History of the World Part II creators on why series had to include 'Hitler on Ice' and 'Jews in Space'

Warning: This article contains spoilers from the season finale of History of the World Part II.

Tell any fan of Mel Brooks' 1981 film History of the World Part I that it got a sequel series from Hulu, and the reaction is usually some general sentiment of excitement or shock followed up with a question: Will "Hitler on Ice" or "Jews in Space" be included?

Despite the fact a sequel was never actually planned for — the original's title was instead a play on Sir Walter Raleigh's tome The History of the World, Volume 1 — the film ended with a fake teaser that promised sketches "Hitler on Ice," "a Viking funeral," and Star Wars parody "Jews in Space" in a second part.

Perhaps because of this, or maybe in spite of it, History of the World Part II creators, writers, and stars Nick Kroll, Wanda Sykes, and Ike Barinholtz were initially hesitant to include these sketches in their eight-episode follow-up. "For a while, we resisted it," Barinholtz tells EW. Adds Sykes, "We were really going back and forth."

Hulu Nick Kroll, Wanda Sykes, Ike Barinholtz in "Hitler on Ice" sketch on 'History of the World Part II'

The issue, says Kroll, is that they didn't want to rely on the movie. The goal was to pay homage to all of Brooks' work without repeating it. "There's references to every one of his movies somewhere in the show. But I don't think we ever wanted to rely on like, 'Oh, we'll do a continuation of this or we'll do that,'" Kroll says. "Then as we sort of fine-tuned the show of what all the pieces should be and how it all fits together, we realized we could continue to pay homage to Mel and have it work within the show that we created."

Adds Barinholtz, "We also had this feeling of like, you have to give people some red meat, and once we figured out a good use for them, then we couldn't shoot them fast enough."

With "Hitler on Ice," which sees the Nazi leader poorly compete in a figure skating competition commentated on by characters played by Barinholtz, Kroll, and Sykes, they were able to incorporate bits of the original film into the footage. Bringing that in was particularly exciting for the creative team, Kroll says. "We got to dig into the actual dailies from those pieces in [the film]. Being able to go to the archive and find the footage of Hitler skating and then falling in one take, because he's just trying to jump — we ended up grabbing that moment and put it in the show," Kroll explains. "And there's stuff like that that's really just exciting and fun that we get to play with, you know?"

HULU Sarah Silverman in the "Jews in Space" sketch on 'History of the World Part II'

That sketch made its way into the first episode, but fans had to wait until the final episode for "Jews in Space." Unlike "Hitler," which was woven into the show, this sketch is once again included as part of a tease for more History of the World. This time around, it features prominent Jewish actors like Kroll, Barinholtz, and Sarah Silverman alongside Sykes — not Jewish, but as she tells us, she's an executive producer — and a giant dreidel played by Gil Ozeri. A buffed and bronzed Brooks also cameos as "the second-most powerful Jewish person," behind Jesus Christ, of course. Other teases for more history spoofs include "The Great Fascist Bake Off" and "The Dust Bowl."

"Viking Funeral" didn't make the cut, but Barinholtz hopes people are satisfied with the inclusion of "Hitler on Ice" and "Jews in Space." "When you're dealing with a show like this where it's very personal to people and they have a connection with it, there's something that can go wrong if you try to replicate something or add on to something that already exists," he says.

Barinholtz continued, "The trick is to give people just a treat. You have this whole show that is a gift to Mel Brooks fans, and I think we've figured out a good way to do it where it's not like we're rewriting it all, and showing you a new take on it. It's just, like, here's a little fun treat."

All episodes of History of the World Part II — and all of its little fun treats — are now streaming on Hulu.

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