{"id":16923,"date":"2026-07-25T16:34:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T11:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=16923"},"modified":"2026-07-25T16:34:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T11:34:44","slug":"rick-moranis-first-comic-con-appearance-with-spaceballs-the-new-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=16923","title":{"rendered":"Rick Moranis First Comic-Con Appearance with &#8216;Spaceballs The New One&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tLaughs and an appreciation of Rick Moranis were plentiful as Amazon MGM\u2019s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/spaceballs\/\" id=\"auto-tag_spaceballs_1\" data-tag=\"spaceballs\">Spaceballs<\/a>: The New One<\/em>, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/spaceballs-sequel-mel-brooks-movie-2027-release-1236555794\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sequel<\/a> to the 1987 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/mel-brooks\/\" id=\"auto-tag_mel-brooks_1\" data-tag=\"mel-brooks\">Mel Brooks<\/a> Star Wars parody, flew into San Diego <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/comic-con\/\" id=\"auto-tag_comic-con_1\" data-tag=\"comic-con\">Comic-Con<\/a>\u2019s cavernous Hall H Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tOne of the panel\u2019s biggest attractions was seeing Moranis, the comedian who appeared in seminal 1980s films such as <em>Ghostbusters <\/em>and<em>Honey, I Shrunk the Kid<\/em>, make his first ever appearance. The actor played villain Dark Helmet in the original 1987 movie but has been largely absent from movies and television for most of this century, so his return with the <em>Spaceballs<\/em> sequel is headline making.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tAfter a \u201ccomb the audience\u201d joke, a callback to a line in the original movie that revealed the comedian to be in the audience wearing an oversized Darth Vader-style helmer, Moranis hopped up the stage to a standing ovation and chants of \u201cRick! Rick! Rick!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cYou made our childhoods better,\u201d said Kevin Smith, who ably moderated the panel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tMoranis sat between <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/josh-gad\/\" id=\"auto-tag_josh-gad_1\" data-tag=\"josh-gad\">Josh Gad<\/a>, one of the creative forces behind the sequel, and Daphne Zuniga, who played Princess Vespa in the original and returns for the sequel. Also on stage were director Josh Greenbaum, actors Keke Palmer and Lewis Pullman, and writers Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tGad described the origins of the sequel, recounting how he had been working on a <em>Honey I Shrunk the Kids <\/em>sequel with Moranis that ultimately fell apart, but did end up watching Moranis movies with his daughter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cWe finished it and she goes, \u2018Can we watch part 2?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I said, \u2018There is no part 2.\u2019 And she said, \u2018Yeah, the weird little alien guy said there was going to be a part 2.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tWhen he replied, \u201cOh sweetie, that is called a joke,\u201d she countered, \u201cWell, why isn\u2019t there a part 2?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThat night, Gad said, he had a dream about the sequel and soon after was pitching Brooks and his producing partner. He threw in ideas refencing new Star Wars movies and characters such as <em>The Force Awakens<\/em> and Kylo Ren.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tImitating Brooks, Gad summed up his reaction: \u201cJosh, it sounds like you\u2019ve really got your finger on the pulse. I don\u2019t know half of what you\u2019re talking about, but I really like it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe comedic presence of Brooks, who appeared only by a recorded video early on in the panel where he thanked the nerds for keeping his movie alive close to 40 years, loomed large over Hall H. Amazon MGM bucked the Comic-Con trend by not having a trailer debut or showing any clips from the movie, but it did show videos of Brooks reuniting with Moranis, reuniting with original star Bill Pullman and Zuniga, and recording lines in a booth while praising \u2014 or not \u2014 the script.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tGreenbaum recounted meeting the comedy legend early on in the movie\u2019s development, and when it was approaching time to being principal photography, he asked if the man had any words of advice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tBrooks paused, and said yes. Greenbaum was thrilled. He leaned in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cDon\u2019t say \u2018Cut!\u2019 first. It\u2019s \u2018Action!,\u2019 and then \u2018Cut!\u2019\u201d Brooks told him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe young director\u2019s takeaway? \u201cIt was, don\u2019t take this too seriously and go out there and have fun,\u201d Greenbaum summed up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe new movie, Gad said, takes a look at the state of movies and nostalgia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cThe industry it was parodying is a very different industry than this one 40 years later,\u201d said Gad. \u201cWe all sort of talked thematically about this word \u2018nostalgia.\u2019 And we love movies that look back. We love sequels. We love continuing these stories we grew up with. We analyzed why that is and we thought <em>Spaceballs<\/em> was the perfect vehicle to catch us up with everything that\u2019s happened in filmdom and in fan filmdom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tInterjected Smith, \u201cWhen they made the first one, there was a trilogy to make fun of. Now there\u2019s a never-ending fount.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cWe really wanted to dive into that,\u201d Gad replied.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe panel also featured a funny bit where Lewis Pullman read out a letter purportedly written by his father, Bill Pullman, about how great it was to be part of a family, while ignoring his own father-son relationship. And it also showed, on multiple screens, the purported plans of a <em>Spaceballs<\/em> cinematic universe, sketched out in decade-spanning movie \u201cphases,\u201d a shot at how Marvel Studios has unveiled timeline of its various movie plans.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Laughs and an appreciation of Rick Moranis were plentiful as Amazon MGM\u2019s Spaceballs: The New One, a sequel to the 1987 Mel Brooks Star Wars parody, flew into San Diego Comic-Con\u2019s cavernous Hall H Friday afternoon. One of the panel\u2019s biggest attractions was seeing Moranis, the comedian who appeared in seminal 1980s films such as&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SPACEBALLS_-THE-NEW-ONE-San-Diego-Comic-Con-Panel_3-e1784953609582.jpg?w=1440&h=810&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}