Interview with Ghostbusters: Night Shift Creators

The following highlights are drawn from an interview originally published by What's on Netflix, written by Ryan Gaur. We're sharing the most important takeaways for our community here.

The legacy of Ghostbusters in animation stretches back to the late '80s, but the franchise has been largely absent from the animated space for around 30 years. The Real Ghostbusters was a quintessential Saturday morning cartoon of its era, light in tone and built around a case-of-the-week format. Ghostbusters: Night Shift is something different entirely. Produced by Sony Pictures Animation, the new Netflix series plants its flag firmly in horror territory, going darker than even the recent live-action films, Afterlife and Frozen Empire.

At this year's Annecy Festival, What's on Netflix caught up with showrunners Ben Hibon and Elliott Kalan, along with producers Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan, to discuss tone, animation style, and what makes this series a fresh chapter for the franchise. Here are the key takeaways.

Why Animation — and Why Now?

The idea grew naturally out of the storytelling gaps left by the live-action films. Reitman noted that after Afterlife and Frozen Empire, a bigger question remained: what happened during the decades in between? That curiosity, combined with the franchise's deep history in animation, made the format a natural fit. The show is set in the 1990s and explores what happened to the Ghostbusters firehouse during those missing years, who found it, and who might have been sent out on an adventure of their own.

Why Netflix?

The team shared a clear creative vision from the start: they wanted the series to be properly frightening and to bring genuine scares back to the franchise. According to Kenan, Netflix was a natural partner because they found fans there who were excited about going in the same direction. Rather than simply expanding on the '80s animated series, the goal was to channel the tone, visual language, and grounded storytelling of the films, while building something new for a fresh generation of fans.

CG Over 2D — A Deliberate Choice

Some fans might have expected the show to lean into the nostalgic look of The Real Ghostbusters, but the creative team made a conscious decision to go with CG instead. While they have great affection for the original series, Hibon emphasized that Night Shift is canon to the movies and exists within the same grounded, tangible reality. CG allows the show to use the full language of cameras and lighting to build horror and tension in a way that 2D animation simply couldn't replicate.

Kenan drew a direct line back to the original 1984 film, pointing out that cinematographer László Kovács brought a gritty, cinematic quality to what could have been a straightforward comedy. The goal with Night Shift was to carry that same cinematic sensibility into animation.

Balancing Scares and Comedy

One of the central challenges, and greatest strengths, of the Ghostbusters franchise has always been its blend of horror and humor. The team reflected on how the original film pulled off that balance, with audiences arriving expecting a broad comedy and instead getting something genuinely frightening.

Kalan offered a particularly sharp observation: leaning into the scares actually strengthens the comedy. A ghost in a silly world isn't especially scary or funny. But the more grounded and frightening the world feels, the more effective the humor becomes. The two elements feed each other.

A Gateway to Horror — For the Brave

When asked whether the show could serve as an entry point to horror for younger viewers, the team was candid. They're not targeting a specific age group, they're targeting the broadest possible audience, the same universal crowd that has always been drawn to Ghostbusters. That said, the show is genuinely scary, and the creative team sees that as a feature, not a concern. Animation also gives them tools to stylize horror in ways that make it more accessible without pulling punches.

Their guiding question throughout production wasn't whether the content was appropriate for a given age range, it was simply whether they were doing right by Ghostbusters. If they get that right, they believe the audience will follow.

For the full interview, head over to What's on Netflix and check out Ryan Gaur's complete piece. Ghostbusters: Night Shift is coming to Netflix.Stay tuned for more updates right here.