Not sure if you’ve noticed, but Eddie Murphy (Dreamgirls, Tower Heist), one of the biggest stars from the ’80s and ’90s, hasn’t appeared in a feature film since the 2012 dud, A Thousand Words. After taking a four-year break, the 55-year-old actor/comedian is back and starring in Bruce Beresford’s drama Mr. Church.
Videos by ComicBook.com
While promoting the film, Murphy was asked if he would have any interest in appearing in a superhero film. “I’m kind of long in the tooth to fly in in a cape now,” he told Jeff Sneider of Mashable, “so I’d have to be like the voice of reason or somebody. ‘Don’t do that, super-fellow! Or we need such-and-such.’ I would do a superhero movie if it was funny and we were making fun of superhero movies and I figured out how to do something funny. But even I don’t buy me flying in with a cape on and you know, f–king everybody up, having lasers shoot out. See this? Doesn’t this look like bullsh-t? What would you call this? Who would I be?”
Sneider then offered up “The Grabber” as a possibility. “The Grabber?” Murphy pondered. “Yeah, Eddie Murphy is The Grabber. See this? This looks like bullshit! If you seen a poster like this on the street, and lasers are shooting out my fingers and I had a cape on. You would go, “get the fuck out of here.”
The closest the Saturday Night Live alum has ever gotten to a superhero-like role is when he turned down the role of Winston Zeddemore in 1984’s Ghostbusters, which eventually went to Ernie Hudson. Back in 2009, there was a rumor floating around that The Riddler would appear in The Dark Knight sequel and Murphy was being considered for the role. That same year, when Contact Music asked Murphy about it, he said there was no truth to the rumor, but did express a desire to be in a Batman movie and play Egghead, the villainous character Vincent Price originated on the ’60s Batman television series.
