Everyone who's read the script for Spaceballs 2 has been "blown away"

In 1987, comedy legend Mel Brooks released Spaceballs, a parody of Star Wars that pit space rogue Lone Star (Bill Pullman) and his furry companion Barf (John Candy) against the vile Darth Helmet (Rick Moranis). Star Wars mania had by no means abated by that point — Return of the Jedi had come out four years before — but Spaceballs didn't get its own cult of fans until it came out on home video, which is how watched it when I was a tiny baby in the 1990s. I actually think I watched Spaceballs before I watched Star Wars, and it's still probably first in my heart.

Brooks made a couple of attempts over the years to get a sequel to Spaceballs made, but nothing took; according to Forbes, Moranis once pitched him on a movie called Spaceballs III: The Search for Spaceballs II, but it never came together. And so a couple new eras of Star Wars came and went, first the prequel trilogy and then the sequel trilogy, and Spaceballs remained untouched.

But better late than never: earlier this year, we heard that Josh Gad — who's had an eventful career but who remains best known for playing Olaf the snowman in the Frozen movies — was working on a Spaceballs sequel alongside Mel Brooks. “Without MGM taking me into their Culver prison cells, I can tell you that the draft is done,” he said this week. “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.”

"It was sort of a fever dream that this all happened. Mel has been so unbelievably supportive, involved, and electrified by this because it’s the one that surprisingly got away. 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. 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."

Any new Spaceballs movie would probably have to go forward without much of the original cast; Rick Moranis has retired, John Candy and Joan Rivers are both dead, and while it'd be fun to have Bill Pullman, Daphne Zuniga and Brooks himself involved, the story would have to be worked around the fact that a whole lotta years have passed since the original.

But the Star Wars series refreshed itself with new faces every once in a while, so why couldn't Spaceballs? That movie even set itself up for a sequel called Spaceballs II: The Quest for More Money, so there's even a title picked out. “Watch this space!” Gad chuckles when asked if they would use that one.

I'm a little bummed that Spaceballs II didn't get made a bit earlier during one of the previous spikes in the popularity of Star Wars, but it's not like the franchise has ever really gone away. And there's a lot of new stuff for Gad and company to parody that came out over the past 30-odd years. I hope they knock it out of the park and entertain my inner child.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account, sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel.