Eddie Murphy's Lost Role in STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME Revealed
I really enjoyed the Leonard Nimoy-directed film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and it did really well at the box office. Regardless of how much people liked the movie, there was apparently a lot of behind-the-scenes drama in getting it to the big screen. It's hard to believe that it's been 30 years since that movie was released.
The story centers around Kirk, Spock, and their crew traveling back in time to 1986 on a mission to retrieve two humpback whales and bring them to the 23rd century to save the Earth from an alien probe.
During a recent interview with THR, screenwriter Steve Meerson opened up about the development of the film and revealed that Eddie Murphy originally had a role in it. He said:
"They knew they wanted to make a movie that would make a statement about the environment. They knew that they wanted it to include whales. They had a notion that time travel might enter into it. But it's basically all they had."
He and his screenwriting partner Peter Krikes wrote around seven to ten drafts of the script, and the final one that got approval included a role for Murphy that never never happened.
"It was always the same story that got approved, but the original draft included a part for Eddie Murphy. Eddie was on the lot at Paramount at the time and arguably was the biggest star in the world. They had told us he was a huge Star Trek fan."
It was then revealed that Murphy was going to play an astrophysicist at Berkeley, and that the original story did not include Dr. Gillian Taylor, who was played by Catherine Hicks. She was the marine biologist and love interest for Kirk. She replaced Murphy when his deal fell apart.
"At the beginning of the process, it was actually a lot of fun. As the process progressed, it became less fun, because it became more political. And I don't say that with any bitterness. It's just the way things work in all businesses. We began to feel like at a certain point that this was going to be taken away from us, which in fact, it was."
It would have been really interesting to see Muphy in the movie. I was a huge fan of Murphy and his earlier work, and I can't help but think he would have made a great addition to the film. It's a shame they couldn't work it out.