Ivan Reitman, the man behind the Ghostbusters film franchise, has opened up about the touching tribute to original cast member Harold Ramis in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. You can check out the trailer below:
Ramis died at the age of 69 in 2014, meaning that there could never again be a third Ghostbusters film with the entire original line-up.
Still, in Ghostbusters: Afterlife they've tried to pay tribute to the much-missed comic actor by introducing his daughter into the story, as well as making Ramis' character Egon Spengler a key part of the tale.
In the film, Carrie Coon plays Egon's daughter, who moves into his old house and in doing so inherits all of his ghost hunting gear, which is discovered by his grandchildren.
Directed by Paul Feig, the film is out in cinemas now.
Reitman, who is the franchise producer and the director of the first two films, explained how they tried to keep Ramis in the world, despite his tragic passing.
He told ComicBook: "Yeah, I mean I felt that right from the beginning that he was no longer with us,
"It's the reason that I couldn't even contemplate doing a Ghostbusters sequel myself and when Jason came forward with this great idea, we gravitated to it so quickly and appreciated the cleverness of the storytelling and as a vehicle for introducing a whole new generation of people that could perhaps become the future Ghostbusters."
Coon told Yahoo: "One of the most palpable things about being in this film was feeling the absence of Harold,
"He was such a huge part of writing the [original Ghostbusters] script with Dan Aykroyd, and then they invited Bill Murray in to bring his special Bill Murray nature to all of it."
"You know, I live in Chicago now and Harold occupies such a special place in that city, as does Bill.
"I think we all felt like we were honouring Harold in an appropriate way. The tribute just feels really, really loving."
Whilst Ramis obviously won't be appearing, the other three main cast members from the first two outings have all confirmed their return.
Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, and Ernie Hudson will once again don the famous overalls, although they've expressed sadness at the fact that Ramis won't be there alongside them.
Ackroyd said: "To have that formation without that man standing right there on the line with us was a pretty serious adjustment,
"He will be very well represented in the new film, I can tell you that. He's very honourably represented."
Featured Image Credit: Columbia PicturesTopics: TV and Film, Celebrity, US Entertainment