Rick Moranis ends retirement for ‘Spaceballs 2’

Comedy star Rick Moranis has officially ended his acting retirement to appear in the forthcoming sequel to comedy Spaceballs.

The classic 1987 Mel Brooks movie was primarily a spoof of the Star Wars films, and starred the late John Candy, Bill Pullman, and Moranis as villain Lord Dark Helmet (a parody of Darth Vader). The film has gone on to be a beloved staple of the genre, and a follow-up, titled Spaceballs 2, has begun filming.

Studio Amazon MGM has announced the full cast (via Variety), with original stars Pullman and Moranis returning, as well as original director Brooks as Yoda parody Yoghurt. They’ll be joined by newcomers Josh Gad, Keke Palmer, Lewis Pullman and Anthony Carrigan. The sequel is scheduled for a 2027 release, and a picture of the cast was recently shared on the studio’s Instagram account.

The film will be Moranis’s first live action feature since the 1997 sequel Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves. Having become a star thanks to films like Ghostbusters and The Flintstones, Moranis left acting in the late ‘90s to care for his children following the death of his wife, make-up designer Ann Belsky. His only appearances on the big screen after his retirement would be for animated voice roles in the Brother Bear movies.

The actor declined to reprise his role in the recent Ghostbusters reboots, but has made sporadic appearances in recent years, including a commercial with Reynolds and Disney+ documentary series Prop Culture. In 2020, he made headlines after being injured in an unprovoked attack in New York.

Spaceballs 2’s announcement was made in June, with the clip making fun of Hollywood’s sequel culture, with a Star Wars-style text crawl reading: “Thirty-eight years ago, there was only one Star Wars trilogy. But since then, there have been… a prequel trilogy, a sequel trilogy, a sequel to the prequel, a prequel to the sequel, countless TV spinoffs, a movie spinoff of the TV spinoff which is both a prequel and a sequel…”

“Not to mention… 36 MCU movies with two different Robert Downey Jr.‘s, DCU attempt number 1, DCU attempt number 2, 8 Harry Potter movies, a TV series remaking the same 8 Harry Potter movies… but in thirty-eight years there has only ever been one Spaceballs… until now.”

Recently, Spaceballs star John Candy was praised by Macaulay Culkin, who said the late actor took care of him as a child actor.

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