This may be the terror that Bill Murray has been trying to prevent for decades by refusing to join new Ghostbusters films: Sony Pictures has decided to create an entire universe of Ghostbusters movies, seemingly blowing the series out into a Marvel-style connected franchise, according to Deadline. The original film's director, Ivan Reitman, as well as one of its lead actors, Dan Aykroyd, will help to form what's being called Ghost Corp: a unit inside Sony dedicated to expanding the Ghostbusters franchise with additional movies, TV shows, and merchandise.

Sony's first project is, of course, the all-female Ghostbusters reboot. Its second, according to Deadline, is going to be a "male-driven" Ghostbusters film potentially directed by the Russo Brothers, who are behind Captain America: The Winter Soldier and some of the best episodes of Community. Channing Tatum may star, and Drew Pearce, who wrote Iron Man 3, is creating the script. "It’s just the beginning of what I hope will be a lot of wonderful movies," Reitman tells Deadline.

Sony is desperate for franchises, so one need not look further than that to understand why it would try to expand Ghostbusters in a way that feels totally unnecessary. That all said, the fact that Sony is calling out this second Ghostbusters film as "male driven" still feels like a pathetic move in response to the ridiculous whining from some corners about a Ghostbusters reboot starring a group of women. It may ultimately be about the money for Sony, but it's disappointing that an all-male group is the best basis it could come up with for a second film.

There are no specifics on where the franchise goes from there, but Reitman says his "primary focus" will be to build out the Ghostbusters universe. "The original film is beloved, as is the cast," he tells Deadline, "and we hope to create films we will continue to love."