Back when The History of the World, Part I came out in 1981, Mel Brooks was at the top of his game, helping define cinematic comedy for an entire generation. The film is probably one of his most cherished, but a Part II was never made, mostly because the subtitle was just a gag, played into by the parody trailer at the end of the film. However, Hulu has tempted Brooks to finally make the never-actually-planned History of the World Part 2 as a series, and we now have a full trailer to show it off.
Kind of but not really at all picking up where the last film left off, Part 2 once again presents a collection of loosely connected historical sketches mocking great moments and figures in history, except this time in TV-show format. As the History of the World Part 2 trailer shows, these historical figures will be played by about every semi-famous person/comedian in the world, including Brooks himself.
The cast list is longer than you’ll read, but here it is anyway: Pamela Adlon, Tim Baltz, Zazie Beetz, Jillian Bell, Quinta Brunson, Dove Cameron, D’Arcy Carden, Ronny Chieng, Rob Corddry, Danny DeVito, David Duchovny, Hannah Einbinder, Jay Ellis, Josh Gad, Kimiko Glenn, Brandon Kyle Goodman, Jake Johnson, Richard Kind, Johnny Knoxville, Lauren Lapkus, Jenifer Lewis, Poppy Liu, Joe Lo Truglio, Jason Mantzoukas, Ken Marino, Jack McBrayer, Zahn McClarnon, Charles Melton, Kumail Nanjiani, Brock O’Hurn, Andrew Rannells, Emily Ratajkowski, Sam Richardson, Nick Robinson, Seth Rogen, Sarah Silverman, Timothy Simons, J.B. Smoove, David Wain, Taika Waititi, Reggie Watts, and Tyler James Williams. Yes, you recognize a lot of those names. I suppose if someone says, “Do you want to be in a Mel Brooks movie?” you answer yes.
Hulu is treating the series as a big event, dropping eight episodes over the span of four days instead of releasing one a week or dumping them all at once. The series will premiere on March 6 and drop two episodes a day until it concludes on March 9. It’s kind of like an old-school broadcast “event” miniseries that use to debut over the summer and replace reruns for a week, except probably of much better quality and made by one of the funniest humans to ever grace Earth. Speaking of, it’s been far too long since we’ve had a Mel Brooks song, so it’s awesome to see Jack Black getting to belt one out as Stalin(?). Hell, Brooks already did Hitler, so it makes sense.
