phoebe about how hard it has been to be a ghost while the rest of her family is on the other side, and we can see Phoebe starting to question the ethics of catching and trapping ghosts without any chance of allowing them to pass over. The overflowing Containment Unit has already inspired Winston Zeddemore to create an expanded storage facility in New Jersey, but it's hard not to imagine a possible "Hazbin Hotel" approach to helping ghosts pass over rather than locking them up for afterlife sentences. Phoebe is noticeably changed by her new connection with this ghost, and it would have been fascinating to spend more time with her as she navigates these new ethical conundra. Alas, this story wasn't given effective time to breathe to be as impactful as it could have been.
Phoebe Spengler is the future of the Ghostbusters
Despite the lack of room for Phoebe's coming-of-age "Casper" romance, she remains the heart of the new era of "Ghostbusters" and the unquestionable successor of the original team. When we first meet her, she's an insecure outcast who finds solace in science, filled with curiosity and on a quest for answers to the unanswerable. It wasn't until she learned the truth about her grandfather and the fact he helped save the world that she was able to recognize the greatness in him is also in her. It provides her with the inner strength she needs to stand up for herself in the face of adversity. Plenty of people got emotional during "Afterlife" at the sight of Egon, but for me, it was seeing Egon affirm his granddaughter as the new brains of the Ghostbusters. She's a scientist, after all.
Phoebe is the one who reunited the original Ghostbusters. Phoebe is the one who saved the day. She is the Egon of this new era in every conceivable way, making her the glue that holds it all together. In "Frozen Empire," she's hitting those tumultuous teen years, where we often start to question everything about life and ourselves. She's already gotten a bit of a headstart with the whole "intimately aware of the afterlife" thing, but she still commands every single scene she's in. Not to mention, without her fast thinking and empathy for Melody, the entire world would be in a new Ice Age.
Carrying this torch is a heavy burden and a lot of pressure for a 15-year-old girl, but fortunately for the world of "Ghostbusters," she's played by Mckenna Grace, one of the best young actors working today, who is more than capable of commanding an audience with the same vigor as Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Harold Ramis ... and she's not even old enough to vote.
Phoebe Spengler: Swiss Army Ghostbuster
I'll admit that I've struggled to express my love of the "Ghostbusters" after the toxicity of the "Ghostbusters: Answer the Call" backlash. Plenty of grown men cried about how a movie "ruined" their childhoods, but those same men certainly did their best to poison mine as a female fan of the franchise. For the last eight years, I've felt like my love of the property required an asterisk, and that's no way to live. Phoebe Spengler makes me excited about the future of the series, and any true fan of the franchise should feel similarly. There's some serious magic bubbling underneath this new era of "Ghostbusters," and it's high time a film gives the new crew the space to let it boil over.
Part of the allure of the original Ghostbusters team is that they sort of fulfilled the same archetypal roles of every great supergroup, whether it be boybands, the titular "Goonies," or even Captain Planet's Planeteers. Peter Venkmen was the wise-cracking mouth, Ray Stantz was the emotional heart, Winston Zeddemore was the hands, and Egon Spengler was the brains. It'd be easy to see Phoebe as just the new brains, but as she's come into herself as a teenager, "Frozen Empire" shows that she embodies all of the original Ghostbusters. She's mouthing off to Mayor Walter "dickless" Peck, she's melting down bronze to enforce weapons (and staying down-to-earth), she's falling in love with ghosts, she's coming up with plots to save the world, and she's doing it all without ever losing her awe or curiosity.
She's by no means able to run the entire show on her own — and the entire Spengler family would fall apart without one another — but Phoebe is the Ghostbusters.
"Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire" Is now playing in theaters.