Ghostbusters: Afterlife has dropped its second trailer earlier today, and while it’s not bad at all, fans of the original Ghostbusters movies notice that it lacks comedy.
Just like the first trailer released in December 2019, the latest promo video introduces single mom Callie (Carrie Coon), her children Phoebe (McKenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), and teacher Mr. Grooberson (Paul Rudd).
After being evicted from their home, Callie and her two kids are forced to move to an old farmhouse in Summerville, Oklahoma, left to them by the children’s late grandfather. They soon discover that the small town holds a couple of dark secrets. Despite not being situated on a fault line, Summerville is being hit by earthquakes regularly. There are also unexplained things that are happening in an old mine that once belonged to the alleged occultist Ivo Shandor.
When Phoebe and Trevor find out that their grandfather is actually Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), one of the original Ghostbusters, it’s up to them to use all the Ghostbusters equipment they inherited to save Summerville from a supernatural phenomenon similar to New York City’s Manhattan Crossrip of 1984.
Though the new Ghostbusters: Afterlife trailer is not terrible, longtime fans of the franchise think that it fails to provide the nostalgic feel of the original Ghostbusters movies because it noticeably lacks humor. In fact, on Twitter, a lot of fans are literally asking where the comedy is in the recently released trailer.
ghostbusters afterlife looks good but where is the comedy in my sequel to the hit 80s comedy movie
— alfie (@alfie__innes) July 27, 2021
Saw the new Ghostbusters Afterlife trailer and… I'm not feeling it at all. I get a kick out of the references to the originals as much as the next guy, but where's the comedy?
— Mike Channell (@MikeChannell) July 27, 2021
Another Ghostbusters trailer where I’m very confused about this story world. Ghosts exist but no one remembers the times New York was attacked? Egon has chosen to leave his family in a world where there is a life after death? Is it a comedy or does it just have Paul Rudd?
— Da7e Gonzales (@Da7e) July 27, 2021
ok, but is it just me or does the ghostbusters afterlife trailer seem to be taking the legacy of the original like *way to seriously*
i know i can sometimes be bad at picking up on jokes, but also the trailer gave literally no impression at all to me of even being for a comedy.
— 🦊Cdre aspen-maxwell (@jkmurcury9) July 27, 2021
Nothing makes me think "Ghostbusters" like a trailer with a deeply reverential tone and *absolutely no jokes*.
— Stephen Geigen-Miller (@Stephen_GM) July 27, 2021
Had to double check because I couldn’t quite believe it but there are no jokes in this trailer. Ghostbusters was a comedy film where a ghost gave Dan Ackroyd such good head that he went cross-eyed
— ?????? (@tamsincleary) July 27, 2021
A fan even suggests that Ghostbusters: Afterlife may be going meta, tweeting, “Never thought there’d be a Ghostbusters movie with no jokes. Maybe that is the joke.”
Some fans, meanwhile, find the video more of a trailer for a Stranger Things instalment than a Ghostbusters follow-up.
Think I’ll probably give Ghostbusters:Afterlife a miss until it’s on a streaming service. What I loved about the original was the SNL inspired comedy. This looks a bit like it’s jumping on the Stranger Things trend which wasn’t my cup of tea.
— Lisa Walls (@lisawalls86) July 27, 2021
Must have missed the part where Ghostbusters: Afterlife is a sequel to a COMEDY from the 80’s not a supernatural thriller from Netflix.
— Ged Maheux (@gedeon) July 27, 2021
An artifact of the lag time of features vs. TV is that the decision to make the new Ghostbusters an Amblin-esque kids' adventure was made at the height of Stranger Things mania but now that cultural moment has mostly passed & you have people saying "Why isn't this a comedy?"
— Zack Stentz (@MuseZack) July 27, 2021
Though it’s yet to be seen whether there will be a lot of comedy in the actual movie, a few fans think that Ghostbusters: Afterlife not being a full-blown comedy could actually be advantageous to the sequel.
“Ghostbusters Afterlife not being a full-blown comedy is the best direction it could’ve gone,” tweeted one fan. “Otherwise, all of its jokes would just be compared to the other 3 movies. However, now it’s gone into a different direction while still respecting the legacy of the originals.”
Though not prominently featured in any of the trailers, original Ghostbusters cast members Bill Murray (Dr. Peter Venkman), Dan Aykroyd (Dr. Raymond “Ray” Stantz), Ernie Hudson (Winston Zeddemore), Sigourney Weaver (Dana Barrett), and Annie Potts (Janine Melnitz) are all confirmed to appear in the movie.
Directed by Jason Reitman, the son of original Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman, Ghostbusters: Afterlife is set to open in U.S. theaters on November 11th.