Eddie Murphy’s love of Star Trek is well-known. Not only did he give the franchise a shout-out in one of his classic bits from Eddie Murphy: Delirious, but in the movie Boomerang, he uses an episode (Arena) to help seduce Halle Berry’s character. Given that Eddie Murphy worked exclusively for Paramount Pictures in the 1980s, it’s no surprise that the powers that be at the studio briefly considered giving him a role in one of the films.
Indeed, it almost happened with Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Released in 1986, which was arguably the height of Eddie Murphy’s fame, the film sees the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise travelling back in time to 1986 San Francisco to collect a humpback whale they can use to communicate with a probe that threatens to destroy earth in the 23rd century. While there, Kirk (William Shatner) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy, who also directed) encounter a cetologist, Dr. Gillian Taylor, played by 7th Heaven star Catherine Hicks. She serves as a quasi-love interest for Kirk, but originally, the romantic aspect wasn’t there, and the role was earmarked for Murphy.
In the original pitch, Murphy would have played an astrophysicist who teams up with the crew, but the deal fell apart. Why? Some say Paramount got cold feet about merging their two biggest franchises together, but in an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Murphy said the issue was that he didn’t want to play a modern character. He was more interested in playing a legit Trek part. As he explained, “I was gonna be the one that they met when they got to San Francisco, and I was like, ‘no, I want to beam up and be on the ship’, so I didn’t do it…they has me like talkin’ jive to Spock…”
While Murphy probably would have been hilarious in the film, in the end, his not being in the film worked out for everyone. Murphy made The Golden Child instead, which was the eighth highest-grossing movie of the year, while Star Trek IV was even bigger, making $109 million and placing 5th on the year-end list.
Would Eddie Murphy have been good in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home? Let us know in the comments!