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Here’s an interesting team-up. It’s been announced that Eddie Murphy is set to star in The Chairman, a drama series from Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner that’s in the works at Peacock. This was rumoured over a month ago, and it appears to have been true.
The Chairman
Although Murphy obviously got his start on the small screen with Saturday Night Live, this will mark the comedian’s first time leading a scripted TV series. He created the stop-motion comedy series The PJs (and voiced one of the lead characters) and The Royal Family, a sitcom starring Redd Foxx and Della Reese.
Details for The Chairman are being kept under wraps for now, but it will be written and executive-produced by Weiner. After the enormous success of Mad Men, Weiner returned with The Romanoffs for Amazon in 2018, but it was cancelled after a single season, and he hasn’t had a series since.
I can’t wait to find out more about this one.
What’s Next for Eddie Murphy?
Murphy is reprising the role of Donkey for Shrek 5, the first sequel to the animated DreamWorks franchise in over 15 years. Mike Myers is back as Shrek, as is Cameron Diaz as Princess Fiona. New cast members include Zendaya as Felicia, Skyler Gisondo as Farkle, and Marcello Hernández as Fergus, Shrek and Fiona’s children. The film is slated to hit theaters on June 30, 2027.
Donkey is also getting his very own spinoff movie, which will be an origin story of how a donkey became Donkey. Last summer, Murphy teased, “Donkey’s going to have his own movie, own little story with his dragon wife and his kids that are half-dragon and half-donkeys…They’ve written this funny story.” The spinoff will be released in theaters on June 30, 2028.
He’s also going to be playing Inspector Jacques Clouseau in the new version of The Pink Panther. The live-action/CG hybrid movie is said to see “the Pink Panther’s live-action crew break him out of his animated prison to do a heist job.“
What do you think of Eddie Murphy joining up with Matthew Weiner for a drama series?
