WATCH: Kumail Nanjiani Explains How ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ Came to Be

Ghostbusters: Afterlife

This summer, fans of the 1984 cult classic Ghostbusters will rejoice as Ghostbusters: The Video Game, a side-scrolling action game set in present day New York City, takes to the virtual plains of the Nintendo Switch. While the main characters from the original film are shown at the beginning of the game, they don’t return until the very end. Much like the movie’s plot, it leaves little reason for the gamer to play the story alone – to the dismay of the man behind the game’s main star, the wildly popular voice actor and comedian Kumail Nanjiani.

During a Friday night appearance on Conan, Nanjiani explained how he’d initially approached director Paul Feig about recasting the four stars from the original film, including Ernie Hudson and Dan Aykroyd. He suggested “slapping a younger cast on this film,” but, according to Nanjiani, Feig responded that he would instead expand the universe for the franchise. “What do you think about filling the Ghostbusters into your game with four teenage girls?” Nanjiani remembered Feig asking. “You know what Paul Feig liked about that? He’s a genius,” he added.

Nanjiani and Feig eventually wound up working together on Ghostbusters: The Video Game, and Nanjiani voiced Tiffany, an awkward teenage girl living in downtown New York City. Tiffany also appears in a new trailer for the film, which shows a lot of the subway filming of the original film and also introduces the new line “four beauties, four ghosts” from the game – and Tiffany, of course.

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