Rick Moranis turned up in Hall H on Friday and stole the Spaceballs: The New One panel before anyone in the room had even found him. The actor was discovered among fans wearing the character’s helmet, then stood to a standing ovation that turned Amazon MGM Studios’ sequel presentation into a surprise reveal.
That is why people were searching for Moranis on Friday: he was already in the room, only not where anyone expected. Camera crews followed suited-up astronauts combing through the crowd until they found him disguised in a cluster of fans, a quiet setup for one of the loudest reactions of the day.
The panel leaned into the joke by parodying Marvel Cinematic Universe-style timeline launches, with 180-degree wrap-around screens cycling through 11 phases of Spaceballs ideas, including musicals and teased release dates that were never identified. The bit fit the room’s mood and gave the sequel a fake-franchise scale that matched the audience reaction when Moranis finally rose to his feet.
Josh Gad, who is helping steer the sequel, treated Moranis like the event’s center of gravity. He said Moranis was underselling the moment, joked that “they’re announcing him as part of the X-Men cast tomorrow,” and called John Candy one of the four men on his comedy Mount Rushmore. He also said, “This movie is really a love letter to him,” and added that John Candy is “at the beating heart of this film and the reason why this movie has so much heart.”
Gad also addressed the cast with the kind of self-aware comedy the original Spaceballs built its name on. He said, “I am not playing Barf in this movie,” then added, “I am playing a new mog in our movie,” without explaining the role further. In the same room, he swatted away one audience theory with, “We’d make a really weird Blade,” a line that kept the panel firmly in parody mode.
Mel Brooks, who returns as Yogurt, sent a message saying he was on the convention floor trying to buy a rare Charizard card, then thanked the crowd with, “From the bottom of my heart I wanna say, thank you, nerds.” Bill Pullman also appeared by message and said he was tracking down a rare Charizard card in the UK. His son, Lewis Pullman, was on the panel and called his father’s work on the project shoes that are “unfillable,” then said the movie is really about Barf knocking the hat off and trying to get it back.
The unfinished part is the release itself. The panel offered teased dates among its 11 phases, but none of them was pinned down in Hall H, which leaves the sequel with a spectacle and no date. For now, the headline moment belongs to Moranis: a man who managed to disappear inside the audience and then turn the room into his own comeback.
