The late Harold Ramis was not able to physically be a part of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, but his family was there every step of the way. Along with portraying Egon in the original Ghostbusters movies, Ramis served as a writer and was instrumental in crafting the films. He had been hoping to get Ghostbusters 3 made for years before his death in 2014.

One reboot later, Sony accepted Jason Reitman's pitch to develop another Ghostbusters film that serves as a sequel to the first two installments of the series. This obviously posed a big challenge as Ramis was such an important part of the original films on both sides of the camera. Because Reitman knew Harold and the Ramis family, however, he came into the project with some ideas on how to properly honor Ramis while moving the story forward.

In a new interview with Empire, Reitman details how Ghostbusters: Afterlife came to be. Knowing that he wanted to continue the story with Egon's granddaughter taking over as the protagonist, the filmmaker still had to include Egon in a way that was both respectful and made sense. To do this, the Ramis family was involved from start to finish on the project. They were given the script at the beginning of the process, visited the set and the editing room regularly, and were really the first people to see the actual film.

"The first person that ever read the script was my father, and after my father it was the Ramis family. It was Harold's widow, Erica, and daughter Violet, who I grew up knowing – we were both on the set of the original back in '83. I talked to them about what we wanted to do, how we were going to do it. They came to set, and they viewed visual effects that came to the editing room. They're the first people to ever actually see the movie. So they were part of this movie from start to finish and I think they were aware of how much I wanted to honor Harold. Egon was my favourite Ghostbuster. This is a Spengler story, and this movie is dedicated to him in every way."

The film does indeed pay tribute to both Egon Spengler and Harold Ramis in an incredibly moving way. For the sake of those yet to see the film, we won't touch on the details here, but it's something every Ghostbusters fan needs to see. Of course, this tribute also comes along with the returns of the original Ghostbusters team: Dan Aykroyd as Ray Stantz, Ernie Hudson as Winston Zeddemore, and Bill Murray as Peter Venkman. Jason Reitman directs Ghostbusters: Afterlife using a script co-written with Gil Kenan. Along with the returning legacy cast, the film stars Mckenna Grace, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Logan Kim, Celeste O'Connor, Sigourney Weaver, Annie Potts, and Paul Rudd.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife will be available on Digital HD starting on Jan. 4, 2022. Its physical release on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD will follow on Feb. 1, 2022.