A Classic Ghostbuster Sidekick Suits Up For the First Time

Janine Melnitz is getting promoted.

The Ghostbusters’ beloved receptionist — whose famous greeting on the team’s phone (“Ghostbusters! Whaddya want?”) has become one of most quoted lines in the franchise’s history — will apparently suit up as a full-fledged Ghostbuster in the upcoming sequel Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.

That much is clear from the new covers of the latest issue of Empire Magazine that are coming next month. One features the surviving original Ghostbusters team — Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson — with Janine actress Annie Potts in a classic Ghostbusters jumpsuit, subbing in for Egon Spengler, played by the late, great Harold Ramis.

The other cover features the new Ghostbusters team introduced in 2022’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife: Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd) and Callie (Carrie Coon), Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), and Phoebe Spengler (Mckenna Grace).

Potts co-starred in Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II and made a brief cameo in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, when she checked in on the Spengler family at their new home in Oklahoma. A post-credits scene saw her back in New York City with Ernie Hudson’s Winston, who we learned is now a successful businessman. He buys the old Ghostbusters’ firehouse in order to refurbish it — little realizing something is still stuck in the trap in the building’s basement, a plot point that will presumably get picked up in Frozen Empire.

Here is Frozen Empire’s official synopsis:

In Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, the Spengler family returns to where it all started – the iconic New York City firehouse – to team up with the original Ghostbusters, who’ve developed a top-secret research lab to take busting ghosts to the next level. But when the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes an evil force, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second Ice Age.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is scheduled to open in theaters on March 22.