Ghostbusters Afterlife Who Played Ivo Shandor Cameo Explained

Ghostbusters Afterlife: Who Played Ivo Shandor – Cameo Explained

After being referenced several times in the original Ghostbusters movie, Ivo Shandor finally appears onscreen in Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

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Ghostbusters Afterlife Who Played Ivo Shandor Cameo Explained

The mysterious Ivo Shandor finally reveals himself in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and here’s the actor who plays him. While Shandor didn’t physically appear onscreen in 1984’s original Ghostbusters movie, his presence was felt throughout, as it was his machinations that ultimately allowed for cosmic monster Gozer the Gozerian to reach Earth. An architect by trade, Shandor designed 550 Central Park West, the apartment building that Dana Barrett (sci-fi movie legend Sigourney Weaver) inhabits in New York City, and on top of which the final battle between the Ghostbusters and Gozer takes place.

Shandor’s architectural work was seemingly always in service of facilitating Gozer’s rise, as he served as leader of a cult dedicated to the otherworldly being. While Shandor was thought to be dead during the original movie, Ghostbusters: Afterlife revealed that he had kept himself in some kind of stasis inside the mining complex (i.e., Gozer’s temple) he had erected in Summerville, Oklahoma. His awakening is seemingly triggered by Gozer’s ascension, as he can be seen briefly moving around before the quartet of proton streams Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) set up in the temple pushes Gozer temporarily back down.

When Gozer finally does fully ascend, their dutiful worshiper Shandor rushes to them, hoping to rule the world together. Instead, Gozer (physically played by Olivia Wilde) literally tears him in half – a hilarious, yet quite macabre moment of comeuppance for Shandor, who it would seem spent his entire life backing the wrong horse. While Shandor’s face is only fully shown for one brief scene, he’s played by none other than J.K. Simmons, a prolific, Oscar-winning character actor who many are likely to recognize first for his work as J. Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy.

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Simmons briefly returned to the Jameson role in Spider-Man: Far From Home and Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and will once again appear in the MCU in Spider-Man: No Way Home. In addition to playing Peter Parker’s boss, Simmons also played Jim Gordon in Justice League, and starred in critically acclaimed films like Whiplash and Juno. He’s also a frequent collaborator of Ghostbusters: Afterlife director and co-writer Jason Reitman – who cameoed in Ghostbusters 2 – appearing in the aforementioned Juno, Thank You for Smoking, Up in the Air, and more. With that in mind, it’s unsurprising that Reitman would reach out to Simmons to play such a brief, but memorable role – one that’s so centrally important to Ghostbusters’ mythos.

Interestingly, if past Ghostbusters lore is any indication, it’s possible this might not be Simmons’ only opportunity to play Shandor. In the 2009 Ghostbusters video game, which featured the original cast back to reprise their roles – including Harold Ramis prior to his death in 2014 – and was promoted as a sort of unofficial Ghostbusters 3, Shandor was one of the main antagonists, despite being a ghost himself. While Ghostbusters: Afterlife doesn’t seem to be keeping the game as canon, there’s no reason they couldn’t still use the Shandor as a ghost plot device in a potential Ghostbusters 4, should it happen.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/ghostbusters-afterlife-ivo-shandor-jk-simmons-cameo/

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