Star Trek IV Almost Starred Eddie Murphy: Why He Turned It Down
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home nearly had a starring role for Eddie Murphy; here's why he passed despite being a fan of the series. Eddie Murphy quickly rose to stardom following his debut as a performer on Saturday Night Live. His talent and charisma were obvious, which led to a starring role alongside Nick Nolte in Walter Hill thriller 48 Hours. The movie was a huge success and helped spawn the buddy cop action movies that followed like Lethal Weapon.
Eddie Murphy soon followed with a pair of instant classics, starring alongside Dan Aykroyd in Trading Places and playing the title role in Beverly Hills Cop. The latter had previously been developed as a star vehicle for Sylvester Stallone, with several ideas from that version later forming the basis for Cobra. Murphy was red hot in terms of popularity during this period, so much so that Paramount paid him a huge fee to star in additional footage for their comedy Best Defense from director William Huyck (Howard The Duck). Knowing they had a turkey on their hands after test screenings they shot additional, loosely connected footage with Murphy's character and plastered his name on the poster as "Strategic Guest Star." The ploy didn't work, however, and the movie tanked.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view. Start nowThe Star Trek movie franchise was also huge around this time, with Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan restoring faith in the series following a mixed reaction to the first movie. Spock performer Leonard Nimoy had directed the third movie and returned to helm the fourth, and as he later explained to TrekMovie, he received a call from Paramount head Jeffrey Katzenberg revealing Eddie Murphy would "kill" to be in a Star Trek movie. Since Murphy couldn't have been bigger it would have been a major boon to the series, so Nimoy met with Murphy to discuss a potential role.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was designed to be a little lighter and more fun than the previous movie, and featured a time-travel plot where the Enterprise crew head back in time to 1980s San Francisco. This is so they can bring a humpback whale back to their own timeline - where they are extinct - to answer the signal being sent out by an alien probe. Eddie Murphy was lined up to play the role of an astrophysicist who encounters the crew and helps them on their mission, with plenty of humor being milked from how out of place they are in the past.
Eddie Murphy passed on Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home because the role didn't appeal to him, and he signed on to fantasy blockbuster The Golden Child instead. Murphy's planned role as thus heavily rewritten to become Dr. Gillian Taylor, played by Catherine Hicks (Child's Play). From a career point of view, Murphy choosing The Golden Child makes sense as rather than being a supporting player in someone else's franchise, he led a big-budget movie where he was the main focus. While the film was a solid hit the star may regret his choice now, as he later dubbed The Golden Child "a piece of s***."
Source: screenrant.com