Ghostbusters Franchise Returns With a New Christmas Movie, Report Says

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Published Oct 6, 2026, 10:08 AM EDT

Elijah is a freelance news writer at Polygon. He was an associate editor at The A.V. Club and Paste, and has been featured in outlets like Game Informer, Fanbyte, Unwinnable, and more. He loves media in all forms, from fighting games and horror flicks to slow cinema and visual novels. He's from the Greater Boston area.

According to a Hollywood insider, Ghostbusters: Nightmare on 34th Street is currently in development

Three of the original Ghostbusters looking incredulous.

It seems that the Ghostbusters might be gearing up for the holidays. According to Hollywood insider and leaker Daniel Richtman, Sony is currently developing a new live-action film in the series titled Ghostbusters: Nightmare on 34th Street.

Details are sparse, but Josh Miller is allegedly writing the film. He previously penned the Sonic the Hedgehog movies as well as Violent Night, a surprisingly well-received action comedy where David Harbour plays a violent Santa Claus fighting to rescue his family. That premise is especially relevant, since the new Ghostbusters film's title suggests it's a Christmas movie. The subtitle, Nightmare on 34th Street, plays on A Nightmare on Elm Street and also references the classic 1947 Christmas film Miracle on 34th Street.

What recent movies have there been in the Ghostbusters series?

Following the original 1984 Ghostbusters and its 1989 sequel, the franchise was rebooted in 2016. While the reboot received generally positive reviews from critics, it faced backlash from a segment of the fandom for having an all-female main cast and for a story that, according to some, did not live up to the original movies. It made only $229 million on a $144 million budget, prompting Sony to cancel plans for a direct sequel.

Instead, Sony continued the original film canon with Ghostbusters: Afterlife in 2021, which received a lukewarm 63% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie was a direct follow-up to Ghostbusters 2 and centered on Callie Spengler, the daughter of Ghostbuster Egon Spengler, and her family. Afterlife made $204.3 million on a $75 million budget, prompting a 2024 sequel, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. It will be interesting to see whether Ghostbusters: Nightmare on 34th Street is another direct sequel in this recent line of movies. In 2024, Frozen Empire director and screenwriter Gil Kenan said that he was working on a direct sequel.

What other Ghostbusters projects are in the works?

Beyond Gil Kenan’s untitled sequel to Frozen Empire and Nightmare on 34th Street (which could be the same movie), Sony Pictures Animation is developing an animated film set to release on Netflix. For television, Ghostbusters: Night Shift is an animated series from Flying Bark Productions (Stranger Things: Tales from ’85) that’s set to release in 2027 on Netflix. Between this show and several rumored projects, Ghostbusters has plenty on the horizon.

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