Eddie Murphy is in the middle of a huge career comeback following his award-winning role as Rudy Ray Moore in last year’s Dolemite Is My Name. And by comeback, I mean he’s reprising a ton of the characters that have remained iconic for the comedian over 30 years later. Up next is Coming 2 America, which Amazon Studios bought for a whopping $125 million a few months ago. Though it should be clarified that one previously reported Coming 2 America star will not actually be in the film.
The upcoming comedy has a huge ensemble cast that will feature a combination of talents from the original actors, such as Arsenio Hall, John Amos, James Earl Jones and Shari Headley, to newcomers to Prince Akeem’s world, including Jermaine Fowler, Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan and Rick Ross. It has also been reported by a number of outlets, namely Indiewire, that former Saturday Night Live cast member and master impressionist Jay Pharoah is part of the film. Here’s what Pharaoh told CinemaBlend when asked:
I don’t think I’m in it, unless they’re showing some SNL clips. No, I did not film Coming 2 America, I don’t think I’m in that movie. Now, the general consensus should be ‘Why the hell isn’t Jay Pharoah in this movie?’ Maybe it’s a fan thing, but no, I would have loved to be in it.
And I definitely pressed to make sure he wasn’t doing a bit either. He sounded surprised to hear the question even asked and was dead serious when I clarified. So despite a round of websites reporting the comedian may join some fellow Saturday Night Live alums on the high-profile comedy, he is definitely not in it. But he would have definitely been interested if he had been given the opportunity. Hey, every once in a while, casting information gets misconstrued and falls through the cracks.
It’s not out of left field that Jay Pharaoh could find himself in the Craig Brewer project – the actor is well known for his spot on impression of Eddie Murphy. He even joked once that he “better play his son” in Beverly Hills Cop 4, which is expected to be produced for Netflix under the Bad Boys For Life directors. Check out Jay Pharoah’s impression:
Yeah so… why the hell isn’t Jay Pharoah in Coming 2 America? One clue here that it wasn’t official is he didn’t have a character description attached to his name when the other cast members had been given backstories ahead of its upcoming release. The movie was originally coming to theaters this month, but has since been pushed to instead drop on Amazon Prime on March 5, 2021.
Jay Pharoah was recently in Hulu’s horror film Bad Hair, and will next star alongside Jessica Rothe and Harry Shum Jr in the romance drama All My Life, coming to theaters this Friday, December 4.
