Ghostbusters: Afterlife trailer reveals a surprisingly classy 2020 sequel

The mysterious new Ghostbusters movie from director Jason Reitman has debuted its first trailer, and the tone of what's shown of the film is surprisingly classy. 

The film appears to be about the family of the late Egon (Harold Ramis) discovering his legacy as a Ghostbuster, and the small town America vibe of it might remind you of something like Stranger Things or the '80s Spielberg films that inspired it.

No original cast members make an appearance in this trailer, with more prominence instead given to new cast members Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard and Paul Rudd. In the events of this film, ghosts haven't been spotted for 30 years, since around the events of the original two films, which leaves the canonical status of the 2016 Ghostbusters movie in question. 

You'd perhaps expect a broad comedy from a new Ghostbusters movie, but this looks a little more like an expensive sci-fi drama, with pretty shots of the Ecto-1 sweeping through a field of wheat. It's what you might expect from the director of Up in the Air and Juno (Jason Reitman is the son of Ivan Reitman, Ghostbusters' original director) - but still, it's a nice surprise to get a feel for that tone in this trailer. 

What about the original cast?

Actors from the original Ghostbusters movies are expected to appear, with Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, Sigourney Weaver and Dan Aykroyd reportedly being  part of the cast, too. This trailer has a bit of restraint in not dropping every secret of the film at once, then, which is otherwise what we've come to expect from modern blockbuster marketing.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife will be released on July 10, 2020. 

Samuel Roberts

Samuel is a PR Manager at game developer Frontier. Formerly TechRadar's Senior Entertainment Editor, he's an expert in Marvel, Star Wars, Netflix shows and general streaming stuff. Before his stint at TechRadar, he spent six years at PC Gamer. Samuel is also the co-host of the popular Back Page podcast, in which he details the trials and tribulations of being a games magazine editor – and attempts to justify his impulsive eBay games buying binges.