Spaceballs 2 Announces Start of Production With a Star Wars: The Force Awakens Parody Photo

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Amazon MGM Studios announced Thursday that Spaceballs 2, the long-awaited sequel to the 1987 sci-fi comedy and Star Wars parody, is now in production. The studio also released a behind-the-scenes photo of the cast doing a table read of the screenplay (seen below), which is a send-up of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens cast table read photo from 2014.

You can see the two photos below.

The studio also confirmed that Rick Moranis has officially returned to acting to reprise his role as Dark Helmet in Spaceballs 2. Technically, Spaceballs 2 isn’t the first time Moranis has reprised the role of Pannakin Crybaby /Lord Dark Helmet. He voiced the character in an episode of The Goldbergs in 2018.

Moranis gradually withdrew from public life following his wife’s death in 1991, prioritizing raising his children over his acting career. Although he clarified in a 2015 interview that he had not actually retired from acting and was just being “picky” about his projects – turning down the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot – Moranis has been on an extended hiatus from the screen since 1997 when he starred in Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves.

In the years since, Moranis has done voice roles in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys, the Brother Bear movies, and Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch Kids. He reunited with his Strange Brew co-star and fellow SCTV alum Dave Thomas for Bob & Doug McKenzie’s Two-Four Anniversary in 2007. Moranis also famously appeared opposite fellow Canadian Ryan Reynolds in a Mint Mobile commercial in 2020.

In his Hollywood heyday in the 1980s and ‘90s, Moranis appeared in such films as Ghostbusters (and its first sequel), Little Shop of Horrors, The Flintstones, Parenthood, L.A. Story, Streets of Fire, Little Giants, Big Bully, and, of course, the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids franchise.

Moranis isn’t the only cast member from Spaceballs to return for the sequel. Mel Brooks, Daphne Zuniga and Bill Pullman as Yogurt, Princess Vespa, and Lone Starr, respectively. Pullman’s son, Thunderbolts’ Lewis Pullman is also in the film.

The cast of Spaceballs 2 also includes Josh Gad, Keke Palmer, Anthony Carrigan, George and Wyner. Gad, Palmer, Lewis Pullman, and Carrigan will play brand-new characters.

Josh Greenbaum (Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar) is directing from a script by Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez (Lego Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy; TMNT: Mutant Mayhem), and Josh Gad. Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, and Jeb Brody are producing the film, alongside Mel Brooks, Josh Gad, Josh Greenbaum, and Kevin Salter. Adam Merims, Benji Samit, and Dan Hernandez will executive produce.

Spaceballs 2 will open in theaters in 2027.