Sadly, the 1997 animated series Extreme Ghostbusters is no longer available to stream over on The Roku Channel. A sequel to The Real Ghostbusters, this 40-episode cracker originally joined the platform around Halloween of last year, but now Ghostbusters News reports that it’s disappeared entirely.
Extreme Ghostbusters, which boasts the voices of Futurama favorite Billy West, Pinky and the Brain‘s Maurice LaMarche, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air legend Alfonso Ribeiro, takes place several years after the events of its animated predecessor. Due to a considerable lack of supernatural activity, though, busting is a viable business no more. Here’s the official plot:
“The members have gone their separate ways except for Egon Spengler, who still lives in the firehouse, monitors the containment unit, takes care of Slimer, furthers his education, and teaches a class on the paranormal at a local college.
“When ghosts begin to reappear, Egon is forced to recruit four students as the new Ghostbusters: Kylie Griffin, a goth genius and expert on occultism; Eduardo Rivera, a cynical Latino slacker; Garrett Miller, a young wheelchair athlete; and Roland Jackson, a studious African-American machinery whiz.”
Dan Aykroyd Teases the Future of ‘Ghostbusters’ Franchise
This deflating news comes after Ghostbusters mastermind Dan Aykroyd told podcaster Aaron Sagers all about what might happen with the franchise going forward. “Well, yeah, we sure could use pink slime at any time,” he teased. “We’ll see what we do as far as the next Ghostbusters feature, and there will be one. It’s just what avenue we’re going to take.
“I think that, given creative people in the world we’re living in today, how can you not factor in some of what we’re looking at in terms of the human species’ execrable behavior? That may be looked at. Maybe it manifests itself in some kind of an evil formation. Not sure, you know, Jason [Reitman] is working with the creative crew there at Ghost Corps out there in Los Angeles. And I’ll be very interested to see what emerges.”
Aykroyd, who memorably portrayed Dr. Ray Stantz in the movies, also claimed there’s something else in the Ghostbusters pipeline — specifically, another animated TV show. “We are doing a really neat animated Ghostbusters. It’ll be coming out quite soon. The characters and the whole take and the look of Manhattan is really exciting,” he said. “So, I think maybe there’s an opportunity there for those writers to address some of the issues that we need to heal and move on with our lives.” Where it’ll land, fans will have to wait and see.
Meanwhile, in light of 2024’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, which failed to pull up any trees both commercially and critically, Winston Zeddemore actor Ernie Hudson is keen to “really get down and dirty” in any future outings. Speaking to Screen Rant, he shared:
“I think the studio is focused on the family, which is a good thing, but I also would like to see Winston take a team and spin-off in other directions. That would be a lot of fun. They talk about retirement, but I don’t want him to just be that guy who sits in the office. I’d love to see him, like in the original films, really get down and dirty and go at it.”