Eddie Murphy says Coming to America 2 will be rated PG-13

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

When Eddie Murphy first arrived on the scene, his bread and butter was R-rated comedies such as TRADING PLACES, 48 HOURS, BEVERLY HILLS COP, COMING TO AMERICA, and more, but by the mid-90s, Murphy had jumped onboard the more family-friendly bandwagon and found huge success with THE NUTTY PROFESSOR, DOCTOR DOLITTLE, SHREK, and more. Eddie Murphy's last R-rated film was LIFE, which was released twenty years ago, but that will all change with DOLEMITE IS MY NAME, Murphy's upcoming comedy biopic about Rudy Ray Moore.

While speaking with CinemaBlend, Murphy was asked why he drifted away from R-rated comedies later in his career, and he dropped a tidbit about the rating of the COMING TO AMERICA sequel.

I think what happened was, there was a period when Hollywood was on some PG-13… that’s how you reached most audiences. And there was, maybe, a 15-year period where that’s all everybody was doing. So I got caught up in that shit. But no, doing this movie, we went, ‘This movie has to be rated R because of the way Rudy Ray Moore was.’ But I’m doing Coming to America next, and that’s PG-13.

PG-13 is obviously the way to go if you're looking to pull in bigger crowd$ and there's nothing that says a PG-13 comedy can't be hilarious, but it's still a little disappointing to hear that the COMING TO AMERICA sequel won't continue Murphy's return to the realm of R-ratings. Finger's crossed.

Eddie Murphy will next be seen in DOLEMITE IS MY NAME as Rudy Ray Moore, a comedian, actor, musican, and producer best known for portraying a character known as Dolemite in both stand-up and a series of blaxploitation films. The film will hit Netflix on October 25th. As for COMING TO AMERICA 2, Murphy will be reprising his role of Akeem Joffer, the crown prince of the fictional African nation of Zamunda. The sequel will find Akeem discovering that he has a son he never knew about, a street-savvy Queens native named Lavelle. In an effort to honour his father's dying wish to groom his son as a new crowned prince, Akeem must once again return to America. COMING TO AMERICA 2 is slated to hit theaters on December 18, 2020.