Josh Gad Had to Explain the Last 40 Years of ‘Star Wars’ to Mel Brooks Before Pitching ‘Spaceballs 2’
Somehow, Dark Helmet has returned.
In 1987, MGM and Brooksfilms released a feature-length parody of the Star Wars movie trilogy that would become almost as enduring as its target with Spaceballs, a Bill Pullman, Rick Moranis and John Candy-starring send-up of science-fiction’s three biggest films. Since then, George Lucas revived the Star Wars franchise with a second trilogy, spun off the series with countless novels, comic books, TV shows and video games, sold Star Wars to Disney for a bajillion Space Bucks and watched as the franchise bloated into a behemoth of cash-in content and merchandising that would make Yogurt proud.
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However, in the nearly 40 years since Mel Brooks produced, wrote, directed and starred in Spaceballs, the comedy icon has taken a break from following every branching path that the vast, multimedia Star Wars franchise has gone down. As such, when Josh Gad approached Brooks about giving Spaceballs a sequel in early 2024, Brooks needed a bit of a fast-forward for the last four decades.
Though Star Wars has basically gone plaid since Brooks last followed the franchise, Gad insisted that the original brain behind Spaceballs is “incredibly involved” with the sequel during a conversation on Kelly Ripa’s Let's Talk Off Camera podcast. “I’ll share a funny story that I haven’t yet shared,” Gad said during the talk. “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.’”
According to Gad, he did his best to help Brooks brush up on the massive universe that is modern Star Wars, but it’s unclear exactly when Brooks checked out of the franchise. Did Brooks watch Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace in 1999 and justifiably swear off the series for good after the Jar Jar Binks fart scene? Did he stick around until Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith and glaze over after Anakin Skywalker grumbles, “From my point of view, the Jedi are evil”? Or did he make it all the way to Star Wars: The Force Awakens and decide to stop wasting what’s left of his time on earth watching a shameless remake of a movie he already parodied?
Whenever Brooks tapped out of being a Star Wars fan, it’s clear that Gad has him up to the franchise’s “Now Now” if he’s actually an active participant in Spaceballs 2. Well, either that, or Brooks has finally reached the conclusion of the Search for More Money.
