Before the pandemic came along and upended everything, Eddie Murphy had retirement on his mind.

After completing work on his 2019 dramedy Dolemite Is My Name (in which he played pioneering Black filmmaker Rudy Ray Moore), the Oscar-nominated actor was going to return to Studio 8H to host Saturday Night Live for the first time since leaving the late-night sketch comedy show in 1984. Then he was going to star in a long-awaited sequel to his 1988 comedy classic Coming to America . After that he was going to hit the road for his first standup tour in almost four decades.

Once he completed all those tasks, the 64-year-old father of 10 was headed to one place: the couch.

The comedy legend made it partway through that list. The standup tour never happened. He also didn’t make it to the c

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