#Tracy Morgan Almost Played Eddie Murphy’s Son in Coming 2 America, But It Just Wasn’t Right

The upcoming sequel to the 1988 classic Coming to America is set to feature an illustrious cast of black actors from several generations. Leading the charge is Eddie Murphy, returning in the role of Akeem Joffer, who discovers he has a secret son. In an interview with CinemaBlend, Murphy revealed that the original plan had been for none other than Tracy Morgan to play his long-lost son, until the fact that Morgan is only seven years younger than Murphy forced the production to look for a replacement.

“In the original idea, Tracy Morgan was gonna be my son. Three years into writing it, Tracy was the son, still. What changed was, we met with Tracy a couple times and it was like “Tracy looks the same age as me. How are we going to make this believable. How are we gonna make this be right? Tracy can’t be Leslie’s [Jones] son. So how are we gonna do this? Then it turned into, “hey, how about Tracy is the uncle?”

RELATED: Eddie Murphy’s Biggest Hope for Coming 2 America Is That It Doesn’t Taint the Original
In Coming 2 America, viewers are brought back to the fictional nation of Zamunda, which is now ruled by King Akeem. Matters come to a head when Akeem learns that he has a son being raised without him somewhere in Queens, America, named Lavelle. The role of Lavelle, which was supposed to go to Morgan, is now set to be played by Jermaine Fowler, best known for the CBS series Superior Donuts.

While it would have been hugely entertaining to see Morgan play the role of Murphy’s son, it will be interesting to see what Fowler brings to the table when acting opposite a comedy legend like Eddie Murphy. For his part, Murphy in a previous interview stressed the significance of having so many talented black actors in the same movie, telling a story that is a continuation of what he described as a fairy tale set in modern times.

“Coming to America is an all-Black cast, but the movie’s not about race. It’s not about, having a foot in your ass or ‘Wake up’ or ‘Keep hope alive.’ It’s none of those things that you can just go and sit back and watch the movie. And it’s about these people and it’s about somebody that’s trying to find true love. It’s like a fantasy, like a fairy tale. And that’s the legacy of the movie that it’s one of the few romantic fairytales with Black people. I think that’s why we love it. That’s why 30 years later, we still watch it and they show it on Christmas and all that. Cause it’s this sweet thing.”

Directed by Craig Brewer, Coming 2 America stars Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Jermaine Fowler, Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan, KiKi Layne, Shari Headley, Wesley Snipes, James Earl Jones, John Amos, Teyana Taylor, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Paul Bates, Nomzamo Mbatha and Bella Murphy. The film arrives on Amazon Prime Video on March 5. This news comes to us from Cinemablend.

Topics: Coming to America 2, Amazon Prime, Streaming