My twelve year-old self is absolutely geeked because Coming to America 2 is finally, well, coming! We have waited 32 years for the sequel to Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall’s 80’s cult classic. Coming to America 2 will be released March 5, 2021 on Amazon Prime Video. The new trailer came out Tuesday and if it is any indication Coming to America 2 will be just as fun as the first.
Coming to America 2 is the first time in 32 years that Arsenio and Eddie are collaborating and they look like they had a helluva good time. According to director Craig Brewer and co-writer Kenya Barris, the entire crew had a hard time keeping it together on set. They were so excited to be working with Eddie and Arsenio and to watch them play off each other. Coming to America 2 picks up thirty years later as Prince Akeem, played by Eddie Murphy, is set to become king. He discovers that he has a son with a woman he met in Queens, played by Leslie Jones. The movie follows Akeem and Semmi, played by Arsenio Hall, returning to New York City so that Akeem can meet his son. Below are more details about the movie from EW:
Directed by Murphy’s Dolemite Is My Name collaborator Craig Brewer, Coming 2 America picks up as Akeem prepares to become king, only to learn that he long ago fathered a son (Jermaine Fowler) with a woman from Queens (Leslie Jones). Joining Fowler and Jones as newcomers to the series are KiKi Layne, Tracy Morgan, Rick Ross, and Wesley Snipes, while returning alums include Shari Headley, Paul Bates, John Amos, and James Earl Jones.
“It was probably one of the greatest experiences of my life, being able to watch them come back into these characters,” Brewer recently told EW of working with Murphy and Hall. “[Co-writer] Kenya Barris is one of the most powerful men in entertainment, and we’re sitting there on set and when Eddie and Arsenio walked into the barbershop as the old barbershop characters, we giggled like school children. [Laughs] We just dropped all sense of maturity and decorum. It was like, ‘Can you believe that we are doing this? Can you believe we’re at the barbershop? There’s Clarence [Murphy] for God’s sake!’ And it was just infectious. The crew grew up on Coming to America so they’re trying to be professional but they’re just trying to bite their cheeks so they don’t smile the whole time. And you’ve got to remember that Eddie and Arsenio haven’t done this in more than 30 years, and now they’re just cracking jokes and having a blast — and this is even after they’ve been in eight hours of makeup.”
When I first found out about the Coming to America sequel, I rolled my eyes. I felt like it was going to be another bad attempt to recreate the magic of an 80s film that was very popular, particularly in the Black community. However, when I saw that the original cast was returning for the sequel, I got absolutely giddy. The trailer is making me impatient for March 5. It can’t get here fast enough. Coming to America was one of my favorite movies growing up and Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall were staples on my television screen. This will definitely be nostalgic for me. When I saw that Shari Headley was also returning as Lisa McDowell I was sold.
What I am also excited about is that Coming to America 2 will be released on Amazon Prime Video instead of in theatres. I am looking forward to watching the shenanigans that Eddie and Arsenio get up to. I will never forget the iconic barbershop scenes and McDowell’s fast food restaurant. While I wait for March 5 to arrive, I may revisit my Soul Glow curl activator, yes I had a Jheri curl when I was a kid, don’t @ me, and prepare for a trip down memory lane.
Here’s the trailer!
It looks like fun! They best part of the entire trailer is the barbershop and all of the jokes they crack, plus the fact that, in reality, there is no way those dudes would still be alive. 😂
I’m guessing the kid was a result of that one night they went to the club and met a bunch of progressively crazier women.
This is my husband’s like all time favorite – and loves them too. BUT if the sequel took 32 years and these guys were like 60 then (at best) that would make them 92. Right????
Best news in 2020, I so needed this to end this, let’s say, challenging year….
Can’t wait, am so excited…coming to america is a must-watch for me every single year during christmas time, and has been for the last 20 years..
So many wonderful memories, and movies from the 80ies truly have a certain kind of magic…
Watched CTA last night with the next generation. And we were cracking up the whole time. John Amos STOLE. THE. SHOW. I hope he has a lot of screen time this time around too. And I imagine it’ll just be a great time. And also, LESLIE JONES! If you haven’t seen her stand-up live, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
(P.S. Sad Eric LaSalle is not in this–he was the greatest thing about ER and never got his due as an actor.)
When i saw the barbers in the trailer i thought ok its about ten years after the OG. What are the barbers still doing alive? Lol but they are so iconic in the first movie it would have been criminal to leave them out.
Cannot wait. Wish they would release it earlier so we can have some laughs sooner.
*watches C2A trailer
*pulls out phone to add to the calendar
Ha! Eddie’s face in that last scene is so cute.
“Coming To America” was on TV here in Italy a few days ago. It was my Italian boyfriend’s first time watching it. I can’t believe how much of the movie I remembered from way back when. I LOVED the women’s outfits, especially the younger sister’s outfits. I would totally wear some of them now.
I LOVE Coming to America and will stop and watch it all if I come across it on TV. It’s such a hilarious ass movie and knowing there’s finally a sequel gives me so much joy! That trailer had me busting out laughing already!
THAT is a sequel I will watch. Going to watch the first one now 😀
How have they not aged?! They look the same as in the original.
Eddie Murphy has some pretty good movies. Trading Places is my favorite, but I also loved Coming to America. I even liked his Beverly Hills cop movies.
Trading Places is one of my favorite movies too. It counts as a Christmas movie, right?
Of course it does! It’s on my Christmas movie list.
CANNOT WAIT! One of my favorite movies of ALL TIME.
I’m thinking the child is one of the “bathers” who he slept with while still in zamunda & that the king sent away (why he is the one who knows of the child). I’m excited as I loved the first but a little concerned as Art Buchwald has been dead awhile
My theory on the plot is that Eddie and Sherri have a daughter, but Eddie had a one-nighter with a bather/club-goer/etc. James Earl Jones is steeped in tradition hence the “must be a SON” BS. Then Eddie has an epiphany that the whole male primogeniture thing is archaic and changes the rules once he is king.
I feared the trailer was just nostalgia but that last joke in the barbershop was the best! Soo looking forward to this
Eddie seems to have lightened up the last couple years. Remember when he was the only one with a body guard at the 40th anniversary SNL special? Just such ego. He seems more interested in engaging and working now
I am so geeked by this announcement! I have seen CTA a number of times and it counts as one of my favorite all-time comedies in addition to “Friday”. This movie was released when I was a junior in college and I distinctly recall the theater erupting in peals of laughter at the characters. What stood out to me was the guy who sang, “She’s Your Queen to Be” at the beginning of the movie and the infamous, Randy Watson throwing a tantrum after he received a lukewarm reception after his performance – “Sexual Chocolate dammit!” Thirty plus years later and the jokes are still hilarious. I cannot wait for March 2021 to arrive!
I’m in! And do we have James Brown again, or is that Eddie Murphy doing James Brown?! Either way, I’m looking forward to it!
I cannot WAIT!!!