Billy Blaze kept a low profile during 1997 although it is believed that he was still addicted to various drugs during this time.

In December 1997, seven years after the release of the first Commander Keen computer game, Billy was found, unconscious, in the back of a garbage truck in New York City. He was eventually reunited with his parents and younger sister.

Billy was then admitted to a detox clinic and, after almost one year of recuperation, was ready to come back to be a part of normal society. For the next year, 18-year-old Billy set about gaining the education that he needed to complete high school. Whenever he could, he worked with his father in television, and eventually met up with writer-director Chuck Huffington, who expressed interest in creating a Commander Keen movie.

"I was one of the people who was to be involved with the television series of Commander Keen before it was axed in '94, and I, just like Billy, have always wanted to see Commander Keen have more adventures than just those that id Software made a half-assed attempt at. So, naturally, I had wanted to create a movie about Keen for quite some time, but hadn't had the opportunity to do so until Billy resurfaced. Although the software company still owned the rights to Keen, I believed that with Billy's help, we would still be able to get some of the rights and finally do justice to the story of Commander Keen."