Rick Moranis received an emotional hero’s welcome at Comic-Con after making his first-ever appearance at the convention, more than two decades after stepping away from the Hollywood spotlight.
The actor, 73, took to the stage on Friday to promote Spaceballs: The New One, the long-awaited sequel to Mel Brooks’ 1987 sci-fi spoof, and was greeted with a standing ovation from thousands of fans.
As chants of ‘Rick! Rick! Rick!’ echoed through the room, the actor’s co-stars Josh Gad, Keke Palmer, Lewis Pullman and Daphne Zuniga all turned to bow in his direction.
Moderator Kevin Smith summed up the crowd’s affection, telling Moranis: ‘You made our childhoods better.’
The touching reception marked a rare public appearance for the actor, whose career defined much of 1980s family cinema before he quietly walked away from Hollywood.
After first finding fame on Canadian sketch series SCTV, Moranis became one of the decade’s most recognisable comedy stars thanks to films including Ghostbusters, Little Shop of Horrors, Spaceballs, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Ghostbusters II, My Blue Heaven and The Flintstones.
However, he made the deeply personal decision to step away from live-action acting in 1997 following the death of his wife, Ann, from breast cancer, choosing instead to focus on raising their two children.
Aside from occasional voice acting roles, Moranis has remained largely absent from screens ever since, turning down numerous opportunities to return.
In a rare interview in 2015, he admitted he wasn’t opposed to acting again but said he had become extremely selective about the projects he would take on. That included passing on the 2024 Ghostbusters sequel, despite several of his former co-stars returning.
It seems only one film could tempt him back.
Speaking at Comic-Con, Moranis joked: ‘The truth is that I had to say yes to this thing. It was the only way I could get Josh Gad to stop texting me.’
He then revealed the sequel had actually been decades in the making.
‘Actually, I started talking to Mel about the sequel in 1989. We kept talking about it.’
Quipping about his long absence from Hollywood, he added: ‘I really wasn’t retired; I was just negotiating.’
The actor said the timing finally felt right after learning more about the project and its cast.
‘This came along right at the right time, and I started talking to these folks and hearing who was going to be in it,’ he explained.
‘I spoke to Josh Greenbaum and I heard that Bill Pullman was coming back and that Lewis was going to be in it too, and it just felt like this is it. It’s time.
‘Yes. I said yes, and it is the best decision I’ve ever made.’
Moranis will reprise his fan-favourite role as the villainous Dark Helmet, while Mel Brooks is also returning as Yogurt, his parody of Star Wars’ Yoda.
Although neither Brooks nor Bill Pullman attended the Comic-Con panel in person, both appeared via pre-recorded video messages.
Moranis also revealed he hadn’t actually seen Brooks face-to-face in almost four decades before work began on the sequel.
‘I just kept getting phone calls from him every time another Star Wars would come out, and he would say, “We have to make the sequel. We have to make the sequel,”‘ he recalled.
‘When this finally happened, I came out to Los Angeles, went over to his house for the first time in 39 years.’
The original Spaceballs has become a cult comedy classic since its release, lovingly spoofing George Lucas’ galaxy far, far away while poking fun at science fiction blockbusters more broadly.
Now, almost 40 years later, fans will finally get to see Moranis back beneath Dark Helmet’s oversized black helmet when Spaceballs: The New One lands in cinemas in 2027.