[The following contains spoilers for Ghostbusters: Afterlife]
Ghostbusters: Afterlife seems like it’s going to end up being a bit divisive, at least partially depending on your stomach for the “we’re doing it for the fans!” thing that every big franchise revival has to try these days, but at least one viewer was really impressed by the film and the way it honored the Ghostbusters legacy.
That viewer is Violet Ramis Stiel, the oldest daughter of late Ghostbusters star Harold Ramis, who recently talked to The Hollywood Reporter about Jason Reitman’s film and what it has to say about remembering the people we’ve lost. THR doesn’t spoil it, but we will (that’s your final warning): Egon Spengler, the character played Ramis in the first two Ghostbusters, appears in Afterlife as a ghost—having died in his attempt to prevent some bad ghost stuff from happening.
Stiel told THR that Reitman was smart to focus on “capturing the Egon character” and “not necessarily” Ramis himself, which is either a reference to the fact that this Egon doesn’t speak or that they made a point to make the character look specifically like “nice and trim” Egon. Stiel also highlighted that Reitman made the movie “about loss and grief” with “surreal” parallels to real life even though it’s still a comedy. “Ultimately,” she says, Ghostbusters: Afterlife is about how “the people we love are always with us. They don’t go away.”
Reitman got approval from all of Ramis’ children before he put his plan for Egon in motion, with Stiel initially thinking it was a “weird” idea, but she ultimately had at least some say in the development of the CG character, saying that it was “so generous” of the director to let her feel like she was part of the movie.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife is in theaters now.
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