Spaceballs II Gets 2027 Release Date With Brooks and Moranis Returning

Rick Moranis will reprise Lord Dark Helmet on the big screen for the first time in nearly 30 years, anchoring a sequel that Amazon MGM Studios officially dated for April 23, 2027.

The film will carry the subtitle "Spaceballs II: The Search for More Money," a meta-comedic title lifted directly from a running joke inside the 1987 original, where the character Yogurt promises Lone Starr they will all meet again in exactly such a sequel. The studio described the new film as a "non-prequel, non-reboot" sequel, distinguishing it from the franchise reboots that have dominated Hollywood's approach to legacy properties in recent years.

Moranis, 72, stepped back from live-action performing after his wife, costume designer Ann Belsky, died of breast cancer in 1991. He raised their two children, Rachel and Mitchell, largely outside the entertainment industry. His last live-action film was 1997's "Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves," and his final screen credit of any kind was voice work in the direct-to-video "Brother Bear 2" in 2006. He declined a cameo in the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot, saying at the time that doing one day's work on a 30-year-old project made little sense. His most prominent recent public appearance was a 2020 Mint Mobile advertisement alongside Ryan Reynolds; a planned return in a "Shrunk" sequel was shelved after the COVID-19 pandemic halted development.

Mel Brooks, 99 and the holder of a rare EGOT distinction (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony), will reprise both of his original roles: Yogurt and President Skroob, while also serving as a producer. The announcement marked a milestone for a project that had been in development discussions as far back as 2013, when Moranis publicly confirmed he and Brooks had discussed a potential sequel.

The returning ensemble includes Bill Pullman as Lone Starr, Daphne Zuniga as Princess Vespa, and George Wyner as Colonel Sandurz. The new cast features Josh Gad, who co-wrote the screenplay with Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez and will also take an undisclosed on-screen role; Keke Palmer; Anthony Carrigan; and Lewis Pullman, Bill Pullman's real-life son, known from Marvel's "Thunderbolts." Josh Greenbaum, whose directing credits include "Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar" and the Netflix documentary "Will & Harper," will helm the production.

Producers include Gad, Greenbaum, Kevin Salter, and Imagine Entertainment's Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, and Jeb Brody, with Hernandez, Samit, and Adam Merims serving as executive producers.

The original Spaceballs opened June 24, 1987, on a budget of approximately $22.7 million and grossed roughly $38 to $40 million domestically, a modest return that gave way to enduring cult status. Written by Brooks, Ronny Graham, and Thomas Meehan, the parody drew from Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes, The Wizard of Oz, and Transformers. George Lucas gave the production his personal blessing, and Industrial Light and Magic handled post-production visual effects. The sequel will arrive without John Candy, who played the half-man, half-dog character Barf and died in 1994.

With the April 2027 release placing the film squarely in the franchise's 40th anniversary year, the project converts a decades-old in-film joke into a concrete studio commitment: a 99-year-old filmmaker reprising two characters alongside a co-star who spent nearly three decades away from the screen, finally delivering on a punchline first made in 1987.