After long onscreen hiatus, Rick Moranis returning for 'Honey, I Shrunk the Kids' sequel

Posted By: Staff
February 12, 2020 @ 4:16 pm
ABC Entertainment

Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images

Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — Although he basically retired from onscreen work to be a full-time dad when his wife died in 1997, Deadline reports Rick Moranis has agreed to return to the big screen for the next Honey, I Shrunk the Kids sequel, called Shrunk.

The sequel will have Frozen‘s Josh Gad playing the son of Moranis’ oddball inventor, Wayne Szalinski. Like father like son, Gad’s character accidentally shrinks his kids while trying to emulate his dad’s tech.

The 1989 original spawned a sequel called Honey I Blew Up the Kid, and the video-only release Honey We Shrunk Ourselves.

Deadline further reports original Honey I Shrunk The Kids director Joe Johnston will also return this time around for the film, which will be released theatrically by ABC’s parent company, Disney.

Moranis, also the star of Ghostbusters, Spaceballs and Parenthood, to name a few, has mostly performed voiceover work since his decision to be a full-time dad. He even opted out of returning to the upcoming Ghostbusters: Afterlife film, which managed to woo back all the other living original stars, save for Harold Ramis, who died in 2014.

Moranis didn’t appear in the flesh, but recently provided his voice for Dark Helmet, his Darth Vader-like Spaceballs villain, in a tribute episode of The Goldbergs.

Moranis did take part in an eagerly anticipated reunion of the cast of SCTV, the beloved Canadian sketch comedy show that also made stars of Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short and the late John Candy, among others. The resulting documentary from the 2018 special was directed by none other than Martin Scorsese, and will soon appear on Netflix as An Afternoon with SCTV.