Eddie Murphy protagonist of The Chairman, new series by Matthew Weiner

Eddie Murphy is preparing to return to the small screen with a project very different from the television roles that have accompanied him so far.

The actor is in fact linked as the protagonist to The Chairman, a drama series currently in development for Peacock and created by Matthew Weiner, the creator of Mad Men.

The project, which therefore involves one of the most important authors of contemporary television series, is still in the early stages of its implementation and could represent an important new challenge for Murphy.

The series, still without the definitive green light, could mark a turning point in Murphy's television career: it would in fact be his first performance in a scripted live action serial. A significant step for the actor, until now mainly linked to cinema and dubbing, who could thus compete for the first time with a leading role in a fictional television series.

Matthew Weiner will also be involved in the project as a producer, along with Murphy himself. The series will be produced by Universal Television and 101 Studios, a company led by David Glasser and linked to NBCUniversal through a first look agreement for film and television.

At the moment, no details on the plot of The Chairman have been released. It is therefore not yet known which character Murphy will play nor what the setting of the series will be.

For Eddie Murphy this would be an unprecedented step. The actor has built much of his career between cinema, comedy and special shows, after reaching fame thanks to Saturday Night Live, in the cast from 1980 to 1984.

On television he has already worked as a voice actor in the animated series The PJs, which he co-created, but has never had a leading role in a scripted live action series so far. The Peacock project would therefore represent a first for the actor.

His filmography includes, among others, the Beverly Hills Cop saga, A Seat for Two, Harlem Nights, The Nutty Professor, Dreamgirls and Dolemite Is My Name.

Leading the project is Matthew Weiner, a name closely linked to Mad Men, a series broadcast for seven seasons on AMC from 2007 to 2015 and which he created and supervised as showrunner.

Before Mad Men, Weiner had also worked as a writer and executive producer on The Sopranos. His other projects include Becker and the anthology series The Romanoffs, made for Amazon in 2018.

The Chairman therefore represents Weiner's attractive new television project, with Murphy exceptionally at the center of the cast of a scripted series. For now, however, Peacock has not yet announced the plot or further production details.