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Ghostbusters

The 1984 and 1989 films run straight on into Afterlife and Frozen Empire; the 2016 film is a separate continuity that was abandoned.

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Where to start with Ghostbusters

Four films are one continuous story, and the two halves of it are thirty-two years apart. The 2016 film is a full restart that shares no characters and no events with them, so the first decision here is which line you are watching rather than which order you watch it in.

  1. 1
    Ghostbusters (1984) Ghostbusters

    The one everything else is built on, and the only title in the franchise that assumes nothing. Both the sequels and the cartoon start from its ending.

  2. 2
    Ghostbusters II Ghostbusters II

    Set five years later with the team disgraced and out of business. It is the weaker film and it is not optional: Afterlife and Frozen Empire both treat its events as having happened.

  3. 3
    Ghostbusters: Afterlife Ghostbusters: Afterlife

    Picks the story up decades on with the next generation of a family in rural Oklahoma. It is a direct sequel to the first two films and it does explain enough for a newcomer, but it lands very differently if you have seen them.

  4. 4
    Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

    Follows straight on from Afterlife, back in the New York firehouse, and is the only film that genuinely requires the one before it. It is the current end of the story.

Then what? That is the whole main line, four films and nothing skipped. The 2016 film can be watched at any point or not at all, because it connects to none of them. The two cartoons are a separate branch: The Real Ghostbusters carries on from the 1984 film across seven seasons, and Extreme Ghostbusters is a sequel to it set years later with a new team. More films and two Netflix animated projects have been talked about, but none has a date, so nothing else is listed.

A suggested way in, not an official one. The full list is below — tick anything off in either place.

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