Rick Moranis to Reprise ‘Spaceballs’ Role on ‘The Goldbergs’

Rick Moranis will temporarily end his retirement from acting as he reprises his famous Spaceballs role of Dark Helmet on ABC ’80s-set sitcom The Goldbergs, USA Today reports.

The Ghostbusters and Little Shop of Horrors actor will make a rare guest voice-only appearance in an episode paying tribute to the Mel Brooks 1987 Star Wars comedy spoof. The episode airs this Wednesday, May 9, on ABC.

The sitcom, centered around young filmmaker Adam Goldberg (Sean Giambrone) and his kooky but loving family, will see the budding director encounter the villain and his over-sized helmet in a dream sequence when he storms Adam’s bedroom to “battle with the Schwartz,” per the official description.

Adam “promises to get a sequel to Spaceballs produced before waking up,” a goal shared by the real Adam F. Goldberg.

“I truly think Rick Moranis gave the most underrated and brilliant comedic performance in any ’80s movie as Dark Helmet,” The Goldbergs creator and executive producer said in a statement.

“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!”

It took Goldberg “several weeks” to convince Moranis to lend his voice to Goldbergs after the beloved actor largely quit acting in 1997 to focus on his family following the death of wife Ann Belsky.

Moranis’ last on-screen role was as Wayne Szalinski for a third time in the direct-to-video Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves, sequel to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Honey, I Blew Up the Kid.

He has since lent his voice to a direct-to-DVD CG-animated Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer sequel as well as the big screen Disney-animated Brother Bear and its direct-to-DVD follow-up Brother Bear 2.

In 2015, Moranis made headlines when it was learned he declined to cameo in Sony’s summer 2016 Ghostbusters reboot.

Mulling over a return to acting now that his children are grown, Moranis said he “took a break, which turned into a longer break.”

“But I’m interested in anything that I would find interesting. I still get the occasional query about a film or television role and as soon as one comes along that piques my interest, I’ll probably do it,” Moranis said. “[But Ghostbusters] didn’t appeal to me.”

The Goldbergs airs its special Moranis-featuring episode Wednesday, May 9 on ABC.