John Landis' 1988 romantic comedy COMING TO AMERICA starred Eddie Murphy as Akeem Joffer, the crown prince of the fictional African nation of Zamunda, who traveled to the United States along with his friend/aide Semmi (Arsenio Hall) in the hopes of finding a woman he could marry. Now, close to thirty years later, a sequel is in development, because all the other long-delayed comedy sequels have just turned out so great. Right? Right??
This spring it was revealed that original writers Barry Blaustein and David Sheffield had been hired to pen the script for the COMING TO AMERICA sequel, and now THR has reported that Jonathan Levine (50/50) has been tapped to direct the project. He'll be teaming up with Black-ish creator Kenya Barris, who will be rewriting the script. Although there's not currently a deal in place with Eddie Murphy, the actor is apparently involved with the development of the sequel and is expected to star.
Although there are certainly exceptions, comedy sequels, particularly those which arrive so long after the release of the first, rarely live up to expectations, and unfortunately I can't see a sequel to COMING TO AMERICAN avoiding that trend. I'd love to be proven wrong however, as well as see Eddie Murphy back on the big-screen providing the type of laughs that haven't been overly plentiful in his recent movies.