If you saw Ghostbusters this weekend, we hope you stayed throughout the credits. Not only were there some good laughs during them, but there’s also a shocking revelation at the very end of them. We talked to the film’s director and producer all about it what it means for the future of the Ghostbusters.
Here’s the scene for those who may have inadvertently walked out: After the credits end, the four Ghostbusters are standing around working. Patty is listening to a tape and says she hears something. “What’s Zuul?” she asks the others.
Of course, we know that Zuul is the Gatekeeper of Gozer, the evil being that was the villain of the original Ghostbusters, while Zuul possessed Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver). So what does this mean for the new Ghostbusters universe?
“We have discussed the repercussions,” is all producer Ivan Reitman would say about what the scene could mean going ahead. “We all thought it was kind of cool. It’s for the lovers of the original film. I saw it as a tribute, you know? And… I figured we could handle it.”
Director Paul Feig confirmed it was also a last-minute addition to the script.
“[It] came up right before we got into production,” said Feig. “That was [writer] Katie [Dippold]’s idea. Because we were doing rewrites on some stuff, then she sent me this thing. ‘I have an idea for a tag, just to see what you think.’ I read it, and was like, ‘OK, well that’s awesome.’ So yeah.”
There is one potential issue in the film, though. When Dan Aykroyd’s cab driver shows up, it’s made very clear he knows about ghosts. Is he a random person with an ability to sense the paranormal, or could he be some alternate dimension version of Ray Stantz?
While he was fine with the Zuul reference, this was the one moment Reitman didn’t want in the movie. “I disagreed with the cabbie saying some of the things that he says,” Reitman told us. “I said, ‘It’s too much knowledge.’”
Reitman thought it was a nice wink at Aykroyd’s character but knew fans would read into it.
“I just thought ‘Let’s just keep it clean, here,’” Reitman said. “Because I’m going to have to answer these questions now.”
Now that a sequel looks likely, Reitman has a chance to give us these answers — and turn a casual tribute to the original film and Aykroyd’s mysterious cabbie into something far bigger… something that could connect the two Ghostbusters movie universes in some very unexpected ways.