A generation of kids grew up loving the Ghostbusters because of what they did on the small screen rather than the big one. The Real Ghostbusters animated series was how many people fell in the love with that foursome in the first place. Without that beloved cartoon, it’s very possible the Ghostbusters franchise would now be as dead as the specters they hunt. Now Netflix wants to see if it can recapture that animated magic again with an all-new Ghostbusters cartoon, the third ever to exist.
![A tableau of The Real Ghostbusters animated series with all four guys and Slimer flying above them](https://legendary-digital-network-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/13002939/The-Real-Ghostbusters.jpg)
Variety reports that Netflix has officially given the greenlight to a 3D Ghostbusters animated series. Initial talks of a potential new cartoon on the streaming service date back to 2022. It will mark the third Ghostbusters animated series ever. The most recent was Extreme Ghostbusters, which ran for 40 episodes in late 1997.
Elliott Kalan will serve as showrunner, as well as a writer and executive producer, for the latest carton. He’s best known for serving as head writer on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. His other notable credits include the Mystery Science Theater 3000 reboot and HouseBroken.
![A poster with Ghostbusters old and new firing proton packs for Frozen Empire](https://legendary-digital-network-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/19122407/Ghostbusters-Frozen-Empire-1.jpg)
Sony Pictures Animation will be behind the show with Netflix will producing. Ghost Corps, Inc. under Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan, will also co-produced. Reitman and Kenan co-wrote and swapped directing duties for Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. They’ll each serve as executive producers on the show, which Variety says “will be tonally in line” with those films.
Whether or not the animated show will feature versions of those movie’s characters is unknown. (We’d wager it will.) But no matter which brave ghost hunters straps on a proton pack, if this Netflix series finds as much success as The Real Ghostbusters did, we’ll probably still be getting new Ghostbusters movies 40 years from now.