Netflix scares up new 'Ghostbusters' animated series from Jason Reitman & 'Afterlife' team

Following the box office and critical success of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Sony Pictures and Netflix are calling on director Jason Reitman and his co-screenwriter, Gil Kenan (Monster House), for a brand-new animated series based on the iconic media franchise. Both Reitman and Kenan will serve as executive producers on the show, whose official announcement kicked off the third day of Netflix's second annual Geeked Week celebration.

Currently without a title, the Netflix series will be the second animated endeavor to come out of the Ghostbusters universe after ABC's The Real Ghostbusters, which ran for nearly 150 episodes across seven seasons between 1986 and 1991.

No other details were revealed at this time, though the news does come a little over a month after Sony confirmed it was already working on a big screen follow-up to Afterlife. "We wanted to make a movie that opened the universe to all kinds of stories," Reitman said at New York Comic Con last October. "I want to see Ghostbusters movies from all of my favorite director and we hope that this movie sets the table for that."

Appearing at a special event in honor of Ghostbusters Day, Reitman and Kenan confirmed that they are currently working on the script for the sequel (whose code name is Firehouse), which will be set in Manhattan and serve as "the next chapter in the Spengler family story." It seems that Egon's daughter, Callie (Carrie Coon) and two grandkids — Phoebe (McKenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) — are coming back to protect the mortal realm from another supernatural threat, with financial backing from Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson), who repurchased the team's old headquarters in the post-credits scene of Afterlife.

“Between gaming, comics, television, and movies, we are going to tell the untold history of Ghostbusters while reaching into the future with characters you haven’t met from places you haven’t gone," Kenan teased.

(from left) Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan Photo: Netflix

Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which currently holds a 63 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, brought in almost $200 million at the worldwide box office against a rather modest production budget of $75 million. The film's financial success prompted Sony to ink an overall creative deal with Reitman and Kenan. Jason's father, director Ivan Reitman (who kicked off the property all the way back in 1984 and helmed the 1989 sequel) sadly passed away earlier this year at the age of 75. One of his final screen credits was as a hands-on executive producer for Afterlife. 

"I think he was very brave to take the whole thing on. I had it much easier than Jason," the late filmmaker remarked at NYCC. "Jason had to really be the captain of this very large enterprise and find some new fresh way of doing the story. The fact that I was there [I] had a word to say every once in a while. We tried not to fight and we fought a little bit ... But we were passionate and just tried to find a way to control the passion, so that the best things happened."

While it is home to a rather large catalogue of animated and family-friendly titles (such as The Cuphead Show!, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, and Sonic Prime), Netflix recently made the decision to scale back its animation spending in the wake of a significant decrease in subscribers.

If you're looking for more horror in the meantime, check out the extensive catalog of horror flicks on Peacock. Also be on the looking for Firestarter, which hits the service and theaters on May 13.