“Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” Reveals Snowy, Spooky First Trailer

November 8, 2023

Question: if there’s something strange in your neighborhood, who are you gonna call? Okay, now what if that something strange is freezing cold temperatures in July?

The first teaser trailer for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire has arrived, the sequel to Ghostbusters: Afterlife, revealing the Gil Kenan-directed new film that continues the story that director Jason Reitman and Kenan (he co-wrote Afterlife) began in 2021. In that film, single mom Callie (Carrie Coon) and her kids Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) move to a dilapidated Oklahoma house in a small town to restart their lives. Their connection to the original Ghostbusters was significant—Callie’s father was Egon Spengler (the late, great Harold Ramis), and Egon had spent his final years out at that house in Oklahoma, so naturally, there was a bevy of supernatural secrets for his family to uncover.

The Frozen Empire trailer opens on a sweaty summer day in New York City, with shots of beachgoers, Coney Island, and gushing fire hydrants—all the classic motifs of a sweltering summer day in the Big Apple. Yet something strange is going on—a storm cloud is moving towards the city, yet obviously, this is no typical summer soak. It’s a supernatural front that brings with it instantaneous frozen conditions, ruining everyone’s day on the beach and a lot more besides. “For the first time in New York history, people froze to death,” says Patton Oswalt (a newcomer to the franchise), “..in the middle of July.” Then we see some of the original Ghostbusters—Dan Ackroyd’s Raymond Stantz, Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman, and Ernie Hudson’s Winston Zeddmore.

Coon, Wolfhard, and Grace all reprise their roles from Afterlife, as do Paul Rudd, Logan Kim, and Celeste O’Connor. Newcomers include Kumail Nanjiani, James Acaster, and Emily Alyn Lind.

Kenan directs Frozen Empire from a script he co-wrote with Reitman.

Check out the teaser trailer below.