'Ghostbusters': Paul Feig Reveals Villain Details, Talks Possible Multiverse

The Ghostbusters marketing campaign has offered plenty of footage of our new heroes bonding and bickering and dealing with paranormal phenomena. What we haven't seen much of is the villain — the evil force behind the scenes who's pulling all the strings and unleashing all these horrors. But today, we have comments from director Paul Feig and screenwriter Katie Dippold that shed some light on this shadowy figure.

Meanwhile, if you're still holding out hope that the new heroes will someday meet the old heroes, well, Feig says he'd like to see that too. While the upcoming Ghostbusters is a hard reboot — meaning it has no narrative connection to the original films — the filmmaker teased the possibility of a "multiverse" that could lead to a crossover someday. 

As previously reported, the baddie in Ghostbusters will be Rowan, played by Neil Casey. Feig offered some more details on the character in a chat with Empire:

Rowan is the ultimate loner. A regular New Yorker whose goal is to bring some things back to this world. He wants to trap ghosts, but for a different purpose...

And here's what Dippold told CinemaBlend during their visit to the set:

So our villain, so to speak, is a very smart genius type himself... I don't want to give anything away... I guess I'll say they kind of meet, they're very smart people, they're scientists and there is someone who is equivalent to them, but he, whereas they want to do good, he does not.

That offers a slightly better idea of who Rowan is, without revealing too much about the plot of the movie. He's a lone genius type with bad intentions. Unless, of course, Dippold's comments are about a different villain. We know for sure Rowan is a bad guy, but for all we know there's more than one antagonist floating around. After all, the original film featured Zuul and Gozer the Gozerian and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.

Oh, and speaking of the original Ghostbusters, Feig admitted to CinemaBlend that the idea of a multiverse has been floated behind the scenes:

I think they're trying to figure out how to connect the old one with this. I'd like, if it's a multiverse, something to base off this universe that we're going right now.

Feig has spoken at length about why he wanted to make his new Ghostbusters a reboot instead of a sequel, much to the disappointment of some fans. But it sounds like he's at least open to the idea of crossing the streams in the future, maybe after the new Ghostbusters have had a little room to establish themselves first. If it turns out the old Ghostbusters and the new Ghostbusters take place in separate realities, that leaves the door open for some paranormal hijinks to bring the two together.

But that's a big if. For now, what we can look forward to is a Ghostbusters movie featuring a hilarious new cast and several members of the old cast in cameo roles as completely different characters. Ghostbusters hits theaters July 15.