Bill Murray is returning for Ghostbusters: Afterlife. And he is going to get suited up in the old Ghostbusters uniform complete with the proton pack. Previously, some of Murray's co-stars had teased his involvement in the movie, and Murray himself finally addressed his role in a set visit interview with Vanity Fair. Confirming the reports that he'll be reprising the fan favorite role of Peter Venkman in this true sequel to the first two movies, Murray says the credit goes to the quality of the screenplay by Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan, appreciating that the story had "lots of emotion" and "lots of family."

During the set visit, Bill Murray also dropped another note, revealing that his role in Afterlife will be something much greater than a meaningless plain-clothes cameo. As the level of his involvement isn't fully clear, it isn't known exactly what Murray will be doing in the sequel, but there may have been some concern that he'd only be in the movie just long enough to say hello and move along. Now it looks like we'll be seeing Murray actually wearing the proton pack as Peter Venkman once again, though the actor wasn't exactly thrilled about it.

On the set of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, lightweight proton packs are used for distant shots, but a 30-pound version is used for close-ups. At Murray's insistence, the journalist conducting his interview wore one of the heavy ones to see what it physically feels like to be a Ghostbuster. "When you put that gear on, it's so uncomfortable. It's so heavy, just to stand there with that weight on your back, tilting your spine," Murray says of the discomfort of wearing proton packs, as awesome as it might appear. When told that the first 30 seconds of wearing it were okay, Murray quipped, "It's that last 30. And the dismount."

Still, though the packs are a literal pain to wear after a while, Murray also says there's an upside to having them. "You can work the lights and stuff. Have some fun. Get your picture taken doing it," he told the Vanity Fair journalist. "I think you should wear it for just an hour. Just one hour," Murray added, clearly quite eager to have someone else endure the pain associated with wearing a proton pack for a lengthy shoot.

Jason Reitman directs the new Ghostbusters sequel, using a screenplay co-written with Gil Kenan (Monster House). In addition to Murray, other returning stars will include Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, and Annie Potts. Newcomers to the cast include Carrie Coon, Mckenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Logan Kim, and Paul Rudd. The story will follow a single mother and her two children moving to a farm inherited from the family grandfather, discovering their connection to the legendary Ghostbusters and spawning a fresh team for the new generation.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife will premiere in theaters on July 10, 2020. So far, we haven't seen any actual photos of Murray and the others as they'll appear in the movie, but it's nice to know their appearances should be a bit more meaningful than something like a one-liner delivered by a cabbie. This news comes to us from Vanity Fair.