Jamie Foxx’s Netflix special about his health scare gets a release date

Jamie Foxx’s long-promised return to the stage just got a date. What Had Happened Was, Foxx’s first comedy special in more than 20 years, will land on Netflix on December 10. The news was accompanied by a very brief trailer, which shows the curtain rising over the comic on stage, while his voiceover says, “I said, If I can stay funny, I can stay alive.” 

Foxx has been keeping his cards close to his chest so far with this incident; understandably, given that it really sounds like it could have been really, really bad. In April 2023, his daughter Corinne posted on Instagram that her father had experienced some sort of “medical complication” but that “due to quick action and great care, he is already on his way to recovery.” Over this past summer, Foxx shared a few more details with a crowd of fans outside a hotel in Phoenix, but the information did little to alleviate the mystery. “Look, April 11 last year—bad headache. I asked my boy for an Advil,” he said in July. “I was gone for 20 days. I don’t remember anything.”

Foxx taped this special in Atlanta during his performances on October 3rd through 5th. On Instagram, he teased the special thusly: “Experience Jamie Foxx like never before in this intimate and engaging performance, as he opens up about his struggles, triumphs, and everything in between. Get ready for a night of laughter, reflection, and genuine connection.” As we noted at the time, this is Foxx’s first proper special in over 20 years; the last time he filmed one—titled I Might Need Security—was in 2002, and a lot has happened since, including an Oscar win, a Grammy win, the death of his sister, and, of course, the mystery illness. We’ll see how much of the other stuff he covers when his special hits Netflix next month.