After years of bustin’ feeling not-so-good to outright bad, Netflix is giving the cartoon Ghostbusters another shot. Per Variety, Netflix is bringing back the animated version of the proton pack-powered ghoul hunting team based on the recent string of movies. Though it will likely be populated by Podcast, Muncher, and other popular characters from Afterlife and Frozen Empire, this new Ghostbusters series starts at an advantage. Netflix has hired Mystery Science Theater veteran and The Flophouse co-host Elliott Kalan to run the thing and keep the EPA off the streamer’s back.
The new Ghostbusters show comes to Netflix courtesy of Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan, who wrote Afterlife and Frozen Empire together. Reitman directed the 2022 reboot, and Kenan helmed its sequel. Previous reports indicate the show will be animated using CGI, but we’re hoping the success of X-Men ’97 influences a different route, one where Egon has blond hair.
Ghostbusters has a long tradition in animation, often in ways that confuse the all-important Ghostbusters legendarium, but it’s also the place where Onionhead becomes Slimer. The best-remembered animated spin-off is 1986’s The Real Ghostbusters. Released with the “Real” qualifier thanks to Filmmation’s Ghostbusters, which hoped to fool kids into watching the wrong show, Real Ghostbusters ran for five years and inspired a merchandising bonanza. Like the Ninja Turtles, much of Ghostbusters nostalgia comes from the cartoon’s action figure line. There was also 1997’s less essential Extreme Ghostbusters, but with a name like “Extreme,” we can tell that their hearts and marketing were in the right place.
With Kalan as showrunner, one hopes for a return to the good and funny Ghostbusters of our youth—or, more helpfully, a Ghostbusters primarily for kids and not adults who miss their toys. Kalan is an Emmy-winning writer who led The Daily Show during much of Jon Stewart’s run. He left when Stewart did and joined the inaugural crew of the rebooted Satellite of Love on the revived Mystery Science Theater 3000. Through it all, he’s been a hilarious and talkative member of The Flophouse, one of the original great movie podcasts.
To be clear, The Flophouse reviewed Ghostbusters: Afterlife in March 2022, and in his Final Judgment, Kalan called the movie “kind of mediocre.” Let’s hope he can bump the cartoon up to a “pretty good.”