Long-dormant actor who hasn’t appeared on the big screen since 1997 will reprise the role of Dark Helmet in 2027’s Spaceballs: The New One

Rick Moranis received a standing ovation Friday at San Diego Comic-Con, where the long-dormant actor was part of a panel promoting the upcoming sequel.

Moranis — who last appeared on the big screen in 1997’s Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves — will reprise his role of Dark Helmet in 2027’s Spaceballs: The New One, his first on-screen/non-voice acting role in 20 years.

Moranis — the one-time SCTV member who starred in films like Ghostbusters, Little Giants, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, and Little Shop of Horrors — left the movie industry in 1997 following the death of his wife to breast cancer, with the actor opting instead to raise his children out of the spotlight, but he continued to do voice work for animated films over the past two decades.

In 2015, after Moranis’ Ghostbusters co-stars signed on to cameo in the reboot of that franchise, the actor explained his decision to skip out on the semi-reunion.

“I took a break, which turned into a longer break,” Moranis told the Hollywood Reporter at the time. “But I’m interested in anything that I would find interesting. I still get the occasional query about a film or television role and as soon as one comes along that piques my interest, I’ll probably do it. [But Ghostbusters] didn’t appeal to me.”

In 2020, it was announced that Moranis would return to acting in a Josh Gad-led reboot of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Although that project never moved forward, Moranis signed on when Gad pitched a Spaceballs sequel to creator Mel Brooks, who will also appear in the upcoming film in his dual role of Yogurt and President Skroob.

At Comic-Con, upon his arrival on stage, Moranis was greeted with chants of ‘Rick! Rick!” from the audience, the Hollywood Reporter wrote. “You made our childhoods better,” director Kevin Smith, the panel’s moderator, told Moranis.

“I really wasn’t retired; I was just negotiating,” Moranis joked on the panel. “This came along right at the right time.”

Brooks himself prerecorded a video message for the Comic-Con panel, which also featured actress Daphne Zuniga — Princess Vespa in the original — as well as new cast members Gad, Keke Palmer, and Lewis Pullman; while Lewis’ dad Bill, the star of the original, was not on the panel, he will reprise of the role of Lone Starr in the sequel, due out in April 2027.