When the news hit that a new writer -- Etan Coehn -- had been hired to work on the script for the long awaited Ghostbusters threequel, fans got their hopes up that Bill Murray would finally commit to star as Peter Venkman. The actor actually did recently tease that his return to the franchise was a "possibility", but alas it seems we can forget about that now. Dan Aykroyd spoke to Metro about the movie, and confirms that it will be moving ahead without Murray.
"We've got a brilliant new writer on it and we'll be passing the torch onto a [new] generation. We're working on it to make it just right to satisfy our fans. I'm confident we'll be in production in the next year. We've got the studio on side. We've tried a few concepts which weren't right but now we've got a good structure and will make it happen."
When asked if Bill Murray was finally on board, Aykroyd replied..
"No, I can tell you he won't be involved. It's sad but we're passing it on to a new generation. Ghostbusters 3 can be a successful movie without Bill. My preference would be to have him involved but at this point he doesn't seem to be coming and we have to move on. It's time to make the third one."
Disappointing for fans of Murray's brilliant Peter Venkman no doubt, but at least we know now. Will they recast the role or kill the character off? Maybe this "passing of the torch" will now only require one member of the original team. We'll find out soon enough I'm sure.