Why we’re fairly convinced Bill Murray is going to be the baddie in the Ghostbusters reboot

We're a few months away from the Ghostbusters reboot (and the first trailer's just appeared), and theories abound as to what Bill Murray's role in it is.

Call us maniacs, but we think we've figured it out - Murray will be the baddie. Obviously we don't actually, like, know this, but we've thought it through and are cautiously confident. Read on...

• He’s definitely in it somewhere

It’s on IMDb and everything, so it must be true.

• He always said he’d only return as a ghost

For years there were rumours of a third Ghostbusters film in which Murray’s character, Peter Venkman, would be a ghost accompanying his still-living colleagues. In 2010 he told the Daily Mail, "I said to them, 'I'll do it if you kill me off in the first reel.' So now they are going to have me as a ghost in the film." Maybe he’s stuck to his guns and is a ghost in this one – and, presumably, the villain of Ghostbusters is, you know, a ghost.

• The baddie might be the ghost from the logo

A toy line was recently unveiled that suggests the movie’s big baddie could be the ghost from the iconic logo. He’s got a bit of a paunch and looks good in a bow-tie… just like Bill Murray! Come on, you can totally see a dead Murray coming back as that blobby thing.

• If they could show him in the trailers, they would

Murray took the part on (whatever his part is) because he worried that if he turned it down it would be seen as “some sort of disapproval” of a project he really supported. Reboot naysayers constantly cited his non-involvement as a sign that the project was doomed (rather than saying what they really meant, which was that were big sexist arseholes). There’d be no better way to silence cynics than by showing Murray being hilarious in the trailer, but the filmmakers opted not to. The most sensible explanation we can think of as to why they’d do that is that his appearance would be a spoiler, like he’s that ghost from up there or something.​

• Filmmakers are giant fibbers

Before Star Trek: Into Darkness came out, Damon Lindelof and JJ Abrams repeatedly said in interviews that the character Benedict Cumberbatch was playing was absolutely NOT Khan Noonien Singh.

When the film came out, that’s exactly who he played. Similarly, Marion Cotillard’s insistence before The Dark Knight Rises that she definitely wasn’t playing Talia Al Ghul was a big porky pie. Therefore it wouldn’t be the hugest shock if the official line - that Murray is playing a paranormal expert trying to debunk the Ghostbusters - turns out to be a red herring.

• Come on, he’s a really good baddie

If you haven’t seen Kingpin, watch Kingpin immediately and thank us afterwards.