Comeback narratives have driven Comic-Con 2026 so far. But if the noise that greeted Johnny Depp’s surprise appearance as Ebenezer Scrooge yesterday was largely the scratching of heads and raising of eyebrows, the only thing that was raised today during the Spaceballs: The New One panel was the roof. That’s because the damn thing nearly came off when comedy legend Rick Moranis — back as Dark Helmet in the forthcoming sequel to the 1987 Mel Brooks Star Wars spoof — was unveiled to a rapturous reception and a standing ovation. All of which seemed to convince the 73 year old that coming out of retirement (“I wasn’t retired, I was just negotiating,” he quipped) to make his first live-action movie since 1997’s Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves! was “the best decision I’ve ever made.”
©Getty Images
“The truth is, I had to say yes to this thing,” said Moranis, after taking his seat on stage following an intro where some goons had to literally comb the audience, in a nod to a memorable gag from the original movie, in order to find him. “It was the only way I could get Josh Gad to stop texting me.”
“What I loved was he was brilliant at filmmaking, hilariously funny, but he brought pathos,” said Josh Gad of Josh Greenbaum. “And all my favourite Mel Brooks movies have heart.”
Gad, the star of Frozen and The Book Of Mormon, is the driving force behind this belated sequel to Spaceballs, and told the story of how he set the wheels in motion after screening a Moranis season for his daughter, only for her to ask to see Spaceballs 2, a movie promised at the end of the first one by Mel Brooks’ Schwartz Master Yogurt. With no Spaceballs sequel to be found, Gad went about lobbying Brooks to give him his blessing to make one, and then recruited another Josh G — Josh Greenbaum, director of Barb And Star Go To Vista Del Mar — to direct it. “What I loved was he was brilliant at filmmaking, hilariously funny, but he brought pathos,” said Josh G of Josh G. “And all my favourite Mel Brooks movies have heart.”
That heart was not in evidence during the panel for the movie, which placed the focus firmly on the funny, with host Kevin Smith introducing a panel including Greenbaum, Gad, Moranis, the returning Daphne Zuniga (as former Princess, now Queen, Vespa), new cast members Lewis Pullman (whose dad, Bill, got his big break in the first film, and who also returns for this) and Keke Palmer, and writers Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit, who co-wrote with Gad. “Benji and I are comedy writers,” said Hernandez, “and let me tell you what is not fun, is pitching to literally the funniest person who ever lived.”
Hilarious panel highlights, presumably given the blessing of Brooks who, at 100, wisely stayed at home but sent a video message, included Pullman reading out a letter from his absent father that extolled the virtues of family while neglecting to pay his son any compliments; a piss-take of the MCU’s increasingly convoluted phases that, for my money, might be the best use yet of the wraparound screens that have become a Hall H hallmark; and, perhaps best of all, some actual footage from the film which looks genuinely cinematic and very funny, with a Yogurt gag every bit as good as the original (good to see Yogurt hasn’t gone off after all these years) and a great Avatar gag that, with the right glasses, could have your eye out.
All in all, the one-hour panel was something of a very encouraging triumph for Spaceballs: The New One, which will arrive next Spring. Now the countdown begins for the announcement of Robin Hood: Even More Men In Tights.
