Eddie Murphy Says Coming To America 2 Goes 'Above And Beyond' Fans' Expectations

Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall in Coming to America
(Image credit: (Paramount))

When Eddie Murphy comes back, he does it all the way! This year, the comedian has already returned in a big way by starring in potential Oscar contender Dolemite Is My Name, but there’s a lot more coming from him that calls back to his ‘80s roots. Next weekend, Murphy will be bringing back a few of his iconic Saturday Night Live characters when he hosts the show for the first time in 35 years. There’s also a fourth Beverly Hills Cop movie in the works. Oh, and he just finished filming a Coming To America sequel.

It’s an overwhelmingly awesome amount of Eddie Murphy we’ll be getting into our lives in the near future. Coming 2 America is likely to be the most exciting for fans since its his just about his best movie ever (at least according to the readers we polled). Well, the actor recently talked about the sequel, and he’s confident fans won’t be disappointed. In his words:

A lot of people have this expectation, like people would say to me when they found out I was doing it, ‘Don’t fuck that movie up.’ So we’ve gone above and beyond what anybody would think. I’m really, really happy with it.

Coming 2 America has a lot of good things going for it. For one, the long-awaited sequel will be directed by Dolemite Is My Name's Craig Brewer. The Netflix movie just scored two Golden Globe nominations, one for Best Picture and Best Actor for Eddie Murphy in the Comedy or Musical category, and could be on its way to more throughout Oscar season. Black-ish creator Kenya Barris co-wrote the Coming 2 America script, and let's not forget that James Earl Jones and Arsenio Hall, among others, are returning to their roles!

The 2020 comedy will also have Tracy Morgan and Wesley Snipes joining the cast. Plus, Eddie Murphy is returning to the makeup chair to continue playing his other various characters from the original besides Prince Akeem. When the actor recently appeared on Ellen, he talked about how Coming to America is still his most popular movie to date – so he felt some pressure to make the follow-up good.

Eddie Murphy said he ”couldn’t be happier” with how Coming 2 America turned out! Fans will have waited over 30 years since the original when the sequel finally comes out, so it’s nice to know Murphy is proud of it. However, the movie will apparently be PG-13, which contrasts his recent work on Dolemite Is My Name. Can you believe the Netflix comedy was his first R-rated comedy in 20 years?

Coming 2 America is set to be released in theaters on December 18, 2020. Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more news on Eddie Murphy’s comeback and check out the release calendar for the new year!

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.