Eddie Murphy established his place in television’s Pantheon on Saturday Night Live. His meteoric rise then took him to the top of the box office as he quickly conquered the big screen. That’s where his career has primarily remained for more than 40 years. But that’s about to change. The comedy legend is returning to TV. Eddie Murphy will star in The Chairman, a new TV series at Peacock from Mad Men‘s Matthew Weiner.
Deadline reports Murphy has signed on to star in his first-ever scripted TV show. Weiner, best known as the creator and showrunner for Mad Men, is writing the series. He’ll also serve as an executive producer alongside Murphy. The show will come from 01 Studios (Yellowstone, Landman, MobLand) and Universal Television.
No details about the TV show’s plot or premise are known. We know its star is up to the challenge of leading a drama, though. Over his four+ decades on the big screen Murphy has shown his acting chops countless times. In 2007, he also earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his stellar performance in Dreamgirls. (He lost to Little Miss Sunshine‘s Alan Arkin.) But if you ever needed proof that awards don’t always tell a complete story, just remember Eddie Freaking Murphy never won an Emmy while he was on TV for SNL. He claimed his first and only Emmy win in 2020. He took home the statue for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series after finally returning to Studio 8H to host.
While he has never starred on a scripted TV series, he did develop two animated shows in the ’90s. Murphy was behind Fox’s The PJs and CBS’s The Royal Family. The fact that Eddie Murphy has signed on to star on The Chairman is the best sign yet for the TV show. Is it even possible Weiner could ever create another show as good as Mad Men or The Sopranos, which he also wrote for and executive produced? That’s a tall order for any TV series. But then again, no other show has ever before convinced Eddie Murphy to be its star.