On Friday afternoon, Amazon MGM Studios turned San Diego Comic-Con’s famous Hall H into a massive parody of the franchise machine. The presentation for Spaceballs: The New One completely abandoned the usual superhero reveals. Instead, actors with giant combs swept the audience aisles to hunt down a retired recluse.
That search ended with Rick Moranis taking the stage to a standing ovation. Disguised in a Dark Helmet mask, the event marked his first-ever visit to Comic-Con and his first live-action film role since the late 1990s. The presentation aggressively spoofed the cinematic universe era, according to a Comic-Con panel recap.
Producer and star Josh Gad revealed the project started when he cold-called 100-year-old creator Mel Brooks. Gad spent 40 minutes pitching a direct revival aimed squarely at modern Hollywood reboots. Brooks opened the Hall H festivities himself via a video message.
The film’s official synopsis directly targets recent sci-fi missteps. It opens with the line, “Somehow, Dark Helmet has returned!” as a clear shot at Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The timeline itself is a joke. Director Josh Greenbaum confirmed the movie takes place 40 years after the original Spaceballs, 50 years after Star Wars: A New Hope, and inexplicably, “one year after the events of The Devil Wears Prada 2.”
You aren’t just getting Moranis back. Greenbaum screened behind-the-scenes footage highlighting Brooks on set with returning cast members Bill Pullman as Lone Starr and Daphne Zuniga as Princess Vespa. Gad takes over for the late John Candy as Barf. He’s joined by Keke Palmer as Destiny, Lewis Pullman as Prince Starburst, and Anthony Carrigan.
Spaceballs: The New One hits theaters on April 23, 2027.
Hollywood Turns the Gun on the Cinematic Universe
The entertainment industry spent the last decade building massive franchises. Amazon MGM used Hall H—the exact room where Marvel Studios perfected the multi-phase release plan—to launch a parody of that exact business model. The 1987 original succeeded by spoofing the retail excess of George Lucas. Now, Gad and Brooks are updating the target to mock modern cinema reboots. Securing Moranis out of a long retirement gives the project a heavy nostalgia anchor.