In 1987, Spaceballs came out in theaters. A satire of the Star Wars franchise, it didn't pull in a ton of money but became a cult classic years later on home video, where little kids like me watched it and laughed at the talking pizza people, the Wookie knockoff named Barf, the spaceship so big it took a full five minutes to float across the screen, and the rest. I saw Spaceballs before I saw Star Wars, and I've never regretted that for a second.
Now, 40 years later, a sequel is coming. Mel Brooks will no longer write or direct — that honor will go to director Josh Greenbaum and writers Benji Samit, Dan Hernandez, and Josh Gad — but he will return as Yogurt, the Yoda stand-in who knows as much about the mysterious power of the Schwartz as he does about merchandising. Per Deadline, Bill Pullman is on tap to return as the Han Solo-esque Lone Starr while Rick Moranis will come back as the evil Dark Helmet. That's a big one, since Moranis has mostly stayed away from the screen since the '90s, when he devoted himself to raising his children after the passing of his wife. There will be a younger cast too. Keke Palmer will be part of it, and I assume Josh Gad himself will be in the mix.
You can watch the first teaser for the movie above. It definitely feels like it's in line with the original. The title crawl mocks what a franchise-obsessed place Hollywood has become, running down just how many Star Wars movies have come out since the '80s, including "a prequel trilogy, a sequel trilogy, a sequel to the prequel, a prequel to the sequel, countless TV spinoffs, [and] a movie spinoff of the TV spinoff which is both a prequel and a sequel." Bonus points if you can name them all.
The new Spaceballs movie is being described as “A Non-Prequel Non-Reboot Sequel Part Two but with Reboot Elements Franchise Expansion Film,” which is only slightly more absurd than the way actual executives have to describe the convulated franchise fare they're making these days. It's anyone's guess whether this new Spaceballs movie will hit its target, but there's definitely a target to hit.
The Spaceballs sequel will come out sometime in 2027. Interestingly, the movie doesn't seem to have an official title yet, although there's a really obvious one waiting around for anyone brave enough to use it. In the original movie, Yogurt says they're return in Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money. I can understand executives being nervous about using that title since it's so openly cynical, but it's 100% dead-on and honest, so I hope they go with it.
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