Mel Brooks’ History of the World, Part II Gets First Teaser

Hulu has released a teaser trailer for Mel Brooks’s History of the World Part II. The four-part miniseries is jam-packed with big names, including Taika Waititi, Seth Rogen, Wanda Sykes, and Nick Kroll. Sykes and Kroll were in the writers room with Brooks, who penned and directed History of the World Part I in 1981. As with the film, the miniseries appears to be a loosely connected series of moments that blend history with anachronism, and tell a twisted, hilarious version of the history of the world. This version of the movie will include characters are wide-ranging as Jesus of Nazareth, Alexander Graham Bell, Sigmund Freud, and Abraham Lincoln.

In a funny twist of fate, Freud and Lincoln previously appeared as characters in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. One of that film’s sequels, Bill and Ted Face the Music, also starred History of the World, Part II  actor Jillian Bell.

The official synopsis for the series is pretty basic, saying, “There is finally a sequel to the seminal Mel Brooks film, HISTORY OF THE WORLD PART I, with each episode featuring a variety of sketches that take us through different periods of human history.”

You can see it below, introduced by Brooks himself.

Drawing on some of the greatest comedians of the era, Brooks assembled a cast that averaged a little older than the average Hollywood blockbuster, with stars like Sid Caesar, Dom DeLuise, and Henny Youngman, with narration by Orson Welles.   

Shecky Greene, Barry Levinson, and Brooks himself are among the only surviving members of the original film’s cast. Greene, who played Marcus Vindictus in the film, was inducted into the Comedy Hall of Fame in 2020, but has not had an on-screen credit since 2000, excepting some brief appearances in documentaries. Levinson, who had a cameo appearance in History of the World, Part I, is best known not as an actor or comedian, but as a filmmaker. He has produced and directed movies like Rain Man, Wag the Dog, and Good Morning, Vietnam. He is currently working with Hulu on Dopesick, and with Paramount+ on Francis and the Godfather. 

Brooks’s other credits include comedy classics like Spaceballs, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein. Late in his career, his directorial debut — 1967’s The Producers — was adapted into a stage show that became a huge hit on Broadway. Brooks then helped adapt the stage show into a feature film which was directed by Susan Stroman.