Having finally finished its slow transformation from “Obvious joke in the original movie” to “Thing nostalgia addicts mention while deep in a childhood withdrawal spiral” to “Actual movie you’ll be able to see in theaters,” Amazon MGM has now officially set a release date for Spaceballs: The Sequel. Specifically, the Mel Brooks follow-up—which represents, among other things, the first time original movie star Rick Moranis has acted in a movie since throwing his voice into the direct-to-video Brother Bear sequel in 2006—will be Scroobing its way into theaters a year from now, on April 23, 2027.
Per Deadline, news that fans of the, uh, “franchise” finally had a date to look forward to broke on Friday. Although featuring return performances from Brooks, Moranis, Bill Pullman, Daphne Zuniga, and George Wyner, the film feels like it’s largely the product of folks who grew up on the 1987 original: That especially means Josh Gad, who both stars in and co-wrote the new film, alongside animated comedy guys Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez. Josh Greenbaum, whose recent track record includes the delightfully absurd Barb And Star Go To Vista Del Mar and documentary Will And Harper, directed the movie, while its non-sexagenarian-and-up cast will includes Keke Palmer, Anthony Carrigan, and Pullman’s son, Lewis Pullman.
It’s actually kind of fascinating to consider what a large profile Spaceballs has developed over the years, given that it got both commercial and critical shrugs when it came out in 1987. (Possibly, in part, because it was a parody arriving a full decade after the release of the movie it was making fun of, and four years after the “final” movie in that series.) But time, and the collective memory of kids who grew up cracking up at Michael Winslow noises and Dark Helmet jokes when Brooks’ film entered the afternoon movie rotation, have a handy way of blurring all of that; now you’ve got genuine enthusiasm brewing for a sequel to a parody, which, we’re just saying, isn’t necessarily something you get with a Dracula: Dead And Loving It.
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