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Meet the new Slimer! Ghostbusters: Afterlife scares up first look at new spook Muncher
The next generation of Ghostbusters is on the way, and we're finally getting a peek at one of their new spectral adversaries. Hasbro's roll out of products for the upcoming sequel Ghostbusters: Afterlife at Toy Fair in New York offered a first glimpse at a very hungry phantasm.
The toys, which go on sale this summer, also put a name to this new ghost. Muncher — who can be seen ever so briefly towards the end of the film's trailer — appears to be Afterlife's answer to Slimer, the insatiably hungry potato-shaped spirit from the original Ghostbusters movie in 1984 and its 1989 sequel. According to the packaging on one of the toys, he's "a blue ghost with a taste for anything metallic," and "Muncher loves making mischief."
It's unclear whether he'll be friend, foe or frenemy for this new group of Ghostbusters, which includes Stranger Things' Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace, who get an assist from Paul Rudd. In the film, the events of the original Ghostbusters, including the Manhattan Crossrip of 1984 and the gigantic Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, are long forgotten. That is until the characters played by Wolfhard and Grace discover their grandfather had a connection to that paranormal history and soon all hell breaks loose in the rural town of Summerville, Oklahoma.
Among the new toys are a Muncher action figure, whose translucent belly reveals that recent meals have included a stop sign and a fire hydrant. There's also an ecto-plasm lab set, complete with a slime-spewing Muncher figure, and a cute plushie toy that makes a special noise when hugged.
Directed by Jason Reitman (son of original franchise director Ivan Reitman), Ghostbusters: Afterlife opens July 10.