The second, much more exciting Ghostbusters trailer just turned up, introducing us to a plethora of intriguingly designed spooks to scare the hell out of New York and cinemas once more.
But who ya gonna call if you want the lowdown on what exactly each of these ectoplasm-spilling monstrosities is? Well, us, of course – we've done some delving and this is what we've come up with. Possible spoilers, obviously…
Rowan The Destructor
"The traveller has come!" Yes, this is the first trailer glimpse of Rowan The Destructor (as he's labelled on his toy), a clear nod to Gozer from the first film. So this is the movie's big supernatural bad, even if an unrevealed human (rumoured to be named Rowan Elgin, not coincidentally) seems to be pulling its strings (no, we don't believe it's Chris Hemsworth, however much the trailer wants us to).
Is it a coincidence that Rowan The Destructor is a dead ringer for the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man? And is it a coincidence that he's also a spit for the Ghostbusters logo? We reckon not – so just as Ray dreamt up Mr Stay Puft, someone will be summoning this guy up in a similar way.
Mayhem
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This devilish dude's also been named in the Mattel toy line – although he's brown there and more Groot-looking than the green daemon posing for selfies in the trailer. A fairly stereotypical heavy-metal vision, all devil horns and wings, we presume this is a set-piece star played for laughs rather than a character featured too heavily.
Slimer
Obvs. The enduring face, and not much else, of Ghostbusters. But where does he sit this time around? Baddie as in the first, comic relief as in the second, or full-blown sidekick as in The Real Ghostbusters cartoon? There's still not enough here yet to tell.
Balloon ghosts
As ever, Ghostbusters is a New York story – "I love this town!" – with spooks from all eras mingling in the madness. As these balloons and the top-hatted Uncle Sam-looking guy on stilts suggest, many will come from a variety of New York City parades.
Indeed, although he's yet to show up in a trailer, Mr Stay Puft is definitely in the film and is listed as 'Stay Puft Balloon Ghost' on his toy packaging, so expect him to join the city fair furore. But will he turn goodie and help defeat Rowan? We can but hope…
Mob ghosts
John Gotti, the infamous Mafia leader, Meyer Lansky, colleague of 'Lucky' Luciano, and '1920s gangster ghost' all have actors nailed against them on IMDB, while rumoured plot points have included taking down a supernatural mafioso as the team's first bust.
Electrocution guy
Nice callback to Ghostbusters II, where the ghosts of the electrocuted Scoleri brothers take over a courtroom whilst still in their frying chairs. We'd be lying if we said we had any idea who this electric-chair-headed bad dude is beyond that, though.
Train ghost
Another nod back to Ghostbusters II, maybe, when Winston gets run over by an old New York City subway train, we're back on the rails. A rumoured leaked plot outline suggested baddie Rowan Elgin, played by occasional Veep actor and Saturday Night Live writer Neil Casey, sets up base down there, which would explain a lot.
Showgirl ghost
A visual throwback to the "Sssssh" librarian that opened Ghostbusters, this full-floating apparition vomits as well as pulls her face off – now that's multi-tasking.
Nosferatu ghost
Just us who suspects something vampiric about this guy? Although other ghosts listed on IMDB as-yet-unseen are 'Pimp Ghost' and 'Ghost Prostitute', so we're not surprised they're yet to make it into a trailer. Watch this space for more as we get it.
Matt is a journalist, audience strategist, editorial director and workflow consultant with over 20 years' of experience in the industry.
A former director of audience development and content strategy at Hearst UK, Matt was previously Editor-in-Chief of Digital Spy. There, he contributed features and reviews on TV, movies, consumer technology, video games and Lego sets, won BSME Digital Editor of the Year, and led the team to numerous awards including Campaign Consumer Media Brand of the Year and PPA Digital Content Team of the Year twice.
As Digital Development Director of the Hearst UK portfolio, he oversaw the central digital editorial teams including SEO, video, e-commerce and design, contributing to digital acceleration across all Hearst UK brands from Cosmopolitan to Good Housekeeping.
Before joining Hearst in 2015, Matt edited Future’s consumer technology lifestyle brand T3 and the UK arm of Gawker’s tech culture website Gizmodo, and was deputy editor at ShortList, the then biggest men’s magazine in the UK, interviewing the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Lord Sugar and Sirs Ridley Scott and David Attenborough in the process. LinkedIn
