Wesley Snipes is playing a new character in Eddie Murphy's upcoming Coming 2 America. The sequel to the 1988 comedy was recently announced and fans of the original are looking forward to seeing what Murphy is going to do with his iconic Prince Akeem character in the upcoming movie. With the latest casting announcement, the sequel is planned to go into production this fall, though no specific start date has been revealed at this time. Regardless, it's only a matter of time before we start to see some images from the set.

Eddie Murphy is back as Prince Akeem and Arsenio Hall is reprising his role as Semmi, Akeem's best friend. Wesley Snipes has joined the cast of Coming 2 America as General Izzi, "a man who rules a neighboring nation." With that description, it may point to some conflict with Akeem and Semmi, though that has not been confirmed at this time. This is a reunion between director Craig Brewer, Murphy, and Snipes who all just recently worked on the Netflix biopic Dolemite Is My Name, which tells the story of Rudy Ray Moore.

Both Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall took on multiple roles in Coming to America, but it is not clear if they will be doing the same thing in the sequel. The first installment found Murphy's Akeem in the United States to find a wife. He ends up working at a McDonald's knockoff while trying to keep a low profile. Coming 2 America will have Akeem returning to the United States to locate his long-lost son in order to recruit him to become prince, so he can become king of Zamunda.

Coming 2 America has been in development for a lot of years and for a while, it didn't look like it was going to happen at all. But now, Eddie Murphy is ready to return after working with Craig Brewer on Dolemite Is My Name and getting inspired. From there, it was all about getting Arsenio Hall back on board to round out the cast. It is believed James Earl Jones will also be returning and there have been rumors about Dave Chappelle possibly joining the Coming to America 2 cast.

Coming 2 America hits theaters on August 7th, 2020, which is the same month the long awaited Bill & Ted 3 will be opening. With production set to start in a few weeks, we should get more of an idea of what Eddie Murphy and Craig Brewer have planned for the sequel. After all of these years, it's going to be hard to live up to the original, but that sounds like a challenge Murphy and crew are ready to take on to deliver the goods. The Hollywood Reporter was the first to announce the Wesley Snipes Coming 2 America casting news.