“Who you gonna call?” We all know the answer, and will likely hear that iconic Ray Parker, Jr. song more than a few times throughout this Halloween season. But who doesn’t love “Ghostbusters”? The original supernatural comedy hit theaters in the summer of 1984, and the franchise was an instant hit. With an all-star cast including Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, and Rick Moranis, “Ghostbusters” brought home nearly $300 million in box office returns on a “modest” $30 million budget.

In subsequent years, the franchise grew, expanding via sequels, cartoons, and other merchandise that made this Ivan Reitman-directed picture quite the superstar. No wonder the song “Ghostbusters” could be heard on nearly every Halloween mix. But what’s the deal with the Ghostbusters franchise?

Back in 2015, Sony launched Ghost Corps, a production company keen on bringing more ghost-fueled adventures to the big screen. Initially helmed by Ivan Reitman and Dan Aykroyd, the production house has launched three separate “Ghostbusters” projects in the last decade, and announced even more. So how many “Ghostbusters” movies actually are there? And what’s next for this spectral group? Well, arm up your proton packs, because we’ve got some busting to do as we dive right into the Ghostbusters universe. We hope you aren’t afraid.

As far the official Ghostbusters timeline is concerned, there are currently only four films in the series. Primarily following the adventures of the original Ghostbusters — Peter Venkman (Murray), Egon Spengler (Ramis), Ray Stantz (Aykroyd), and Winston Zeddmore (Ernie Hudson) — the 1984 “Ghostbusters” started it all, revealing the existence of evil spirits to the entire world. After the foursome defeated the villainous inter-dimensional being Gozer (Slavitza Jovan), the group took a break for a few years before returning in 1989 for “Ghostbusters II.” Here, they took on the spirit of Vigo the Carpathian (Wilhelm von Homburg), vanquishing him and saving New York City once again.

It was at this point that the “Ghostbusters” narrative took a long pause. While animated continuations of the franchise kept the brand going well through the ’90s, the original motion picture series came to a halt. A third film remained in development hell for decades until Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis finally turned the project into “Ghostbusters: The Video Game” in 2009. Some consider “The Video Game” the true sequel to “Ghostbusters II,” but recent events have changed that.

In 2021, the original series was revived with “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” a legacy sequel directed by Ivan Reitman’s son, Jason Reitman, and starring the grandchildren of Egon Spengler. The original cast also returned in “Afterlife,” providing closure for fans after Harold Ramis’ death in 2014 while opening the door for a new chapter in the story. A follow-up, “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” (directed by Gil Kenan), was released in 2024, reuniting both the new and the old Ghostbusters in New York City.

If you’re a die-hard “Ghostbusters” fan, however, you likely noticed that we skipped over one interlude between the two pairs of “Ghostbusters” movies that make up the franchise’s official canon. If you were around in 2016, then there’s no way that you escaped all the online discourse surrounding the reboot. With Paul Feig in the director’s chair, Sony opted to reboot “Ghostbusters” with an all-female cast, including Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon as brand-new characters. The film also features cameos from many of the original film’s stars, now playing entirely different characters.

To say that the project — retroactively renamed “Ghostbusters: Answer the Call” — didn’t end well is an understatement. It was considered a box-office bomb, and was eviscerated by fans. So while there are technically five “Ghostbusters” movies in the series, only the original films and the revival sequels are considered “canon.” Of course, the cannocity of “Answer the Call” is especially confusing because the events of the 1984 film are sometimes alluded to. To make things even stranger, IDW released a six-issue mini-series titled “Ghostbusters 101,” where both the original and reboot teams unite as their universes began to merge. Does that mean we could see the 2016 team again? Anything is possible!

After the success of the original film, “Ghostbusters” became an instantly recognizable brand. Action figures, comic books, and other merchandise were made to keep consumers coming back, but arguably the biggest boost to the original Ghostbusters’ popularity — and likely the version ’80s kids remember best — was the animated series, “The Real Ghostbusters.” Because of an unrelated television program from the ’70s titled “The Ghost Busters,” the word “real” was added to the cartoon’s title to separate the pair. “The Real Ghostbusters” ran for seven seasons on ABC between 1986 and 1991, with Slimer becoming the team’s official mascot.

Years after the series ended, ABC brought back the Ghostbusters for “Extreme Ghostbusters,” which put together a new (and very ’90s) team of ghost hunters led by Egon Spengler. Sadly, “Extreme Ghostbusters” only lasted one season. Still, “The Real Ghostbusters” was so popular that many have considered it canon, despite small contradictions with the “Ghostbusters” films. The 2022 video game, “Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed,” even adapted events from the cartoon into the official canon, taking place after the events of “Ghostbusters: Afterlife.”

With five films and two cartoons to its name — and an almost endless supply of comic books and video games to boot — the “Ghostbusters” franchise is still going strong after 40 years. But what’s next for the team? Well, that’s sort of up in the air right now. While Ghost Corps does have ideas for a sequel to “Frozen Empire,” nothing has been officially announced — and there’s been a long line of undeveloped “Ghostbusters” projects that date back to the formation of the production company a decade ago.

Back in 2015, Ghost Corps announced that an animated “Ghostbusters” movie was in the works, with plans to make the ghosts the protagonists this time around. Though it was delayed because of “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” the studio confirmed in 2022 that the project was still moving forward. We’ll see if anything comes of it. That same year, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller revealed that they too had been working on a “Ghostbusters” flick with Ivan Reitman, but it’s been crickets ever since.

For a while, fans were excited about the possibility of a new television series set in the future titled “Ghostbusters: Ecto Force,” but the project was shelved after the poor release of “Ghostbusters: Answer the Call.” In 2019, Dan Aykroyd noted that he was interested in exploring a potential prequel series about the original leads when they were teenagers, but that project wasn’t realized either. On a more positive note, Netflix and Ghost Corps have recently joined forces for a new 3D animated “Ghostbusters” series, which is set to be connected to the current legacy sequels. Here’s hoping this one actually gets off the ground!