Rick Moranis, 72, makes rare appearance at CinemaCon for his big screen comeback in Spaceballs 2

Ghostbusters icon Rick Moranis made a rare appearance at CinemaCon 2026 in Las Vegas on Wednesday, ahead of his big screen comeback in Spaceballs 2.

The actor, 72, walked away from the spotlight to focus on raising his children after his wife Ann Belsky died of breast cancer in 1991.

His last live-action movie performance came in 1997's Honey We Shrunk Ourselves.

But last year it was revealed that he would take part in Spaceballs 2, the upcoming sequel to the classic 1987 Star Wars spoof Spaceballs by Mel Brooks. 

And on Wednesday he joined his original Spaceball co-stars Bill Pullman and Daphne Zuniga, as well as his new cast members Lewis Pullman (Bill's son) and Josh Gad, during Amazon MGM's CinemaCon presentation to promote the long-awaited sequel.

Gad co-wrote and produced the project, alongside Brian Grazer, Brooks, and director Josh Greenbaum. 

Moranis is reprising his role as Dark Helmet in the movie.

The actor looked sharp in a dark blazer worn over a grey sweater and blue button-up.

He paired the look with grey dress pants and a pair of eyeglasses. 

In a pre-recorded video, Brooks revealed the official title of the new movie: Spaceballs: The New One. 

The film is set to hit theaters on April 23, 2027.

Last month Moranis cut a casual figure in a rare sighting in New York City.

Moranis was married to his late wife, a costume designer, for five years before she died at the age of 34, leaving him to look after their children Rachel and Mitchell.

Until that point, Moranis had been vigorously active in Hollywood and had three films out in 1989 alone - Honey I Shrunk The Kids, Ghostbusters II and Parenthood.

However when he became a single father he phased himself out of the public eye, although he continued with the Honey I Shrunk The Kids franchise. 

A sequel called Honey I Blew up the Kid came out in 1992, and Moranis' latest live-action movie Honey We Shrunk Ourselves was released direct to video in 1997.

In the intervening years he did not leave showbiz entirely, releasing the tongue-in-cheek country album The Agoraphobic Cowboy in 2005 and another record called My Mother's Brisket and Other Love Songs eight years later.

He also voice acted sporadically in both Brother Bear movies and a direct-to-video release called Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys.

In 2019 news emerged that he was slated to return to the big screen in a live-action capacity for the Honey I Shrunk the Kids called Shrunk.

However the COVID-19 lockdowns arrived the following year and hurled the project into a hiatus from which it has since never managed to emerge.

Late in 2020, Moranis received an outpouring of public sympathy when he was the victim of a random sidewalk sucker punch amid New York's spiraling crime crisis.

Last year it was officially announced that Moranis had joined the star-studded cast of 99-year-old Mel Brooks' follow-up to his sci-fi comedy classic Spaceballs.

The original 1987 movie featured Moranis as a Darth Vader parody called Lord Dark Helmet, amid a cast including Pullman, John Candy and Joan Rivers.

Candy and Rivers are both dead, but Pullman and Moranis are returning for the sequel as well as Zunga and George Wyner, also from the original feature.

Among the other new cast members in Spaceballs 2 are Keke Palmer and Anthony Carrigan via Deadline.