Michael McKean Teases “This is Spinal Tap ”Sequel 40 Years Later: ‘It’s Tragic in the Funniest Way’ (Exclusive)

‘Spinal Tap II’ will star the original cast, including McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer and Fran Drescher

Michael McKean admits the sequel to This Is Spinal Tap will be “tragic.”

The Clue actor, 77, teased Spinal Tap II, the follow-up to the 1984 cult classic mockumentary about the titular fictional ’80s band, in an exclusive chat with PEOPLE at The Diplomat season 2 premiere on Monday, Oct. 28.

”If you think those guys were sad when they were young …” McKean said of the Spinal Tap band members played by him, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer. “It's tragic in the funniest way — hopefully.”

Slated to be released next spring, director Rob Reiner’s Spinal Tap II will star the original cast, including the aforementioned trio, alongside Fran Drescher as the band’s publicist Bobbi Flekman. Reiner revealed in 2023 that Elton John and Paul McCartney will also appear in the sequel.

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McKean, who played David St. Hubbins in the film, told PEOPLE that “it was fun” to reunite with his costars to make the sequel.

“We always have fun,” he added of his longtime friendships with them.

The popular “rockumentary” told the story of Spinal Tap as a filmmaker documents the rowdy fictional band through their ups and downs.

McKean said that his fondest memory of This Is Spinal Tap was “showing it to people and having them like it” because making it was a “struggle.”

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Explaining what the struggles of making This Is Spinal Tap, McKean told PEOPLE, “What we had was 20 hours of film and we got it down to 85 minutes. It was a long, long chore.”

“But once we started showing it to people and knowing that the audiences who were there for the film really dug it — it was never going to be Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters was that year,” he added.

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“It wasn't going to be Splash, it wasn't going to be one of the big, big money comedies — but we also knew that the people who liked it would like it very much and would keep it alive,” McKean continued.

Season 2 of The Diplomat is available to stream on Netflix now. Spinal Tap II is set to be released in 2025.