Reitman’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife relied heavily on nostalgia, right up to the inclusion of the original Ghostbusters cast towards the end of the film. However, the iconic Ghostbusters firehouse from the 1984 classic wasn’t included, and neither was New York City for that matter. At least not until the ending and one of the post-credits scenes.

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On the Ghostbusters Official Twitter page, Reitman referenced that the last time viewers saw the trademark Ghostbusters car (ECTO-1), it was while they were driving back into Manhattan, which is known as the residence of the Ghostbusters. He then unveiled where exactly the Ghostbusters headquarters in Manhattan was, which, for any diehard fan who’s watched all the movies knows, is the firehouse. The Tweet reads, “The last time we saw Ecto-1, it was driving back into Manhattan: the home of Ghostbusters. That’s where our story begins. The code name is FIREHOUSE.” We then see a picture of the firehouse with the word “FIREHOUSE” plastered on the image, thus seemingly indicating that fans will see one of the most iconic features of the Ghostbusters franchise return in its next installment.

It doesn’t count for much as far as what the next movie is going to be about, but it counts for something because the franchise is bringing something else back that the fans treasure and ultimately look forward to seeing again. Ghostbusters: Afterlife relied on nostalgia to entice the fanbase, and it worked. Now they know that they will continue to utilize what the fans grew up with to keep them interested in watching more of the rebooted series. The question is, how long will this work?

Nostalgia can only be utilized for so long because a franchise only has so many classic set pieces to use to keep the fans invested in what they shell out next. More importantly, if they do it just for the sake of saying, “Hey look! Remember this part of the original movie from decades ago? Pretty cool huh?!” that can be a pathetic excuse for fanservice and nothing else. There has to be a point to it besides just warming hearts for a couple of seconds.

Plus, as much as fans love to see the franchise bring back set pieces and characters that they grew attached to, they should also be more than welcome to new material brought into Ghostbusters. They brought in new characters for fans to get to know in Ghostbuster: Afterlife. Now with new characters and new direction, there’s no reason not to bring in potential new set pieces that the modern generation can grow attached to decades from now. As much as Hollywood would like to think otherwise, the nostalgia factor has a shelf life. If they don’t take advantage of this window, the fans will tune in for only so long.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife can currently be streamed on Starz.

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Source: Ghostbusters/Twitter