Afterlife Return Wasted A Better Sequel Role

Summary

Sigourney Weaver’s return in Ghostbusters: Afterlife had a significant impact on her role in the reboot movies. While Ghostbusters: Afterlife focused on introducing new characters, Sigourney Weaver’s character, Dana, deserved a bigger return than just a cameo in the post-credits scene. The absence of Sigourney Weaver’s character in Ghostbusters: Afterlife 2 feels unfair given the role she played in the previous movie, and it wastes Dana’s potential role in the new movies.

Although Sigourney Weaver is one of the original cast members of Ghostbusters, her return in Ghostbusters: Afterlife ended up affecting her place in the reboot movies. Back in 1984, Ivan Reitman introduced the world to a group of eccentric parapsychologists who started a ghost-catching business in New York City and made themselves known as the “Ghostbusters”. The movie was a huge critical and commercial success, becoming a cultural phenomenon, and, unsurprisingly, making way for a very profitable multimedia franchise with video games, comic books, TV shows, and two sequels.

After the release of Ghostbusters II in 1989, the franchise took a break from the big screen and didn’t return to it until 2021 with Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Set three decades after the second movie, Ghostbusters: Afterlife follows Callie (Carrie Coon), a single mom who moves with her son Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) to an Oklahoma farm she inherited from her estranged father, Egon Spengler. Phoebe ends up finding her grandfather’s equipment, and with some help, she uses it to catch some sinister presences that have been creating chaos in town. Ghostbusters: Afterlife surprised the audience with cameo appearances from the rest of the group and Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver), though the latter’s presence was a big waste.

Sigourney Weaver Deserved A Bigger Ghostbusters Return Than Afterlife Gave Her

Sigourney Weaver in Ghostbusters Afterlife

Ghostbusters also introduced Dana Barrett, a cellist with a problem in her apartment after she had a paranormal encounter with a demonic dog-like creature inside her fridge. Dana called the Ghostbusters for help, and Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) told her about the demigod Zuul and the shapeshifting god of destruction Gozer the Gozerian. Dana was then possessed by Zuul, and at the end of Ghostbusters, she was rescued by the team. Dana returned in Ghostbusters II, where she and her baby, Oscar, became the targets of the evil Prince Vigo the Carpathian, whose malevolent spirit lived in his self-portrait.

Although it’s understandable that Dana didn’t have a big role in Ghostbusters: Afterlife as it was all about introducing a new generation of characters, she deserved better than what she was given. The surviving members of the Ghostbusters team, although their appearances were brief, had an important role in the story by helping Phoebe and the rest fight Gozer. Dana, however, only appeared in the post-credits scene, where a classic scene from the first movie was flipped.

In it, Dana tests Venkman with the same blind cards he used with his students, and if he failed to guess, she would give him an electric shock. Dana discovers that Venkman marked the cards, and so she shocks him. Although it was a fun and heartwarming scene for Ghostbusters fans, Dana deserved a bigger return than just a cameo in the post-credits scene given her history in the franchise.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife 2’s Return Characters Makes Dana’s Absence Worse

Dana Barrett watching the Ghostbusters ad on TV in Ghostbusters 1984

Ghostbusters: Afterlife 2 will see the return of its new cast as well as the surviving original cast members. Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, and Ernie Hudson are confirmed to return as Ray, Peter, and Ernie, respectively, along with Annie Potts as Janine Melnitz. Sigourney Weaver, however, won’t be returning as Dana in Ghostbusters: Afterlife 2, which even though is good as the movie shouldn’t rely much on nostalgia, feels unfair after the role the previous movie gave her. Ghostbusters: Afterlife 2 was a chance to do justice to Dana after her cameo appearance in the first movie, but as she won’t return, Ghostbusters: Afterlife completely wasted Dana’s potential role in the new movies.