Josh Gad had to explain the Star Wars sequels to Mel Brooks while pitching Space Balls 2

By Joe Allen Published January 5, 2025

Space Balls has long been one of Mel Brooks’s most beloved films, in large part because it lovingly parodies the Star Wars universe. In fact, that film has become so beloved in and of itself that a sequel is in the works from actor Josh Gad, who co-wrote the sequel script with Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit.

In a recent interview on Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa, Josh discussed development for the new film and explained that he had to do a lot of explaining for the 98-year-old comic legend. When Space Balls was released in 1987, the original trilogy was just a few years old, and in the years since, there have been eight new Star Wars movies that Gad had to walk through.

“Mel is incredibly involved. I’ll share a funny story that I haven’t yet shared,” Gad explained. “When we were pitching him the original concept 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.’ And I said, ‘OK.'”

“So I pitch for 40 minutes. It’s literally like, I am a combat vet just going to war in front of one person,” the actor continued. “I’m sweating, I am getting into every line and every beat and every comedic set piece, every reveal. I’m painting all of it and I’m speaking to how this speaks to a certain Star Wars moment, etc. 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!’ 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.”

Gad didn’t disclose any additional details about the movie, but it seems like Gad and his co-writers might have the sequel trilogy in their sights. “The process of working on this with and alongside Mel Brooks has been one of the highlights of my career,” Gad told Forbes.