Spaceballs 2 is finally happening. It took nearly 40 years, but the sequel is set to hit theaters next April, and it turns out this won't just be a simple one off. It's 2026, after all, and these days almost every franchise gets stretched into a multi movie universe.
At Comic Con, the panel leaned into that trend, poking fun at how so many franchises now follow the "cinematic universe" formula popularized by Marvel. The audience was shown a mock roadmap of upcoming Spaceballs films, stretching all the way from "Phase 1" to "Phase 9." It's clearly a joke, but it's also a good sign that the absurd humor from the original film is still front and center in this one.
Star Wars remains the primary target of parody, with fictional titles like "Spaceballs: The Schwartz Awakens" for 2028 and "Spaceballs: The Franchise Menace" for 2029. Marvel gets a nod as well, with "Spaceballs: Super Duper Secret Wars" supposedly arriving in 2031, a clear riff on Avengers: Secret Wars.
During the panel, Josh Gad shared how the project came together, explaining he once discussed a possible Honey, I Shrunk the Kids sequel with Rick Moranis. That idea never moved forward, but Gad ended up watching several of Moranis's old films with his daughter, including the original Spaceballs, which famously ends with a joke about a sequel.
"We finished it and she goes, 'Can we watch part 2?'" Gad recalled. "And I said, 'There is no part 2.' And she said, 'Yeah, the weird little alien guy said there was going to be a part 2.'"
When he told her that was just a joke, she asked, "Well, why isn't there a part 2?"
Gad said he had a dream about what a sequel could look like that same night and soon after, he was pitching Mel Brooks and his producing partner on ideas inspired by the newer Star Wars films. According to Gad, the new movie is largely a reflection on how nostalgic the film industry has become.
"The industry it was parodying is a very different industry than this one 40 years later," Gad said. "We all sort of talked thematically about this word nostalgia. And we love movies that look back. We love sequels. We love continuing these stories we grew up with. We analyzed why that is, and we thought Spaceballs was the perfect vehicle to catch us up with everything that's happened in filmdom and in fan filmdom."
"When they made the first one, there was a trilogy to make fun of. Now there's a never ending fount," said Kevin Smith, who moderated the panel.
"We really wanted to dive into that," Gad added. Hence, the the Spaceballs Cinematic Universe!
The highlight of the panel was Rick Moranis, who is returning as Dark Helmet after nearly 30 years away from acting. He made his Comic Con debut after a hilarious callback to the "comb the desert" scene from the original film.
Moranis also explained what finally brought him back. "The truth is that I had to say yes to this thing. It was the only way I could get Josh Gad to stop texting me," he joked. "Actually, I started talking to Mel about the sequel back in 1989. We kept talking about it over the years. I really wasn't retired, I was just negotiating."
"But no, this came along right at the right time, and I started talking to these folks and hearing who was going to be in it," he continued. "I heard Bill Pullman was coming back, that Lewis was going to be in it too, and it just felt like this is it. It's time, and yeah, I said yes, and it's honestly the best decision I've made."
Moranis isn't the only original cast member returning. Bill Pullman is back as Lone Starr, Daphne Zuniga as Vespa, and Mel Brooks as President Skroob and Yogurt. They're joined by newcomers Josh Gad, Keke Palmer, and Lewis Pullman, the latter playing Starburst, the son of Lone Starr and Vespa. Gad confirmed his character is a Mog, but he made clear it's not Barf or Barf's son.
"That is a role that will only ever be played by one person," he said, referring to the late John Candy.
Spaceballs 2: The New One hits theaters April 23, 2027.