Eddie Murphy has revealed Ryan Coogler pitched him a sequel to Coming to America, starring Michael B. Jordan.
The actor, set to reprise his role as Prince Akeem, told the New York Times there was no initial plan to make a sequel before the Black Panther director shared his idea.
“Before he directed Black Panther, I meet with him and he says, ‘I want to do a Coming to America sequel,’” Murphy told the publication.
“He had an idea for Michael B. Jordan to play my son and he would be looking for a wife. I was like, then the movie would be about the son, it’s not our characters, we already did that. It didn’t come together.”
He then explained how Coogler’s idea did still prompt the team to eventually consider another film.
“But all that made me start thinking, maybe we should do a sequel,” Murphy continued. “I saw the Terminator movie where they made Arnold Schwarzenegger young — his face looked like Arnold, but young — and that’s where I got it.
“If we use that to make us young and create a new scene in the club [from the original “Coming to America”] where we’re out looking for the girls, so it’s part of that night. I go home with a girl and I’m high — that was the piece we needed to start the flow.”
Coming 2 America was directed by Craig Brewer (Dolemite is My Name) from a script by Kenya Barris, Barry W. Blaustein, and David Sheffield.
The film will be released on Amazon Prime Video on March 5, 2021.
