Every child of the 80s remembers the huge deal that was The Real Ghostbusters, an animated series based on the 1984 movie, which brought a whole wave of iconic spooks and naturally a wave of toys based on them. When the final Ghostbusters: Afterlife trailer debuted, eagle-eyed viewers managed to spot a fleeting glance of one such spectre making its live-action debut in the movie in form of the “Bug-Eye” ghost, an action figure that has a massive eyeball in the centre of its forehead that pops out when the body is squeezed.
When The Real Ghostbusters debuted, there were a number of changes made to the appearance of the Ghostbusters, as they were not able to agree a deal to use the likeness of Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson, and with the exception of a few appearances by the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and Slimer, pretty much every spook, spectre and ghost seen in the cartoon was a new design not seen in the movies. Kenner also went further than the series to create dozens of action figures, and this will mark the first time that something from the animated series has crossed over into the Ghostbusters universe.
Seen around the 37 second mark in the trailer, Bug-Eye first appears as just an eyeball before the rest of his body comes bursting into shot to reclaim the floating body part. It is a very welcome cameo appearance, which comes in addition to so much more delivered in this final trailer. Although it could be purely coincidental, part of a recent re-release of 80s Kenner toys from the franchise, Bug-Eye was one of two classic figures to be made available again, the other being a toilet ghost, as well as the original Ecto-1 getting a brand new classic release. Considering there were only two ghosts released, does this mean that we are also going to see a possessed toilet in Ghostbusters: Afterlife? Well, Dana Barrett’s bathtub came to life in Ghostbusters II, so we cannot possibly rule it out.
We have already seen many comments from early screenings of the film that it provides great fan service, and it is little added extras such as this that will really get fans of the original movie and the animated show on board Ghostbusters: Afterlife when it is released later this month. While Sony have ensured that we are not given sight of any of the three original Ghostbusters, other than soundbites and a very quick shot of suited up torsos, there is still plenty to take from the final trailer, including a new temple of Gozer, a new look at Carrie Coon’s Cassie wearing “that” Gatekeeper dress, two Terror Dogs, and the voice of Peter Venkman uttering the words “Hey, have you missed us?” while a very familiar tune kicks in behind it, is enough to send a shiver of anticipation running down the spine of everyone for whom Ghostbusters was childhood. It’s almost time to light ’em up when Ghostbusters: Afterlife busts into theaters on November 17th.