It’s always cool to see generations of elite performers coming together for a movie or series. Think Brad Pitt and Robert Redford in the under-appreciated Tony Scott CIA jaunt Spy Game. Or Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen in the Judd Apatow-directed dark dramedy Funny People. Now Netflix will be spanning 40 years of comedy chops, as well as crossing into some sensitive territory, with their upcoming film You People. The two elite comedic talents helming this movie will be Eddie Murphy and Jonah Hill, both arguably the funniest actors of their respective generations. Oh, and not to mention Julia-Louis Dreyfus.

The movie has the potential to dive deep into the serious racial issues that have unfortunately carried over from generation to generation right up into today’s daily headlines. It has the hallmarks of a race-swapped version of the Sydney Poitier classic Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and a freeze-frame of the ignorance and obliviousness still rampant in 2023. The tone from writers Hill and Kenya Barris (Black-ish) appears to be on the lighter side of a hard story based on the trailer. Here’s everything we know about You People.

You People: The Plot

You People centers around Jonah Hill as Ezra Cohen, a lovesick and lonely 30-something. He’s the “can’t seem to catch a break” archetype at the fulcrum of many romantic comedies. By chance, he runs into Amira Mohammed, literally stepping into her car mistaking her for his Uber driver.

The awkward encounter turns into a date and ultimately the relationship that Ezra has been pining for. Ezra plans to ask Amira to marry him, and being an old-fashioned and respectful guy, he looks to her parents for permission. Enter the comedic force of nature that is Eddie Murphy.

The official synopsis reads as follows.

The two societal subjects Murphy and Hill regularly broach, Blackness and Jewishness, will be in heavy supply in You People, making for an extra fascinating meeting of comedic legends and larger themes. Barris discussed this with Complex.

You People: The Cast & Crew

     Netflix

With Hill playing the aforementioned Ezra, the rest of the cast is a powerhouse on its own. Murphy portrays Akbar Mohammed, a devout and serious man of Muslim faith. His wife Fatima is portrayed by Nia Long (The Boiler Room, Big Momma’s House), and their daughter and bride-to-be Amira played by Lauren London (Without Remorse).

“We (Barris and Hill) started talking about it in general, the Jewish and Black cultures often sometimes run into oppression Olympics and we loved the idea of that. I grew up in LA, he grew up in LA, and we’d have those conversations. So there were a lot of things that we wanted to talk about that we felt like would be interesting and hadn’t really been explored or would make it feel like it was of the time. We didn’t know how much of the time it would be at that moment, but we definitely wanted to talk about things that were in our heart.”

Jumping over to Ezra’s household, his struggling woke parents will be played by Julia-Louis Dreyfus as Shelley Cohen, with half of The X-Files dynamic duo David Duchovny as Arnold Cohen.

Rounding out the cast will be Sam Jay portraying Sam Jay (Saturday Night Live), Travis Bennet (Tyler, the Creator, Loiter Squad) as Omar.

The script is penned by the combo of Hill and director Kenya Barris, making his debut as a film director. He’s known for his writing work on Black-ish, Coming 2 America, and Shaft (2019). With these two talents collaborating, we’re looking forward to some great comedic writing with You People. Barris shared more with Complex about the collaboration.

Release Date

You People is set to land on Netflix on January 27.

Hill is known for his range from silly to serious, this movie could potentially explore the actor’s abilities from polar to polar. Mix in some seriously seasoned comedic and dramatic resumes from the likes of Murphy, Louis-Dreyfus, and Duchovny, and You People could be a very unique and deep movie experience.