Eddie Murphy is teaming up with Mad Men's Matthew Weiner for a Peacock drama

Details about the series are basically nil at this point, but we do know that it’ll be a drama, and that it’s apparently called The Chairman. Weiner, for his part, has been almost as scarce on the small screen as Murphy these days; he last had a major project back in 2018, with his single-season Prime Video anthology series The Romanoffs, which didn’t exactly ascend to Mad Men levels of cultural ubiquity. (The rollout being muddied by a sexual harassment accusation from former assistant and Emmy-winning Mad Men writer Katie Gordon probably didn’t help.)

Murphy’s 21st century career has been eclectic, to put it mildly. Although he’s mounted occasional pushes to get back into the public consciousness—his most recent, from a few years back, saw him revive both Coming To America and Beverly Hills Cop for new film installments—he’s never had quite the late-career renaissance that critically heralded performances in movies like Dreamgirls or Dolemite Is My Name might suggest. That being said, it’s not like he’s ever exactly fallen from his role as American household god, either; last year’s Netflix documentary Being Eddie was well-received, and he’s still on track to star in Shrek 5 next year. The idea, then, of Murphy teaming up with Weiner and exploring a genuinely dramatic story carries an undeniable spark of potential—even if both man’s limited creative output over the last decade or so might temper our enthusiasm just a bit.