Dan Aykroyd reveals that he has an idea for the original cast to return in ‘Ghostbusters 4’, 5, and 6. The first ‘Ghostbusters’ was released in 1984, written by Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, and directed by Ivan Reitman. Banking off of the success of the original, Ghostbusters II was released in 1989. 'Ghostbusters III’ was stuck in development hell for decades before Sony decided to reboot the franchise with an all-female cast in 2016 from director Paul Feig.
2016's Ghostbusters received mixed to negative reviews, so Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones never got to return to their roles. Instead, Ghostbusters was again rebooted with Ivan Reitman's son Jason making a true sequel to Ghostbusters II. While focusing on a new generation of kids including Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), Podcast (Logan Kim), and Lucky (Celeste O'Connor), all three of the surviving original Ghostbusters cast members returned for a cameo at the end of the movie. As Phoebe is trying to defeat Gozer, Venkman, Ray, and Winston show up to help the young crew. Crossing their streams doesn't go according to plan, which is when Spengler's ghost shows up to defeat Gozer with his granddaughter.
Should a sequel happen, Aykroyd has an idea for how he and his co-stars could return. In an interview with USA Today, Aykroyd says he wants his and Murray's characters to die in Ghostbusters 4. The actor then backtracks a bit to suggest Ghostbusters 4, 5, and 6 could involve the original cast until they actually die in real life.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife's post-credits scene shows Winston returning to New York and ECTO-1 pulling into the Ghostbusters' firehouse before a red light starts flashing on a containment unit. While this certainly seems to be teasing Winston's future in leading the new ‘Ghostbusters’ team, a sequel has yet to be officially green-lit. Variety
