Eddie Murphy was once one of the biggest entertainers in Hollywood but has avoided the spotlight in recent years.
He started out as a stand-up comedian literally on the exact same day as Jerry Seinfeld in New York. Despite both becoming wildly successful, they both had severely different career paths with the difference between “Saturday Night Live,” starring in movies, and transversely the hit NBC show “Seinfeld.”
And while Eddie Murphy has been off the radar for years; he’s about to make one of the most gigantic comebacks in Hollywood history.
In the pantheon of Hollywood history, the industry is full of comebacks. One of the best examples is John Travolta when he starred in Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” in 1994. In the years leading up to that box office smash, Travolta’s career was virtually non-existent.
Another great example is Robert Downey Jr. who was the son of bizarre underground filmmaker Robert Downey Sr. and made his rise during the 1980s with “Less Than Zero” and “Weird Science” – and even earned an Academy Award nomination playing Charlie Chaplin in the early 1990s.
But the drug addiction was too much for Downey and he eventually spent time in jail for multiple probation violations. Then he became Iron Man and the rest is history.
Sometimes they are calculated and sometimes it’s a freak occurrence or just happenstance.
Eddie Murphy’s comeback is calculated.
He was once one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. He played the iconic Detective Axel Foley in the “Beverly Hills Cop” franchise – originally slated to star Sylvester Stallone – and also Reggie Hammond in the “48 Hours” franchise.
He also starred in the underrated gem, “The Golden Child,” as well as the greats; “Coming to America” and “Trading Places.”
In the most recent season of Jerry Seinfeld’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,” Eddie Murphy revealed to him that he still wants to do standup. A few days later, it was announced that Netflix struck a deal with Murphy for a groundbreaking earth-shattering $70 million for his next standup special.
That makes you wonder; is this all planned?
No question.
On top of his new standup special, Eddie Murphy is scheduled to reprise his role as Akeem in “Coming 2 America” and Detective Axel Foley in “Beverly Hills Cop 4.”
It was just announced that Wesley Snipes – also, a man whose career has vanished due to his run-in with the IRS, which resulted in a three-year prison sentence – and rapper Rick Ross have officially joined the cast of “Coming 2 America.”
In the sequel, Akeem learns he has a long-lost son in the United States and must return to America to meet the unlikely heir to the throne of Zamunda.
It looks like the script is still being written for “Beverly Hills Cop 4.”
He’s also got a biography coming out later this year called “Dolemite Is My Name,” which is the true story of Rudy Ray Moore making the 1975 blaxploitation film “Dolemite.”
And here’s the big one: a sequel to “Twins,” directed by Ivan Reitman, where Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito discover they have another brother, Eddie Murphy, called “Triplets.”
That is one gigantic comeback.
It looks like Eddie Murphy is about to take over Hollywood again.