Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire – everything you need to know including cast, story and release date

Who ya gonna call? The legendary Ghostbusters are back this March in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. If there's something strange in the neighbourhood, you know you have to get down to Cineworld and soak up all the spectacular supernatural action on the biggest screen you can find.

How does Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire connect to the original 1980s movies? Which cast members are appearing? Can we expect to see old favourites? Scroll down for everything you need to know.

What is the story of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire?

A paranormal deep freeze strikes New York in the sweltering heat of the summer season. The curse is known as the 'Death Chill' and it kills people right on the spot, building to the moment where the victim feels their tear ducts freezing over.

Does the onset of the death chill have anything to do with the discovery of a recent artifact? Either way, two generations of the spook-busting Ghostbusters must unite and save the city, lest an ancient evil asserts its dominance.

Are the characters from Ghostbusters: Afterlife in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire?

Yes, the brother-sister duo of Phoebe (McKenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) return from Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021). In the previous film, they decamped to a rural farmhouse with their mother where they discovered a remarkable family link to the original Ghostbusters squad. Their family name was revealed as Spengler, and their grandfather was the legendary Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), one member of the original Ghostbusters team (more on whom below).

Phoebe and Trevor soon broke out the proton packs and the classic Ecto-1 car discovered rusting in a barn, to see off the ancient demon known as Gozer. In the process, they saved the town and established themselves as Ghostbusters in their own right.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire picks up with the characters in New York, accompanied by their mother Callie (Carrie Coon) and their former teacher Mr Grooberson (Paul Rudd). The kids must now confront the deadliest threat of all and unite their nascent Ghostbusters abilities with those of some old veterans...

Are the original Ghostbusters in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire?

Yes, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire reunites Pete Venkman (Bill Murray), Ray Stanz (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson). These three characters made up the original Ghostbusters quartet along with the late Egon Spengler.

Although Venkman, Stanz and Zeddemore made a brief, albeit heroic, appearance at the end of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, along with a spectral vision of Spengler, Ghostbusters: Afterlife promises to bring them into the fold more comprehensively. Those who remember the original Ghostbusters movies, from 1984 and 1989, will recall how Venkman's sarcasm brilliantly jibed with Stanz's enjoyably dweeby paranormal beliefs and Zeddemore's everyman persona.

The original movies were built around this classic character chemistry and the OG team now fully vibes with the new generation. And there's one more classic character we haven't mentioned: Annie Potts' Janine Melnitz, who served as the original Ghostbusters receptionist. Like the others, she made a brief appearance in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, but in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire she finally gets to suit up and wield a proton pack. It's about time.

What about Sigourney Weaver's Dana Barrett, one-time love interest of Pete Venkman and victim of supernatural possession in the very first Ghostbusters movie? Nothing has been confirmed yet but watch this space.

Bill Murray as Pete Venkman and Ernie Hudson as Winston Zeddemore in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

Is the classic Ghostbusters Firehouse in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire?

Yes, Firehouse, Hooker and Ladder Company 8, located in real life on 14 North Moore Street, Tribeca in New York, features prominently in the Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire trailer. We can assume that it will become the new base of operations for the two generations of ghostbusting heroes.

Is Ecto-1 in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire?

Yes, following its appearance in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the Ghostbusters' signature vehicle is back on familiar turf and once again tearing up the New City streets.

What other classic Ghostbusters characters are in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire?

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire brings back the enjoyably hateful Walter Peck, played by William Atherton. In 1984's Ghostbusters, environmental protection officer Peck emerged as the Ghostbusters' human nemesis, shutting down their storage facility and unleashing all of the ghosts they had captured up to that point.

Although Peck was later dismissed (and covered in the marshmallow remains of the dissolving Stay Puft), it was clear that his beef with the Ghostbusters wasn't resolved. In the Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire trailer it seems as if Peck has ascended to a more powerful bureaucratic role, and this surely spells trouble for Venkman's crew, and also Phoebe and Trevor who attempt to warn the smarmy Peck of the incoming threat to no avail.

Who else stars in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire?

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire has also drafted in A-listers Patton Oswalt (voice of Remy the rat in Pixar's Ratatouille), and Kumail Nanjiani (star of hit rom-com The Big Sick, and Marvel's Eternals). There's also a credited role for brilliant deadpan British comic James Acaster although he doesn't appear in the trailer.

Could he be playing a ghost? It's been confirmed that Acaster will be playing an Egon Spengler-esque character according to screenwriter Jason Reitman who tells Empire Magazine: "James is not playing a Spengler, but he really falls in line with the Egon Spengler ‘type’."

Who is directing Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire?

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is directed by Gil Kenan who has form in the area of spooky family entertainment. Before writing Ghostbusters: Afterlife with that film's director Jason Reitman (son of original Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman, and who takes co-scripting credit on Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire), in 2006 Kenan made the well-received animated haunted house movie Monster House.

The film distilled family-appropriate levels of menace with an earnest, outsized message of solidarity, both of which we're expecting to see in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.