Mel Brooks Revealed the Title for the New ‘Spaceballs’ and It’s Perfect

Spaceballs was my first, introduced to me by an older, cooler relative,” movies. A cousin was staying with us while he was in college, heard that my brothers and I had watched Star Wars for the first time, and insisted that we rent and watch Spaceballs. We did, and my life was changed forever. That cousin is now sending me videos of Joe Rogan and Mel Gibson talking about ivermectin. But my love of the movie still stands, and, because of that, I’m letting myself get excited for the sequel.

I’m not even going to pretend that I wasn’t excited when a sequel was announced to arrive around forty years after the original. Yes, Mel Brooks didn’t write it and won’t be behind the camera, but… that shouldn’t be a problem. Right? At least not inherently. Not to disparage one of the greatest living comedic directors ever, but I recently rewatched Dracula: Dead and Loving It for the first time since it caused my sexual awakening long ago, and found myself laughing maybe twice. That was Mel’s last directorial effort, and I think that’s okay.

Instead, he’s spending his time hyping up the new Spaceballs, even appearing in a new video at CinemaCon. In it, he reveals the title for the new film. The faithful among us may assume that it would be called Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money. But we would be mistaken! The new film is actually called Spaceballs: The New One. Feels pretty fitting to me! And, listening to Mel Brooks explain why made me smile from ear to ear. The man has still got it.

According to Variety, there was also a sizzle reel shown at CinemaCon. It included jabs at The Force Awakens, Avatar, and Harry Potter. There has been so much Star Wars and Star Trek in the decades since Spaceballs that they could have easily stuck to those two franchises, but it’s exciting to learn that they will be stepping out of the box a little bit (so to speak). Apparently, there’s even a moment where Rick Moranis as Dark Helmet is peeing at a urinal next to a Na’vi and, ya know, sign me the hell up.

Moranis isn’t the only returning cast member. Bill Pullman, Daphne Zuniga, George Wyner, and Brooks himself are all reprising their original roles. They’ll also be joined by new faces like Josh Gad, Keke Palmer, and Lewis Pullman (who I’m really hoping is some Kylo Ren-type character). I’m keeping my hopes high on this one! But, most importantly, I might be able to bring my kids to see it in a theater when it comes out next April. I may not be their cool, older cousin, but hopefully it sticks with them anyway.