Mel Brooks is reuniting with an old friend for his new TV series Very Young Frankenstein. Cary Elwes, who starred in Brooks‘ 1993 spoof Robin Hood: Men in Tights, will appear in the TV spin-off of Brooks‘ horror comedy classic Young Frankenstein. No plot details about the new FX TV series have yet been revealed.

According to reports, Elwes will play the President of the United States. It’s an ironic role for Elwes, as the London-born actor noted in Brooks‘ Men in Tights that “unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with a British accent,” an allusion to Kevin Costner‘s California-inflected performance in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The series will also serve as a reunion for the behind-the-scenes creatives of FX‘s What We Do in the Shadows, as Stefani Robinson will write and showrun the series, Taika Waititi will direct the pilot, and they’ll both executive produce with Garrett Basch. Brooks will also executive produce with producing partner Kevin Salter as well as Michael Gruskoff; the latter produced Young Frankenstein with Brooks back in 1974.

What Is ‘Young Frankenstein’ About?

Gene Wilder stars as Frederick Frankenstein, a contemporary science professor who insists on pronouncing his last name “Fronk-en-steen” to distinguish himself from his notorious ancestor. He’s summoned to the family castle in Transylvania, leaving his financier/fiancée Elizabeth (Madeline Kahn) behind. There, he inherits a household of bug-eyed hunchback Igor (Marty Feldman), perky lab assistant Inga (Teri Garr), and forbidding housekeeper Frau Blucher (Cloris Leachman). Studying his grandfather’s notes, he comes to believe that bringing the dead back to life is possible, and soon he has his monster, in the form of a pre-Everybody Loves Raymond Peter Boyle. Unfortunately, Igor brought him an abnormal brain for the creature, and hilarity ensues. A loving send-up of the Universal Horror movies of the 1930s and 40s (even including Kenneth Strickfaden‘s original lab equipment from Frankenstein), Young Frankenstein was a hit with audiences and critics, and is considered one of Brooks‘ masterpieces.

Brooks has been on a tear revisiting his body of work in recent years. In 2022, Hulu premiered the long-promised sequel History of the World, Part II in the form of a miniseries to solid reviews. He’s also set to return for Spaceballs 2, a sequel reuniting the surviving cast of the 1986 science fiction spoof Spaceballs.

Very Young Frankenstein is in development; no release date has yet been announced.

via Collider