Back in 1987, Mel Brooks gave us a pretty, pretty Jewish and supremely hilarious parody of “Star Wars” called “Spaceballs.”
Now, another incredibly funny and oh-so-Jewish comedian is helming a “Spaceballs” sequel: actor Josh Gad, aka Olaf from “Frozen.” He co-wrote and will star in “Spaceballs 2,” coming out in theaters in 2027, and we are already counting down the days, especially thanks to this amazing teaser featuring Brooks himself:
Gad was the one who pitched the sequel to Brooks. “When we were pitching him the original conceit for what we wanted to do with the film, at the beginning he goes, ‘I’m just telling you now, I want you to really go into detail because I don’t know a lot about the new ‘Star Wars’ films.’ And I said, ‘Okay,” Gad recounted on Kelly Ripa’s “Let’s Talk Off Camera” podcast. He proceeded to spend 40 minutes schvitzing while trying to explain modern “Star Wars” lore and references to Brooks, who ultimately gave the film his seal of approval.
Brooks didn’t just give the movie the go-ahead — the EGOT winner, who recently released a sequel to another one of his hits, “History of the World: Part II,” is signed on as producer, and will reprise his role as Yogurt, the very Jewish-coded parody of Yoda who helps hero Lone Starr, played by Bill Pullman, master The Schwartz (not to be mistaken for The Force). Pullman is also returning for the sequel.
The late and great Joan Rivers, unfortunately, is not available to voice Dot Matrix, the yellow-haired C-3PO look-alike, as she did in the original film. John Candy has also passed away, meaning we won’t see him reprise the role of the Chewbacca-esque Mawg, who gave us that iconic line, “Funny, she doesn’t look Druish,” about Princess Vespa, the Princess Leia stand-in. In “Star Wars,” Princess Leia was, of course, played by Jewish icon Carrie Fisher.
Jewish comedy legend Rick Moranis, who took a very long hiatus from acting after his wife passed away to raise his children, will be reprising his role as the Darth Vader-like Dark Helmet. And the always entertaining Keke Palmer is joining the cast as well.
No word as to whether this movie will have a Jewish space laser joke, but we know Gad could pull off a pretty great one.
