Bill Murray has claimed he was tricked into appearing in the first Ghostbusters sequel “under false pretenses”.

After the huge success of the original Ghostbusters film in 1984, the cast – including Bill, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Sigourney Weaver – reunited five years later for a follow-up.

However, reflecting more than 30 years later, the Lost In Translation star has admitted Ghostbuters II didn’t quite turn out like the film he was led to believe it would be.

Speaking on a panel at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Bill recalled that he was initially “very, very reluctant” to make a Ghostbusters sequel.

Revealing that he was “pitched a story idea that was really great”, Bill explained (via The Independent): “I thought, ‘Holy cow, we could make that work’. [But that] ended up not being the story they wrote.

“They got us in the sequel under false pretenses.”

The Oscar-nominated actor, who played Peter Venkman in the franchise, added: “Harold [Ramis, who co-wrote the film as well as starring in it] had this great idea, but by the time we got to shooting it, I showed up on set and went, ‘What the hell is this? What is this thing?’.

“But we were already shooting it, so we had to figure out how to make it work.”

Bill recently completed filming on a third Ghostbusters film, which will co-star Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd and Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard, alongside the original cast.

A reboot with Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones previously hit cinemas in 2016, which was met with a mixed reception.