This is not a drill, movie fans! A Spaceballs sequel is in the works and set for release in 2027 — with three of its original stars reprising their roles in the cult classic 40 years after the original release.
Actor Mel Brooks surprised fans on Friday with a video announcing the return of the 1987 parody of Star Wars and other space flicks, that featured Bill Pullman, Canadian comedy legends John Candy and Rick Moranis, Joan Rivers and Brooks.
“I told you we’d be back,” Brooks wrote in a post on on the social media platforms BlueSky and X on Thursday, accompanied by a video teasing the forthcoming film, set to be released by Amazon MGM.
The video, styled after the opening sequence of the Star Wars films, mocked the number of sequels, prequels and franchise universes that have hit the screens since the last Spaceballs movie.
WATCH | Teaser for new Spaceballs movie:
“After 40 years, we asked what do the fans want. But instead, we’re making this movie,” said Brooks in the video, wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with “Spaceballs the Sweatshirt.”
The teaser video ends with the tag line: “The Schwartz awakens in 2027.” (In Star Wars you need “the force;” in Spaceballs you get “the Schwartz.”)
Moranis returning play Dark Helmet, a send up of Star Wars‘ Darth Vader, is a big deal for fans.
The 72-year-old, Toronto-born actor, also known for the Ghostbusters and Honey I Shrunk the Kids franchises, has made fewer appearances on screen in recent years, having largely stepped away from Hollywood to focus on raising his children following the death of his wife, Ann Belsky, in 1991.
Pullman, the now 71-year-old star of films like 1996’s Independence Day and its 2016 sequel Independence Day: Rersurgence, will step back into his Spaceballs leading role as the Han Solo-esque character Lone Starr.
And Brooks, who turns 99 years old later this month, will once again play Yogurt — like Yoda in Star Wars, but sparkly gold and with a love of merchandising. He also played the character of President Skroob in the first film.
But the sequel will have two very big comedic voids to fill.
Toronto-born Candy, who played one of his most memorable roles in the original film as the loveable sidekick Barf, died of a heart attack in 1994 at the age of 43.
Rivers, the revered stand-up comic and TV host, died from complications after going into cardiac arrest during a routine medical procedure in 2014. She was 81.
Rivers lent her voice and signature sass to the character of Dot Matrix, an android modelled after Star Wars’ C-3PO.
It also doesn’t appear, at this point, that former Melrose Place actress Daphne Zuniga is coming back to play her Princess Leia-like character, Princess Vespa.
WATCH | The trailer for the 1987 Mel Brooks cult classic Spaceballs:
According to Deadline, Nope and One of Them Days star Keke Palmer is joining the case, along with Lewis Pullman, who acted in Top Gun: Maverick and is the near look-alike son of Bill Pullman, are also expected to join the cast.
Brooks will be a producer on the film, but he won’t be writing or directing this time around.
Josh Greenbaum, who helmed the Kristen Wiig comedy Barb and Star Go to Vista del Mar and the Netflix documentary Will & Harper, is slated to direct.
Josh Gad, a 2011 Tony-nominee for Broadway’s The Book of Mormon and the voice of Olaf in the Frozen films, is co-writing the script.
“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,” Gad wrote in a post on X. “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.”
