Rick Moranis coming out of retirement to reprise 'Spaceballs' role

·Contributor

8 May 2018 at 0:30 pm

80s film comedy legend Rick Moranis is to make a rare appearance – by voice at least – on TV, reprising one of his most famous roles.

According to USA Today, he’ll be turning up as the voice of Lord Dark Helmet from Mel Brooks Star Wars spoof Spaceballs on the an episode of ABC comedy The Goldbergs.

Series creator Adam F. Goldberg confirmed the news, saying: “I truly think Rick Moranis gave the most underrated and brilliant comedic performance in any ‘80s movie as Dark Helmet.

“I’ve been a lifelong fan of his work and became obsessed with having him reprise the role on my show.

“As an added bonus, maybe this even gets Spaceballs back in the conversation, and I can get my dream of helping make a sequel!”

Now there’s a thought.

The episode will see the young Adam Goldberg, played by Sean Giambrone, starting a Mel Brooks fan club on seeing the movie for the first time.

Moranis has become something of a mythical figure in the movie business, and constant quarry for ‘where are they now?’ type articles.

He starred in a raft of hit movies from Ghostbusters to Honey, I Shrunk The Kids to Little Shop of Horrors, but in the late 90s, he all but retired from filmmaking, following the tragic death of his wife.

Moranis found that raising his kids on his own and being a movie actor did not work for him.

He told USA Today back in 2005: “I’m a single parent and I just found that it was too difficult to manage to raise my kids and to do the traveling involved in making movies.

“So I took a little bit of a break. And the little bit of a break turned into a longer break, and then I found that I really didn’t miss it.”

He’s voiced the character of Ruff in the animated movies Brother Bear and Brother Bear 2 in 2003 and 2006, but other than that, he’s kept good to his word.

Whether this latest performance drags him back in, who knows…