Spaceballs 2 is already firing at ludicrous speed. After years of speculation, last week finally brought the official announcement of the film’s production, along with a photo for the ages. It included the cast and crew of the highly anticipated sequel sitting around a room, in stark black and white. For some, that’s where it ended. For others, the layers were staggering and spoke directly to the potential this movie holds.
As many (but not all) people noticed, the cast photo was a direct parody of one Lucasfilm released back in 2014 for The Force Awakens. The staging, the coloring, all of it. And while fans at the time hypothesized and speculated all about that image, it never really materialized into much.
The Spaceballs photo, however, leaned right in. It is jam-packed with winks and nods to the franchise, and maybe even a few teases of what’s to come.
So, outside of that big obvious joke that it’s a riff on The Force Awakens, here are nine other Easter eggs we loved in the Spaceballs 2 table read photo.
Water cooler talk
R2-D2 is the only character from The Force Awakens to make an appearance in that original photo, and, in his place in the Spaceballs 2 photo, is a similarly shaped water cooler. Does that mean the film has a watercooler-shaped droid in it? Or is it just a funny joke? We don’t know, but with Joan Rivers no longer with us to voice the droid Dot Matrix, it would make sense if a new droid debuted in the film.
New toys?
Rick Moranis is back as Dark Helmet, and one thing we know about Helmet is that he loves playing with toys. We aren’t sure that’s what we’re seeing here, but in the back right corner, there is a tiny model castle on the table. Could Helmet have upgraded his toy collection with a playset?
A bunch of assholes
In the middle of the room is a table with a big, black sphere. That, we assume, is a helmet of a Spaceball, basically the stormtrooper helmet of this universe. Since the film is called “Spaceballs,” we assumed the evil Spaceballs would be back, but this prop seems to confirm it.
Chair pizza
Arguably, the most obvious joke in the image is the pizza on the chair in the bottom right corner. Pizza the Hutt was a memorable character in the original film but, if you remember, he ate himself to death. Will there be a baby pizza in this one? Seems likely.
A dog’s best friend
In the back left corner of the image is a massive fire hydrant. Seems odd, until you remember that John Candy’s half-man, half-dog character Barf had one just like it on his ship, Eagle One. Candy, like Rivers, is no longer with us, but clearly, there has to be some Barf representation here. This perfect place for a dog to pee certainly suggests it.
Princely shoes
At the foot of the crate in the center of the room is a very shiny pair of shoes. They look almost royal. Which leads us to believe it might be a tease that Prince Valium, the would-be husband of Princess Vespa, could make a return.
Merchandising! Merchandising!
One of the best gags in the original film is when Yogurt pokes fun at Star Wars’ penchant for merchandising with a whole store of goodies. There isn’t an obvious link to that here, but the cup on the back right table with the flames does feel like a nod to Spaceballs: The Flame Thrower (Kids love that one.) Also, maybe that wig is merchandising for another new character? We’re stumped on that part.
Lots of Yogurt
While Mel Brooks himself isn’t present in the room here, he’s joining the group via video chat on the laptop in the center. We know he’s returning as Yogurt, and in the back left corner, we see that his Yogurt robes are already waiting.
We ain’t swatted shit
Maybe the most curious item in this entire image is the fly swatter in the bottom left corner. That doesn’t directly bring to mind anything from the original Spaceballs, but it is a disposable, plastic tool people use in their everyday lives. Like a comb. The comb was used to comb the desert in the original film. This is purely speculative, but maybe there’s a similar gag in this film with a fly swatter.
But that’s not all…
There’s so much else going on in this image that we can’t quite decipher. For example, why is there a plunger on the back right table? What is that behind the Brooks’ laptop? And what else are we missing?
Directed by Josh Greenbaum (Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar) from a script by Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem) and Josh Gad, Spaceballs 2 (not the official title) stars Rick Moranis, Josh Gad, Keke Palmer, Lewis Pullman, Anthony Carrigan, George Wyner, Daphne Zuniga, Bill Pullman, and Mel Brooks. It’ll be out in 2027.