The superhero Eddie Murphy lobbied hard to play: “It’s a very good possibility”
At this point in his life and career, Eddie Murphy has made it abundantly clear that he isn’t interested in hopping on the industry’s biggest bandwagon to appear in a superhero movie, but that hasn’t always been the case.
Even though the actor could probably do with a hit since his post-Dolemite Is My Name comeback has already petered out after he decided to churn out a string of legacy sequels and forgettable comedies, the fact that all of them have been sent straight to streaming does at least mean he hasn’t added any more box office flops to his filmography.
When asked if he could be lured into the world of comic book adaptations, Murphy’s answer was about as unequivocal as it gets: “Man, fuck that.” He doesn’t see himself “standing around in a movie with a stick and shit, pointing and telling people, ‘Oh, you should do this or that,'” which is fair enough because he’s rich enough not to need the money, and superhero cinema isn’t for everyone.
However, he was a lot more open to the idea three decades ago. When Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman was toying with the idea of casting Bill Murray and Murphy as Batman and Robin in a comedic blockbuster indebted to Adam West’s kitschy TV series, the former admitted that he “talked to Eddie Murphy about it, and Eddie wanted to play Batman,” which was “as far as that conversation went.”
Several years later, and after Tim Burton’s take on the ‘Caped Crusader’ had revolutionised big-budget filmmaking, the Saturday Night Live alum was keen to try again. Or so the head of a studio claimed, with Murphy’s representatives being decidedly less forthcoming about his involvement in a planned adaptation of The Green Hornet.
Tom Craig, the senior vice president of production for Universal at the time, told the Los Angeles Times in 1992 that “it’s a very good possibility” the Beverly Hills Cop breakout would star as Britt Reid, a newspaper magnate who moonlights as a crime-fighting vigilante alongside his partner, Kato. “But it’s a ways off,” he added. “It’s in the very early stages of discussion.”
On the other hand, another insider claimed that he was the one who reached out to the studio, “Ever since Batman was released in 1989, Eddie has really wanted to play a superhero, specifically this one.” To add more crossed wires into the mix, Murphy’s team confirmed that “there was some initial interest,” but they were focusing on “other projects” for their client.
“It would be a high-profile character combined wth one of the biggest box office stars,” Craig accurately surmised. “It would be hard not to make it.” In the end, Murphy didn’t star in The Green Hornet, which would spend another two decades in development hell before it finally reached the screen, which left everyone who saw it wondering why it had taken so long to make something so forgettable.
Seth Rogen ultimately played the title role in Michel Gondry’s 2011 flick, and after admitting that it was a disaster on all fronts, it begs the question of why Hollywood would spend so long persevering to achieve the sum of fuck all when it was finally released.
