Ghostbusters Star Pitches Winston Spin-Off Series Following Frozen Empire’s Success

The Ghostbusters franchise has managed to please many fans with its belated sequels, Afterlife and Frozen Empire, but one star of the spooky comedy saga would love to see it transition to television in the future. The Ghostbusters are already heading to Netflix with a brand new animated series, but OG star Ernie Hudson wants to add a live-action series centering on his character of Winston Zeddemore.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

3.5/5

Release Date

March 22, 2024

Cast

Mckenna Grace , Carrie Coon , Annie Potts , Paul Rudd , Emily Alyn Lind , Bill Murray , Finn Wolfhard , Ernie Hudson , Dan Aykroyd , Patton Oswalt , William Atherton , Kumail Nanjiani

Studio

BRON Studios, Columbia Pictures, Ghostcorps

Having appeared as Winston in all four movies, Hudson’s role in the latest movie has seen him become a cornerstone of the Ghostbusters franchise. While the actor always felt a little hard-done-by when joining the 1984 movie, his place in Ghostbusters lore has never been in doubt for long-term fans. Following the success of this year’s fourth movie, Hudson recently revealed to ComicBook.com that he has an idea where he would like to take things next. He explained:

“It kind of happens in Frozen Empire, he has his research center. He’s trying to figure out, what’s this all about? Who are these ghosts? Do we bust them all the same? Are all the ghosts deserve to be trapped/ Are we here to help them transition? How do they impact our lives? So suddenly you start to see a whole section of the city start to get violent, maybe they’re being influenced. My grandmother, who believed in ghosts, she felt that ghosts can’t move furniture, but they can move your emotions around, and when you start getting these thoughts about stuff, that’s coming from someplace, and maybe that’s the influence. And if you can eliminate those bad ghosts, then maybe you break that cycle. We’re treating people from a physical standpoint, maybe there’s something else going on supernatural that’s influencing. So it’s not just what happens in the ghost world, but how the ghost world is throwing off [the physical world]. We did a little bit of it in the second movie, with the slime, where suddenly the whole town was out of control.

Ghosts definitely affect our thoughts, our feelings, our suspicions. The Bible talks about ghost spirits are like messengers: they bring these ideas to us, and they feed us, and suddenly you become possessed with this idea of your girlfriend cheating or something. Where’s that coming from? That’s not something that you’re necessarily doing, but you’re allowing in. So I would love to see Winston trap this series of ghosts that people can’t see, but we have the equipment, we know they’re there, and suddenly a town is sort of freed up. Suddenly the mass murderer decides to no longer have interest in it.”

Was Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Successful Enough?

While Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire encountered mixed reviews from critics, the film hit the spot for many fans for a very simple reason – it was a Ghostbusters movie, made by some of the biggest Ghostbusters fans in Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan. Described by many as a live-action version of The Real Ghostbusters animated series, the film delivered exactly what those who have grown up with the franchise wanted.

The movie’s box office result was nothing more than modest, but in recent years there have been many more factors to count in other than just box office profits, and with the movie now available on VOD services, it is finding its way to a whole new audience that did not see it in cinemas. This means that there could definitely be potential for further movies, but also for some kind of television expansion, even if it did not end up being the idea pitched by Hudson.

4:27

Related

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Star Ernie Hudson on Why He Still Loves the Franchise After 40 Years

Ghostbusters star Ernie Hudson talks about when he realized the first movie was a hit, the legacy of the series, and why it endures today.