Mel Brooks confirms return as Yogurt in ‘Spaceballs’ sequel

The Schwartz is awakening.

Mel Brooks is officially returning as Yogurt, the gold-faced mystic Yoda-esque figure, in the forthcoming Spaceballs sequel, Amazon MGM Studios announced Thursday. The legendary multihyphenate funnyman will also produce the film alongside Brian Grazer, Jeb Brody, co-writer Josh Gad, and director Josh Greenbaum.

Brooks teased the sci-fi parody sequel — the official title of which has yet to be announced — in a video on social media.

“After 40 years, we asked, ‘What do the fans want?’” the Blazing Saddles filmmaker says in the video. “But instead, we’re making this movie. May the Schwartz be with you!”

The preceding section of the video spoofed Star Wars‘ iconic opening crawl (albeit in turquoise lettering instead of the signature golden text from George Lucas’ films). The comically longwinded message contextualizes how much Hollywood has changed — and shifted toward franchise filmmaking — in the 38 years since the original Spaceballs hit theaters in 1987.

“Thirty-eight years ago, there was only one Star Wars trilogy,” the crawl begins. “But since then, there have been…”

The text then lists a number of Star Wars franchise extensions, including “A prequel trilogy” (referring to Lucas’ Phantom Menace/Attack of the Clones/Revenge of the Sith) and “A sequel trilogy (referring to Disney’s Force Awakens/Last Jedi/Rise of Skywalker).

The video also mentions “A sequel to the prequel,” and “A prequel to the sequel,” both of which could theoretically be referencing either Rogue One or Solo depending on your perspective (though both projects can most accurately just be described as straightforward prequels to 1977’s original Star Wars movie).

The crawl also notes “countless TV spinoffs,” of which there have been over a dozen since 1987 including The Clone Wars and Andor. The most complicated jab comes at the end of the crawl’s Star Wars franchise recap: “A movie spinoff of the TV spinoff which is both a prequel and a sequel,” most likely in reference to next year’s The Mandalorian and Grogu, a theatrical film follow-up to the TV series The Mandalorian, which itself is a sequel to the original trilogy and a prequel to the sequel trilogy.

The video also pokes fun at other sci-fi and fantasy franchises, including the Marvel Cinematic Universe (“36 MCU movies with two different Robert Downey Jr.s,” in reference to the Iron Man actor returning as Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday), the DC universe (“DCU attempt Number 1” and “DCU attempt Number 2,” referring to the shared universes kickstarted by Zack Snyder and James Gunn, respectively), and Avatar (“2 Avatars plus 3 upcoming Avatars making 5 Avatars,” mocking James Cameron’s ever-expanding vision for the series).

The crawl concludes, “But in thirty-eight years there has only ever been one… Spaceballs until now…”

The new Spaceballs will be written by Benji Samit, Dan Hernandez, and Gad. The film, which will release in 2027, has been described as “A Non-Prequel Non-Reboot Sequel Part Two but with Reboot Elements Franchise Expansion Film.”

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Brooks co-wrote and directed the original Spaceballs, which lampooned the original Star Wars trilogy four years after the series’ original conclusion, 1983’s Return of the Jedi. He also appeared as both Yogurt and the villainous President Skroob (an anagram of the filmmaker’s last name) in the film. Spaceballs also starred Bill Pullman, Rick Moranis, John Candy, Daphne Zuniga, and Joan Rivers.

Gad previously told Kelly Ripa that Brooks is “incredibly involved” in the creative process for the sequel, and that the film is “a love letter to not only Spaceballs, but to all things Mel Brooks.” 

The Frozen star also said that Brooks hasn’t really kept up with the vast expansion of the Star Wars universe. “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,’” Gad recalled. 

After pitching the script to Brooks for 40 minutes, Gad said that the filmmaker got the gist.

“Then there’s silence and at the end of it, he goes, ‘wow. Josh, it really sounds like you’ve got your finger on the pulse!’” he remembered. “‘That is the greatest compliment I could have ever gotten, even though there’s no context for it for Mel. He really just trusted everything I had to say.”