Not all of the original Ghostbusters: Afterlife relaunched the series by combining a new cast with legacy characters. It left the door open for almost all of the characters to come back in Ghostbusters 4 depending on the story, but not all of them are necessary to make the next installment.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife was a moderate hit for Sony during the pandemic, as it made nearly $200 million worldwide on a modest $75M budget. While the studio has not yet confirmed plans for another movie, Ghostbusters 4 has also not been ruled out. Ernie Hudson returned as Winston Zeddemore alongside the other original Ghostbusters stars, and he's continuing to express interest in playing the character again. Without official confirmation that the franchise will continue, it is unclear if Hudson will get that chance. But, he is a necessary piece to Ghostbusters 4 if it happens.
The end of Ghostbusters: Afterlife positioned Winston as the key reason behind how more movies in the franchise can be made. He buys the Ghostbuster's old Firehouse headquarters and returns the ECTO-1 to the location, seemingly as part of his plan to restart the Ghostbusters business. This makes Winston's return in Ghostbusters 4 absolutely vital. If he is the one funding the next generation of Ghostbusters, it only makes sense that he'd appear and interact with them. Sony has long had an interest in a reboot with major movie stars - such as Chris Pratt and Channing Tatum - but Ernie Hudson needs to be involved if Ghostbusters 4 is meant to continue the threads left by Ghostbusters: Afterlife's ending.
While Ernie Hudson's return as Winston makes sense for Ghostbusters 4, he is the only remaining original member who still needs to come back. Ghostbusters: Afterlife's post-credits scene did show Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) and Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) together, but neither of them has a clear path to relevance for Ghostbusters 4. The same is true of Ray Stanz (Dan Aykroyd). It might be odd to imagine a Ghostbusters movie happening without Murray and Aykroyd since they were two of the main stars, but Ghostbusters: Afterlife's post-credits scene shows the franchise should be moving in a new direction that doesn't need to involve them.
Ghostbusters 4 bringing back Ernie Hudson but not Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd could also be a way to finally give Winston some justice. He was routinely the most overlooked member of the original team, but now he is the only one who must be in the next film for it to work. The Ghostbusters: Afterlife post-credits scene even joked about this as Winston said he was the sex appeal while Egon was the brains, Ray was the heart, and Peter kept it cool. Ghostbusters 4 can finally give Ernie Hudson a central role that proves how valuable he was to the team.
