Egon's estranged, financially struggling daughter Callie inherits the farm and moves there with her children, Trevor and Phoebe, after being evicted from their Chicago apartment.

Trevor becomes infatuated with carhop Lucky Domingo, and the scientifically minded Phoebe enrolls in a summer science class taught by seismologist Gary Grooberson, whom Callie later dates.

Having repaired the Ghostbusters' Cadillac Ecto-1's engine (with Egon's help), Trevor uses the car to chase Muncher with the pair; they capture it but are arrested for the damage incurred, and their equipment is seized.

In turn, Ray tells her what became of the Ghostbusters after they defeated Vigo the Carpathian:[b] The team had disbanded following a downturn in business, and Egon then stole all their equipment and moved to Summerville to pursue an unspecified threat.

Egon's ghost leads Callie to a wall of detailed notes and pictures he kept of her life, showing he cared about her more than she thought, just before she becomes possessed by Zuul, Gatekeeper of Gozer.

Exploring further, they discover the long-dead Shandor beginning to revive in his casket as automated proton cannons, installed by Egon, hinder Gozer's attempts to cross over.

Ray and the other surviving original Ghostbusters, Peter Venkman and Winston Zeddemore, arrive to help, and Gozer, having arranged Egon's death, seeks to complete her revenge against the quartet for vanquishing her.

The Ghostbusters assist by crossing their packs' proton streams while Trevor uses his to charge the traps' power source, allowing Callie to activate them and capture Gozer, Vinz, and Zuul.

[19][18] Ira Heiden (a friend of Jason Reitman's), Sarah Natochenny, and Shelby Young voiced the Mini-Pufts, tiny versions and replicated forms of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, but were not credited for their performances.

The Hellbent script's main characters are a new, younger group of Ghostbusters; Ray, Egon, and Winston struggle to keep the business going after Peter's relationship with Dana becomes serious.

[33] That October, Aykroyd commented on the screenplay written by Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, stating that he was particularly impressed with the writing of Murray's character and the implementation of the new team with the original while he and Ramis worked on a second draft of the script.

[34] By August 2011, Aykroyd stated that filming was scheduled to begin later that year with a story focused on passing the Ghostbusters mantle to the younger actors.

[56] According to Dan Aykroyd: "Jason Reitman wrote a beautiful, heartfelt script that takes the real DNA from the first two movies and transfers that directly to the third, the next generation.

[18] With a script centered around family, Reitman felt it was appropriate to change the backdrop from New York City to the American West to give the film a new identity and a different color palette.

[56][59] The castings of Mckenna Grace as the young female protagonist, Finn Wolfhard as her brother, and Carrie Coon as their single mother were revealed in March 2019.

[62] Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, and Annie Potts were confirmed to be reprising their roles from the first two Ghostbusters films.

While the vehicles were vintage 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor Sentinels, modern performance engines and suspension upgrades were required to complete the stunt sequences which were filmed on real city streets.

For the scenes of Summerville Crossrip, Metheney created the "flaming phantasms" that chase a firetruck and pedestrians outside the Spinners Roller Hop and included the animated series The Real Ghostbusters' popular three-eye ghost Bug-Eye in homage to the show.

[16][18] Bob Gunton and Ivan Reitman (his right hand holding Mckenna Grace's to steady the barrel of a proton pack's neutron wand) physically performed the role.

Location filming occurred in surrounding communities such as Crossfield, Beiseker,[67] Drumheller and Fort Macleod (Muncher chase scene) during July and August.

Target received exclusive versions of some toys ahead of the projected June 2021 release date, but further rollouts were held back when the studio announced an additional delay until November.

[114] Paul Dergarabedian of Comscore said Ghostbusters: Afterlife opened to a "really solid number" that showed the "brand is really powerful even some 37 years after the original became a cultural phenomenon".

[115] Variety described the film's opening weekend box office as "stronger-than-expected" and "an important victory for the studio after it failed in 2016 to revive the decades-old series".

The site's critical consensus reads, "Ghostbusters: Afterlife crosses the streams between franchise revival and exercise in nostalgia – and this time around, the bustin' mostly feels good.

[120] Peter Debruge of Variety described it as an "unnecessary but enjoyable movie", and added: "The good news for Ghostbusters fans is that Afterlife does nothing to tarnish what has come before".

[122] Scott Mendelson of Forbes gave the film a score of 6 out of 10, describing it as a "charming and witty kid-centric coming-of-age fantasy", but criticized its reliance on "pandering" nostalgic fanservice.

[123] Kyle Smith of National Review described the film as "a winsome, endearing summer movie for November, a cunningly engineered generational bridge".

[124] The Guardian critic Charles Bramesco gave it one out of five, finding it lacks the humor of Ghostbusters (1984) and instead resembles an "Amblin knockoff" that is similar to the television series Stranger Things.

Bramensco concluded it is "a nostalgia object, drained of personality and fitted into a dully palatable mold, custom-made for a fandom that worships everything and respects nothing".

Mckenna Grace reprises her role,[140] as well as Logan Kim, Celeste O’Connor, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Annie Potts.