Bear with me for a second. This one takes a little explaining.
So, earlier today, I was minding my own business when an interesting piece of information fell into my lap: according to the reliable source I spoke with, the main characters in the new Ghostbusters were gonna be kids - aged 12 or 13, based on the names being kicked around for the roles. Like so many other loose pieces of newsy-but-unconfirmable information that come our way, I filed this away in my brain and went back to doing whatever it is I'd been doing. Probably studying the Bible, as is my wont.
Cut to: just a few minutes ago. We Got This Covered runs a story revealing plot specifics and character details from Jason Reitman's Ghostbusters. They claim to have spoken with a single trusted source, which in most cases would not be enough to convince me to regurgitate their scoop here on the site (this may be a little inside baseball, but I was brought up to consider two independent sources the gold standard when it comes to reporting on unconfirmed news).
But here's the thing: half of what We Got This Covered says is corroborated by the person I spoke with earlier today - that the main characters of the film would be young kids. This would seem to lend credence to the rest of what WGTC revealed today. It's all unconfirmed, of course, but in this case I'm convinced just enough to share with the rest of the class. So here we go.
According to WGTC's report, the 2020 Ghostbusters will revolve around two kids living in a small town - a 12 year old girl who sounds a lot like Egon (alongside a talent for science, she also has difficulty “interpreting and expressing emotions and speaks with a flat delivery that make her observations humorous"), and an excitable young boy who exhibits "unbridled excitement for the unknown" (sounds kinda like Ray, no?).
UPDATE: THR's Borys Kit claims the main characters will be "four teens", two girls and two boys. He doesn't specify ages, and it's unclear if the kids mentioned in WGTC's report are two of those kids. In any event, sounds like a younger generation's being ushered in.
The main characters will be 4 teens: 2 boys, 2 girls, per sources. https://t.co/jwcSlpz3CY
— Borys Kit (@Borys_Kit) January 16, 2019
WGTC goes on to say:
"...the film will focus on a family who moves back home to a small town. While there, they begin to “learn more about who they are and the secrets of the town itself.”
You'll note there's no mention of the original Ghostbusters in any of this. But in between those character descriptions and the fact that we've been explicitly told that Reitman's Ghostbusters will serve as a sequel to the two Ghostbusters films his father made, it seems likely that at least a few of them will appear (real talk: there's no way Aykroyd and Hudson are passing on this; the real question mark seems to be Bill Murray). Will these kids be the children of former Ghostbusters? Completely unrelated? What kind of secrets is that small town harboring, and how's it connected to the fact that Ecto-1's now sitting in a barn somewhere?
More importantly, though: assuming the above is accurate, how do you feel about a Ghostbusters film centered around kids, however many there may be? Nothing's been officially confirmed as of yet, so let's treat this as a thought experiment: were this to be the case, would you be more or less interested in Jason Reitman's Ghostbusters than you were 24 hours ago?
Sound off in the comments below, and stay tuned for further Ghostbusters updates as they roll in.