It’s official: Casper the Friendly Ghost and Ghostbusters the paranormal investigators exist in the same universe. Dan Aykroyd confirmed as much during a recent appearance on the Talking Strange podcast, where he playfully asserted that his cameo as Ray Stantz in 1995’s Casper is, in fact, canon.
Noting that it was the 30th anniversary of Casper, host Aaron Sagers asked the comedy great if his appearance in the movie was canonical. “I think so, given the fact that [executive producer Steven] Spielberg asked for me and said, ‘Come and do this,’ and that they built me in there” Aykroyd said. “Of course, it’s a beautiful nod to what we were doing with Ivan [Reitman] ad everybody. I think you gotta include there in the canon, no doubt.”
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For those who don’t remember, Casper finds Carrigan Crittenden (Cathy Moriarty) trying to rid Whipstaff Manor of a quartet of ghost — Casper and his trio of meddling uncles. Her early attempts include hiring Don Novello’s Father Guido Sarducci as an exorcist, and dialing 555-2368 to bring in the Ghostbusters. After finding the ghosts too troubling to trap, Aykroyd’s Stantz comes running out of the house and tells Carrigan, “Who ya gonna call? Someone else.” You can watch the scene below.
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So that technically makes five canonical Ghostbusters films after the original two and the modern sequels, most recently Frozen Empire. In addition to settling the old debate, Aykroyd also touched on what’s next for the beloved franchise. Asked if “we need a dose of happy pink slime in this world? Do we need the Statue of Liberty to walk around to bring us together?”, Aykroyd suggested the next Ghostbusters movie could touch on just that.
“We sure could use pink slim at any time,” he joked. “It’s interesting, we’ll see what we do as far as the next Ghostbusters feature — and there will be one. It’s just what avenue we’re going to take? And I think that given creative people in the world we’re living in today, how can you not factor in some of what we’re looking at in terms of the human species’ execrable behavior? That may be looked at, you know, maybe it manifests itself in some kind of evil formation. No sure. Jason [Reitman] is working with the creative crew there at the Ghost Corps. up there in Los Angeles; I’ll be very interested to see what emerges.”
He continued, “We are doing a really neat animated Ghostbusters. It’ll be coming out quite soon, and the characters and the whole take and the look of Manhattan is really exciting. So, I think maybe there’s an opportunity there for those writers to address some of the issues that we need to heal and and move on with our lives.”
A 30th anniversary 4K UHD limited edition steelbook of Casper was released this summer, and you can also stream the move on VOD via Apple TV+ and Prime Video. You can also check out the Ghostbusters collection on Apple TV+ and Prime Video, or snag the 4K UHD two-packs featuring the original two movies (on sale for 41% off!) and Afterlife and Frozen Empire.