Nearly 30 years since his last onscreen acting gig, Rick Moranis is expected to reprise his role as Dark Helmet from 1987’s Spaceballs.
After Deadline reported in June that Moranis is coming out of retirement for Spaceballs 2, the sequel’s co-writer and potential star Josh Gad stopped short of confirming the actor’s return as he teased what attracted Moranis to the project.
“Well, I am not going to comment on whether or not Rick Moranis is returning, but hypothetically, if he were to return, I would say it’s because Rick would have felt like this was a project worthy of his return,” he told ScreenRant.
“So watch this space. But what I can say is it is surreal. It’s surreal because I grew up with Spaceballs and when the movie was prophesized in the first film, when Yogurt says, ‘God willing, we’ll all meet again in Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money,’ I, like everyone else, was just anticipating that that would happen sooner than 40 years later.”
Gad continued, “But I am so grateful it took that long because it’s the greatest gift on Earth to be able to not only be on the precipice of shooting this movie, but to be able to do it while Mel is still with us. So I’m thrilled. I’m beyond excited, and that’s about all I can say for now.”
George Wyner, Rick Moranis and Mel Brooks in ‘Spaceballs’ (1987) (MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection)
The Tony nominee was previously attached to a new film in the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids franchise, for which Moranis was set to reprise his role as Wayne Szalinski, but the update was stalled amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Inspired by George Lucas’ original Star Wars trilogy, Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs followed the titular planet’s President Skroob (Brooks) as he orders the villainous Dark Helmet (Moranis) to kidnap Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) in exchange for her oxygen-rich planet Druidia’s air supply. Renegade space pilot Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) comes to the rescue with his half-man, half-dog partner Barf (John Candy). Brooks also co-wrote and directed the film.
In June, Deadline confirmed that Gad is attached to produce and star in a Spaceballs sequel for Amazon MGM Studios from director Josh Greenbaum and a script by Gad, Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez. Brooks is also producing and reprising his role as Yogurt, with Pullman and Moranis returning to the cast, plus new characters played by Keke Palmer and Bill’s son Lewis Pullman.
Gad said in November that the first draft is complete, noting, “Everybody who’s read it has been blown away. The process of working on this with and alongside Mel Brooks has been one of the highlights of my career.”
