Summary
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empiremanaged to create a major cast problem that will hurt the franchise’s future, as a sequel won’t be able to ignore it.Ghostbusters: Afterlifeset up a promising future for theGhostbustersfranchise, as it introduced an all-new generation of characters while still paying tribute to the original cast and storyline. However,Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’s reception by fans and criticswas a major step down, with its cast being one of the biggest points of criticism. Sadly,Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’s sequel will struggle to fix this, as it’ll be hard to put that cat back in the bag.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’s box officewas a bit of a disappointment, and this combined with poor critical reception had led to aGhostbusters: Frozen Empiresequel not being confirmed yet. However, the enormity of theGhostbustersfranchise along with the sequel story setups thatGhostbusters: Frozen Empirecreated means thatit wouldn’t be surprising for another sequel to happen eventually. While there are plenty of exciting things about a potential conclusion to theGhostbusters: Afterlifetrilogy, the third film will have to overcome this majorGhostbustershurdle, something made near impossible by the previous film.
6 Problems With Ghostbusters' Future After Frozen Empire’s $200M Disappointment
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’s box office earnings could spell disaster for the future of the franchise as studios reconsider its value.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’s Cast Was Overstuffed (& A Sequel Is Stuck With It)
There Are Way Too Many Characters
One of the biggest points of criticism of theGhostbusters: Afterlifesequel was that the cast ofGhostbusters: Frozen Empirewas overstuffed, with the film trying to develop way too many characters and storylines in its limited runtime.Ghostbusters: Frozen Empirenot only brings back almost every new character introduced inGhostbusters: Afterlife, but it also gave the originalGhostbusterscast much bigger roles while simultaneously introducing all-new characters like Emily Alyn Lind’s Melody, Kumail Nanjiani’s Nadeem, Patton Oswalt’s Dr. Wartzski, and thenewGhostbusters: Frozen Empireghost villain Garraka.
The runtime ofGhostbusters: Frozen Empirewas even shorter than its predecessor, making it almost impossible to fully flesh out each of these characters. The absolutely massive cast ofGhostbusters: Frozen Empireled to no one getting the time to shine and everybody feeling sidelined, with the massive ghost-busting team simply feeling way too big for this story.Ghostbusters: Frozen Empirehad over a dozen main characters, and there simply wasn’t enough to do in order to make the film work.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empirehas a runtime of 1 hour and 55 minutes.
Sadly,Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’s castproblem will most likely get repeated in a sequel, as the nextGhostbustersfilm is stuck with this massive cast. It is unlikely that aGhostbustersmovie would kill off characters in between movies, and the film doesn’t set up a way for any of these characters to be removed from the sequel. Thus, the vast majority of this massive cast will probably return in the follow-up toGhostbusters: Frozen Empire, meaning that the cast will again be left overstuffed and underdeveloped.
Who Are The Firemasters? Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’s New Team, History & Powers Explained
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire brings the original crew back together, but it also introduces an ancient and powerful ghost-busting organization.
Frozen Empire’s Cast Problem Means A Sequel Can’t Introduce Any New Characters
There’s No Room For Them
Despite already having a large cast afterGhostbusters: Afterlife,Ghostbusters: Frozen Empiredoubled down on the cast problem by introducing new characters. The number of main cast members is now at a breaking point, meaning that the nextGhostbustersmovie simply can’t introduce any new characters.
Adding in morenew characters toGhostbusters: Afterlife 3would only exacerbateGhostbusters: Frozen Empire’s problem, but it will be hard to tell an all-new story with the same oldGhostbusterscharacters.Ghostbusters: Frozen Empirehas backed the franchise into a corner, and it will be incredibly difficult to move forward without either making this problem worse or ridding itself of some characters.
Frozen Empire’s Rotten Tomatoes & Box Office Are A Harsh Reality Check For The Ghostbusters Franchise
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is the 5th installment in the Ghostbusters franchise, and its box office hints at some harsh truths about the film series.
Frozen Empire’s Large Cast Makes It Even Harder To Bring Back Missing Legacy Characters
New Returning Characters Can’t Be Done Justice
One of the saddest parts of thisGhostbusters: Frozen Empirecast problem is that it will make it even harder for a potential sequel to bring back missing legacy characters. Plenty of legacy characters appear inGhostbusters: Frozen Empire, with the original Ghostbusters team returning fromGhostbusters: AfterlifewhileGhostbusters: Frozen Empirealso saw the return of Walter Peckand Slimer.
However, Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis' characters are still missing from the reboot series, with many fans wanting to see them return in a sequel. Although Weaver’s Dana Barrett did appear inGhostbusters: Afterlife’s mid-credits scene, it’ll be impossible to give either of these characters significantly bigger roles in a sequel, as aGhostbusters: Frozen Empiresequel just doesn’t have the room for them.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
Cast
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire continues the story of a new generation of ghost hunters composed of Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Podcast (Logan Kim), who received help from the original team in the previous movie. Paul Rudd returns as Gary Grooberson and franchise co-creator Ivan Reitman returns to write and produce.
