If you’d said to any Mel Brooks fan even three years ago that we’d finally be getting a long-awaited sequel to History of the World, Part I, the epic parody film that took audiences through all of human history, they’d likely have called you crazy. But, in 2023, that vision is finally a reality, and the much anticipated History of the World, Part II, has finally arrived, shepherded in by writers, stars, and executive producers Wanda Sykes and Ike Barinholtz.
The series continues the tradition begun by Brooks, framing each episode as a series of sketches covering the entire history of civilization — and then some. Certain sketches, like “The Civil War,” which sees Barinholtz as Union general Ulysses S. Grant, or “Shirley Chisholm,” which casts Sykes as the former presidential hopeful, stretch over a number of episodes, while certain one-offs cast celebrities for brief but hilarious appearances, including Josh Gad as Shakespeare leading a writer’s room, or fellow writer and executive producer Nick Kroll as Galileo, who turns from a philosopher to a TikTok influencer.
Collider was excited to sit down with Barinholtz and Sykes to discuss the series and how they got involved in a Mel Brooks project. During this interview, they also discussed how they chose what eras to parody on the show, their favorite characters to play, and the first Brooks film they ever saw.
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