RICK MORANIS RETURNING AS DARK HELMET FOR ‘SPACEBALLS’ SEQUEL
Nearly 30 years after appearing in his last big screen role, veteran funnyman Rick Moranis is set to make his acting return in a sequel to Spaceballs .
The beloved 1987 Star Wars spoof featured the 72-year-old SCTV alum as the bumbling Dark Helmet alongside Mel Brooks’ President Skroob as they attempt to steal the air supply of the peaceful planet Druidia by kidnapping Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga). The pair are thwarted in their attempts by Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) and his sidekick Barf (the late John Candy).
Alongside Brooks, Pullman will return in his role of Lone Starr with his son Lewis, Keke Palmer and Josh Gad also joining the cast.
According to Deadline , the film has been described as “A Non-Prequel Non-Reboot Sequel Part Two but with Reboot Elements Franchise Expansion Film.”
Brooks officially announced the film on X , alongside a Star Wars -like opening crawl that poked fun at the incessant number of remakes and prequels that have been churned out by Hollywood over the past 40 years.
“I told you we’d be back,” he captioned his post.
Sharing Brooks’ social media post, Gad wrote on Instagram , “I was that child who saw ‘Spaceballs’ before I ever saw ‘Star Wars’ and then wondered why anyone would do a dramatic remake of the Mel Brooks classic. It is therefore the greatest gift of my life to now help take the reins and work alongside Mel and this incredible group to do a sequel to the movie that first inspired George Lucas . 🪐🏐🎾🏀.”
In an interview with Forbes last year, Gad, who co-wrote the script with Josh Greenbaum, Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez, said that Brooks “has been so unbelievably supportive” of his sequel plans.
“It’s a dream to be able to finally make the reality prophesied by Yogurt in the first movie happen. I can’t say more than that,” Gad said. “I can’t tell you anything beyond (the) process at this point, but I can tell you every hour of every day right now is spent making this project closer and closer to reality — and I think we’re nearing the end zone here.”
After last appearing in 1997’s straight-to-DVD Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves , Moranis stepped away from Hollywood to raise his two kids following his wife’s death in 1991.
But he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2015 that he wasn’t retired.
“I took a break, which turned into a longer break,” Moranis told the outlet at the time. “But I’m interested in anything that I would find interesting. I still get the occasional query about a film or television role, and as soon as one comes along that piques my interest.”
In 2020, Moranis was slated to star opposite Gad in Shrunk , a reboot to 1989’s Honey, I Shrunk the Kids , but the project was sidelined.
“A lot of u ask me what’s going on with this film,” Gad wrote on Twitter in 2023. “Truth is, we were inches from starting and then COVID hit, inches from starting again & then my schedule exploded with conflicts, inches from starting again & budget got the best of us.”
He then encouraged followers to keep pushing for a sequel.
“If you want it, let your local @disney know,” he wrote.
2025-06-13T16:28:04Z