Why Bill Murray Agreed to Appear in Ghostbusters Reboot

Bill Murray returns to Ghostbusters!

Bill Murray is one of the main reasons why it’s taken so long for a third Ghostbusters movie to get off the ground. For almost twenty-five years, Murray refused to reprise his role as Peter Venkman on film, although he did lend his voice to the 2009 Ghostbusters video game. After decades of dragging his feet, Murray finally signed on for a cameo in Paul Feig’s upcoming Ghostbusters reboot. While Murray will reportedly be playing an entirely new character rather than Venkman, the fact that he’s participating at all is a huge surprise nevertheless.

Vulture recently spoke with Murray to find out what made him change his mind after all these years. “I thought about it for a very long time,” Murray said. “Like, many, many months. No, that’s not right. I was seriously thinking about this for years, really … It kept eating at me, and I really respect those girls. And then I started to feel like if I didn’t do this movie, maybe somebody would write a bad review or something, thinking there was some sort of disapproval [on my part].”

Although Murray was reluctant to return to Ghostbusters for the longest time, Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy’s involvement in the reboot helped persuade him. “I like those girls a lot,” he said. “I mean, I really do. They are tough to say no to. And Paul is a real nice fellow.”

We’re happy to see Murray finally getting board. Now if we can just get Ernie Hudson to make an appearance, we’ll be set.