Late last month, Saturday Night Live took to Twitter to announce that Eddie Murphy will return to host SNL - 35 years since his last stint on the late-night variety show. The erstwhile SNL star last hosted an episode of the show back in 1984 - and although he returned with several other former cast members for the show's 40th anniversary show in 2015 - his brief performance was largely deemed to be underwhelming.
Since then, there has been speculation that Murphy's comeback will involve a return to standup. During an episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, the actor told Jerry Seinfeld that it was a possibly, and afterwards, Vanity Fair reported that Murphy had entered into negotiations with Netflix, with the streaming service allegedly offering Murphy upwards of $70 million for a comedy special.
Now, it seems that the man himself has confirmed the news. During his appearance on Netflix's Present Company with Krista Smith podcast, he casually mentioned that he's going on tour.
Around the 25-minute mark of the podcast - after saying that he will host Saturday Night Live in December - Murphy stated: "And then next year in 2020 I'm going to go on the road and do some strand-up."
While it's not clear if it will be recorded for a Netflix special, it's likely that the yet-to-be-announced tour will later be able to stream online.
Before Murphy possibly sets off on tour, he's due to appear in the Rudy Ray Moore comedy biopic, Dolemite is My Name, which will be released on October 4th on Netflix.
What fans are probably most excited for, however, is the long-awaited sequel to Coming to America. Coming 2 America, which is reported to hit cinemas on the December 18th, 2020, sees Murphy and Arsenio Hall reprising their iconic characters from the 1988 classic.
Murphy is not the only celebrity that will appear on the upcoming season of SNL. Woody Harrelson will host the first episode, which will air on the 28th September, with Billie Eilish as a musical guest.