The temple in Ghostbusters: Afterlife has numbers scrawled on the rock within, but one date sticks out in particular, and another partially. The question fans of the franchise should be asking, though: Will 2134 play a part in the sequels somehow?

Fans of the Ghostbusters franchise were rejoicing as the series official third installment hit theaters and proved a massive success. The film was charming, funny, and an all-around love letter to the original motion pictures. Over the run-time of the most recent movie, Afterlife, fans were treated to a cavalcade of Easter-eggs and callbacks to the original films, including some very peculiar dates. As seen in the photo above, and as noted in the movie during the kids' first visit to the temple's interior, the banner rock surrounding the inner sanctum is scrawled with numbers identified as dates. What's particularly interesting about these dates is that some of them correspond to actual historical events, and there is one number that sticks out, not for what happened on that date, but what MIGHT happen at a later date. The last fully visible date on the wall is 2134, which is followed by a partial date of '21..'

So What Could 2134 Mean?

To answer that question, some background knowledge is needed from comic books and literature and about the first and third films would-be villain: Ivo Shandor. Shandor was born in 1855. This is significant for more than one reason. The first visible date on the wall is 1883, which is clearly after Ivo's birth. That year in specific is correlated to the real-life eruption of Krakatoa, a fact that is echoed by Podcast in the film. The blast was very deadly and killed over 36,000 people. Additionally, the blast is believed to be the loudest on record, being heard all the way from Perth, Australia, roughly 1800 miles from Indonesia, which is where Krakatoa is located. Lastly, the dates on the wall all do correspond to dates that Gozar itself can appear, and the pit that Shandor created in the temple is meant to aid with this, as Gozar's emergence is seen as it ascends from the pit in the movie.

The second date seen is 1908. This is touted as the famed inter-dimensional cross rip that Ray refers to in the first film. Once again, this was an actual historical event, the Tunguska Event, believed by locals to be a curse from the god Ogdy, which was actually a meteoroid impacting Earth in Siberia. The impact, heat, and destruction could be felt for more than 40 miles from the epicenter. It is believed that at least three people lost their lives. While this event is the event that is mentioned in the film, there is another event that aligns more with the natural disaster of Krakatoa in 1883. In the first film, the team's first attempt to help Sigourney Weaver's Dana Barrett by spitballing ideas in the firehouse, right, wrong, or indifferent. It's possible this happened at another point in the film when Ray mentions the Tungiska blast, as he also incorrectly states the year of the explosion as 1909. An event that more appropriately aligns with Krakatoa, especially in terms of lives lost, the kind of thing a Sumerian god might want to associate itself with, the Messina earthquake of 1908, an event that took the lives of over 100,000 people in Europe near Sicily.

The following year is 1945, which coincides with the end of World War II, which is also a very real event. World War II came to an official end on May 8th, 1945. Lucky makes a small joke in the film as "What didn't happen," referring to WWII. This year could also have a deeper meaning than presented on the face of it when you take into account some fictional history. Podcast in the film takes Phoebe pretty close to the mountain and explains the mine had to be shut down because the workers jumped to their death in the event that was dubbed "The Shandorian Curse." This event happens to take place in 1945.

The next two dates were witnessed on screen, 1984, the Manhattan Cross Rip, the original Ghostbusters, as well as 2021, the events that were witnessed in Afterlife. The last fully visible year: 2134. The date is definitely a future date in which Gozar could try to emerge. Remember, just because it can, doesn't mean it will. It was stopped just before entering our world in 1984 and stopped shortly after entering our world in 2021. How could this be approached, though? Surely a franchise that makes reference to prophecies, spooks, specters, and inter-dimensional beings could deal with time travel, right? Possible, not likely. While director Jason Reitman has poked that his second movie could revolve around the villain of Ghostbusters II, Vigo the Carpathian, you never know for sure. The approach could go back to none other than Ivo Shandor himself.

Shandor's reanimated body is split in half in Afterlife as Gozar lays its hands on him. In the first film, Harold Ramis, Egon Spengler said that it was after WWI that Shandor decided humanity was too sick to survive. The seeds of this could have been planted prior to 1883. Shandor likely spent most of his life researching not only metallurgy but felt he was not only called but destined to create multiple entry points for Gozar. Now that Shandor is officially dead instead of being incarcerated in a glass sarcophagus, he could become stronger in spectral form and move forward on plans to help revive Gozar in 2134 as the prophecy in years seems to indicate.

While fans likely don't have to wait until 2134 for a sequel dealing with Gozar, this could be a focal point in the future in something similar to the above scenario. More importantly, whether the events of 2134 are seen on screen either on film or maybe hinted at, one thing is for sure, Gozar will definitely try to enter the fictional world of the Ghostbusters franchise in that year. Let's hope phones are still a thing and they give the team a call.