We’re Finally Getting a ‘Coming to America’ Sequel and It Sounds Rad as Hell

Good morning, my neighbors! It’s finally happening: Eddie Murphy’s Prince Akeem is officially headed stateside again for a Coming to America sequel, more than three decades after the original first hit in theaters back in 1988.

On Wednesday, Murphy reunited with his America sidekick Arsenio Hall during a pre-production fitting with Ruth E. Carter, the Oscar-winning costume designer for Black Panther—and the photos are enough to make you crave a Big Mick from McDowells.

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Rumors of the long-awaited sequel have been floating around for a while, and Paramount Pictures teased a small snippet of footage at Cinemacon last week, but Carter’s photos signal that the movie is officially headed into production. Back in February, Paramount scheduled the film to debut next year, so it looks like things are on track to hit the August 2020 release date.

According to a February report in Production Weekly, spotted by ComicBook.com, the film will follow the (likely now-King) Akeem as he “learns about a long lost son and must return to America to meet his unlikely heir to the throne of Zamunda.” The report doesn’t say where, exactly, he’s going to go looking for his son, but presumably, Akeem will wind up back in NYC.

Hustle & Flow‘s Craig Brewer—who also had a hand in Empire—will take over directing duties from John Landis, which makes sense, given how hard Landis and Murphy clashed on set while shooting the original. The full cast list hasn’t been announced, but Murphy and Hall will both reprise their roles as Akeem and Semmi, and IMDb lists James Earl Jones as on board as King Joffe again. We’ll have to wait and see if Cuba Gooding Jr. will make a cameo as a dude getting his hair cut this time around.

Let’s just hope that barbershop in Queens has been able to keep up with rising rents and managed to stay open after all these years:

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