Eddie Murphy, from March 5 in Coming 2 America , was never working on a possible sequel to the hit 1988 comedy film. He changed his mind when he saw a sequel to the Terminator movie, he tells The New York Times .
Murphy talks in a double interview with his fellow actor Arsenio Hall, who can also be seen in the new film, about the creation of the new film and the old film. “The story had a happy ending.”
However, in recent years, the actor and comedian has noticed a renewed interest in the film. For example, Beyoncé and JAY-Z dressed up as two of the main characters during Halloween in 2015.
Murphy was then approached by Black Panther director Ryan Coogler, who wanted to make a sequel. “He felt like Michael B. Jordan would play my son and look for a wife,” said Murphy. In the original Coming to America movie, Murphy plays Akeem Joffer, the crown prince of a fictional African country who goes to America to find a wife there.
Coogler’s idea didn’t appeal to Murphy: “It would be about the son, and not about the characters of Arsenio and me. Besides, it’s the same story as from the first film.”
Actors were made digitally younger
It didn’t come to a collaboration, but it did make Murphy think about making a different kind of sequel. The inspiration for the eventual Coming 2 America got the actor from Terminator Genisys (2015), in which protagonist Arnold Schwarzenegger has been made younger.
“We were able to use that same technique to make ourselves younger and build on a scene from Coming to America, ” Murphy explains.
In Coming 2 America you can see that Murphy’s character Akeem goes out for a night. It is a scene that ‘follows’ a scene from the first film. During that night Akeem ends up in bed with a woman. Years later, Akeem turns out to have a son who lives in New York and visits him with his friend Semmi (Hall), at the request of his dying father. The film can be seen on Amazon Prime from March 5.
