Sony has answered the call from Ghostbusters fans asking the studio to confirm a sequel to 2021's Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

The studio officially announced a new chapter in the paranormal comedy franchise during its presentation at CinemaCon 2022, the annual trade show where studios showcase their upcoming film slate to movie theater owners. No additional details, including whether the cast and crew from Afterlife would be returning for the sequel, were revealed.

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Set 32 years after the events of 1989's Ghostbusters II, Afterlife follows Cassie, a single mother who arrives in a small Oklahoma town with her two children, Trevor and Phoebe, after inheriting a farm from her estranged father Egon Spengler, a member of the original Ghostbusters. The film made over $200 million at the worldwide box office and earned mostly positive reviews from critics and audiences.

While Sony was tight-lipped on sequel details, Ghostbusters: Afterlife director Jason Reitman, the son of original Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman, revealed in November 2021 that he would be open to bringing back Ghostbusters II villain Vigo the Carpathian. "There is a lot of time and opportunity for Vigo the Carpathian to make his return," Reitman said. "Look, are you saying that's the only painting of Vigo the Carpathian? Maybe, he's riding a horse in another one, maybe, impaling someone in another one." Portrayed by the late Wilhelm von Homburg and voiced by the late Max von Sydow, Vigo the Carpathian was a 16th Century medieval tyrant and sorcerer whose self-portrait at the Manhattan Museum of Art comes to life and possesses the museum's curator, played by Peter MacNicol.

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Some fans suspected Afterlife had ignored the events of Ghostbusters II after they noticed the Ecto-1 in the threequel had the original Ghostbusters logo on the vehicle's body instead of the 1989 logo featuring the ghost holding up two fingers. However, Reitman confirmed in November 2021 that Ghostbusters II's events were still part of the universe's timeline.

"We meet Ray working at Ray's Occult [which was introduced in Ghostbusters II]," Reitman said at the time. "The toaster from Ghostbusters II is in the kitchen in the farmhouse. There's actually lots of lost Ghostbusters II details, but nobody knows Ghostbusters II outside of Vigo the Carpathian and the Ghostbusters II logo. So there's this assumption that it is not canon, but it is definitely canon."

Ghostbusters: Afterlife starred Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Paul Rudd, Logan Kim and Celeste O'Connor. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, and Sigourney Weaver made cameo appearances in the film, reprising their roles from the first two films.

Source: CinemaCon, via Variety