Coming 2 America’s Mid-Credits Scene Improves The First Movie’s Best Joke

Coming 2 America‘s mid-credits scene features a cameo from John Legend, and it nicely builds upon one of Coming To America‘s best jokes. Coming 2 America comes 33 years after the first movie and, perhaps unsurprisingly, is absolutely full of callbacks and references to it. The Easter eggs range from a continuation of its Trading Places shared universe to the continuing McDonald’s/McDowell’s gag, and this continues even after the credits have started rolling.

In keeping with the more modern tradition for franchise movies, Coming 2 America has a pair of post-credits scenes – one coming halfway through, and the other at the very end. The latter sees Saul, one of the barbershop characters played by Eddie Murphy, telling a joke to Baba (Arsenio Hall’s new character), which itself calls back to the original movie and a closing joke from Saul. But it’s the mid-credits scene that is even more memorable, as it features a cameo from John Legend, filmed at his own home presumably due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Coming 2 America mid-credits scene is removed from the narrative of the movie, and instead has Legend giving a performance of the song “She’s Your Queen To Be.” In the first movie, the song was brilliantly – if rather unexpectedly – belted out by Paul Bates’ Oha. Forming part of Prince Akeem’s birthday celebrations as he met his then-wife-to-be, the soulful musical moment perfectly captured the spirit of the movie, while also paying off Oha’s otherwise more silent personality – no one knew it was coming before he picked up the microphone and started singing, with the song also going on for a surprisingly long time. All of that combined to make it one of the movie’s best gags, and Coming 2 America not only homages it, but makes it even better by having a similarly unexpected follow-up.

Legend’s voice makes him an ideal choice to perform the song in Coming 2 America, as is the fact that he is so committed to the bit and clearly loving being a part of it, even signing off with a nice “Goodnight, Zamunda.” This isn’t the only appearance Legend makes on the movie’s soundtrack, as the artist is also behind Coming 2 America‘s eponymous theme song, which he performs with Burna Boy and features Nile Rodgers.

It’s a shame that Legend doesn’t get to make a full cameo in Coming 2 America – which may have been part of the initial plan before the pandemic changed things – but nonetheless his appearance gets to leave a great mark on the movie. There are multiple links back to Coming To America and while not all of them work – perhaps in part because of the sheer volume of them, as well as some inevitable retcons – having John Legend join the Coming 2 America cast in its mid-credits scene definitely works.

About The Author