After a multi-year gestation, Ghostbusters fans finally have their first real look at Ghostbusters: Night Shift, the new animated series headed to Netflix in 2027. Following the title reveal on Ghostbusters Day earlier this month, Netflix, Jason Reitman, and Gil Kenan unveiled a more substantial preview at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in southeastern France, screening first footage, concept art, character designs, and the official logline. The series is officially in-canon, filling the gap between Ghostbusters II (1989) and Ghostbusters: Afterlife. It is set in 1994 New York, five years after the crew took the Statue of Liberty for a walk, with the city on the cusp of gentrification and the story unfolding during Walter Peck’s run as mayor. With the original trio of Venkman, Stantz, and Spengler in retirement, a new wave of supernatural threats arrives, leaving a group of young, untrained New Yorkers to take up the mission.
According to Reitman, the setting fills “an entire decade’s worth of ghostbusting that has never been told,” taking viewers back to the 1990s.
The new team consists of Belladonna the goth, Mitzi the punk, Zoe the kid (and Mitzi’s younger sister), Mike the scientist, and Travis the con man, who is voiced by Jack Quaid. The lineup also includes the Terror Puppy, a miniaturized version of the original Terror Dogs. The team operates out of a run-down version of the Tribeca firehouse.
In keeping with the era, the new crew uses kit-bashed, half-working prototypes left behind by the originals. Details shown at the showcase included unstable proton beams, a PKE meter built from PlayStation 1 parts, a “Ghost Drive” assembled from recycled skateboard wheels and guitar pedals, and Ecto-94, a spray-painted van that stands in for Ecto-1. The series uses a grimy, DIY-punk aesthetic from Australian studio Flying Bark (Stranger Things: Tales From '85). Concept art also included Ray’s Occult Books, Ray Stantz’s shop introduced in Ghostbusters II.
The team stated the series will be scary as well as funny. Threats named during the presentation included a Poison Demon in the “Hopscotch Hellhole,” a Class IV sludge called the “Rot Monster,” and a “Grabby Hands” Reflector Ghost. The preview closed with a work-in-progress clip from Episode 2, in which Travis and an entranced Zoe are confronted by a phantom ticket-taker at Grand Central.
Ghostbusters: Night Shift is executive produced by Reitman and Kenan, the team behind Afterlife and Frozen Empire, with Ben Hibon (Star Trek: Prodigy) and Elliott Kalan (Mystery Science Theater 3000, The Daily Show) also serving as showrunners. Amie Karp (Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Frozen Empire) and original Ghostbusters co-writer Dan Aykroyd round out the executive producer ranks. The series arrives on Netflix in 2027.
Keep up with the latest in the official Ghostbusters: Night Shift discussion topic on the GBFans.com forum.
Sources: Sony Pictures Animation, The Wrap, What’s on Netflix and Deadline.
