In this current age of Peak TV, stars from all over are flocking to the small-screen to get their slice of the streaming pie. It’s a trend that’s given us Robert Downey Jr. in HBO’s The Sympathizer, Harrison Ford in Apple TV’s Shrinking, Sylvester Stallone in Paramount+’s Tulsa King, and Javier Bardem in Cape Fear. And, as reported by Variety, it’s a trend that’s set to continue as legendary funnyman and actor Eddie Murphy is lining up his first ever dramatic TV role in Peacock’s The Chairman, an original series from Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner.
Now, it should be noted that The Chairman — while having a major creator and now a major star also attached — is currently only in development at Peacock, and has yet to receive a formal green light just yet. There’s also no plot details or logline currently available, though we suspect the proposed series may involve a chairman of some description and that said chairman may be played by Eddie Murphy (just a hunch!) Even so, given Weiner’s pedigree as both the creator of one of the best TV shows of all time and as both a writer and executive producer on The Sopranos, along with The Chairman promising SNL icon and all-round industry megastar Murphy’s small-screen debut proper, the chances seem fairly high that Peacock won’t pass this one up.
With Shrek 5, swampland spin-off Donkey, and a long-gestating reboot of The Pink Panther all currently on Eddie Murphy’s horizons, the prospect of an original, longform project from the one-time Academy Award nominee is a very exciting one indeed. Watch out for more updates on this one as The Chairman moves around the Peacock board.
