When the long-awaited Coming 2 America premiering on Amazon Prime Video on March 5, fans of the 1988 blockbuster comedy will be thrilled to see many familiar faces returning, from stars Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall to father figures James Earl Jones and John Amos. But there is at least one thing that viewers will not Watch. Speaking with The New York Times, Murphy and Hall reveal that one of the first drafts of the script contained a MAGA-related joke that they cut from the film before filming.
The joke in question would have happened at the Queens establishment, which served as a location for some of the funniest moments in the original film. After moving from the fictional African nation of Zamunda to New York City in search of a bride, Prince Akeem (Murphy) visits a nearby barbershop and meets his team and clientele, including the ever-fighting duo, Clarence and Saul – both of which are also played by Murphy thanks to Rick Baker’s makeup magic.
Murphy will reprise both characters in Coming 2 America, and an initial version of the script – which was written by the actor’s longtime collaborators, David Sheffield and Barry W. Blaustein, as well as black the creator Kenya Barris – would have exposed his surprising political tendencies. “There was a project where the barbers wore MAGA hats and found out they were Republicans,” said Murphy. “But it wasn’t because they defended Trump – they supported Herman Cain.”
Cain, of course, faced Donald Trump for the Republican nomination during the 2016 presidential election and briefly led the field before ending his campaign amid allegations of sexual harassment. He later became co-president of Black Voices for Trump during the ex-president’s reelection campaign and attended a Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last summer. Shortly after that outbreak, he was diagnosed with COVID-19 and died of complications from the virus in July. (Trump’s campaign subsequently denied that he contracted the virus at the event.)
Ultimately, Murphy and his co-writers felt that Cain’s joke would not stand the test of time. “We thought it was funny, but it kind of dates the movie if we do that,” he told the Times, adding that Baker’s makeup, on the other hand, remains timeless. (Baker, who retired in 2015, did not work directly afterwards.) “We age them very well,” he says. “They were supposed to be in the late 80s, early 90s now. Looking at the first, I was surprised at how young we looked – the skin is firm.”
Speaking of age, other lost stories from the first draft of the script included the casting of Tracy Morgan as the son of the now King Akeem. “I love Tracy and he’s the funniest guy in the world,” observed Hall. “But hey, Ed, you’re almost the same age!” (Morgan still appears in the film as the uncle of Akeem’s real son, played by Jermaine Fowler.) Murphy also says that he and the writers have decided to delve into a scene involving two excited Zamunda herders. “[They] had a dispute over a goat, and it was very funny, but it culminated in, one of these guys [had sex with] this goat. It was like, uhhhh, we have James Earl Jones in this movie – let’s keep it classy! “
Coming 2 America debut on March 5 in Amazon Prime Video.
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