Today marks the 30th anniversary of Twins, the hit 1988 comedy starring Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger as, well, twins. The Ivan Reitman–directed movie is a Schwarzenegger classic, a feel-good buddy comedy that followed the two unlikely titular brothers as they reconnected after being separated at birth. At first glance, the oddball pairing seems good for a few laughs and a decent time, but Universal never could have predicted the film breaking out to a whopping $216 million worldwide (and that’s in ancient 1988 dollars).
Nor could the studio possibly have known that it would be making a sequel three decades later. Well, at least we hope that’s still the case. Earlier this year, Schwarzenegger confirmed that Triplets had added Eddie Murphy to its cast and that the script was finished. “Funny thing that happens in the mixing of the sperm,” Schwarzenegger said about the even unlikelier third sibling.
Unfortunately, we haven’t heard anything else about the project since, which is a shame because Triplets is the kind of shameless retread of an older property that we actually don’t mind. In fact, we really want to see it.
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Audiences have shown they’re not always willing to show up for poorly thought-out comedy revivals. Recent sequels to beloved hits such as Ben Stiller’s Zoolander and Will Ferrell’s Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy crashed and burned upon their releases. But Schwarzenegger has said that Reitman has been looking over the script from Ryan Dixon and Josh Gad (yes, we know, Olaf from Frozen) and likes what he sees.
Triplets is such a weird, random sequel to make that we can’t really bemoan Hollywood’s lack of originality here—again, we want to see it! Twins was great, but it’s not like it’s some sacred cinematic touchstone. So why not get a little crazy?
More important, it would be beyond gratifying to see Eddie Murphy be funny again. Every comedian is entitled to branch out into more serious territory or step away from Hollywood entirely, which is what Murphy seems to have done. Since 2010, the Hollywood legend has appeared in just three live-action films, one of which was the poorly received 2016 drama Mr. Church. America misses Eddie.
We miss the fast-talking, rough-edged verbal assaults; we miss that deep-throated laugh, as if someone had inflated a balloon in his mouth; we miss the old Eddie Murphy. So if Triplets can resurrect that guy for a quick and silly 90 minutes, we’re all in favor.
