Jamie Foxx to break silence on health scare in What Had Happened Was standup special: Watch the new trailer

Jamie Foxx is back — and he's opening up about his recent health scare.

The multitalented entertainer returns to comedy with the new standup special What Had Happened Was, which hits Netflix Dec. 10. The first trailer for the special opens with a number of headlines and audio from news broadcasts about Foxx's 2023 hospitalization, culminating with a commentator saying, "Jamie Foxx literally died!"

Foxx then emerges triumphantly onto the stage as the crowd screams, and he proudly announces, "I'm back!"

The Oscar winner expresses his gratitude to his fans. "I'm so glad to see y'all here. I'm so glad to be here," he says, before teasing, "What had happened was…"

The public first learned of Foxx's health crisis in April 2023 when his daughter Corinne announced that the actor had experienced a "medical complication" that resulted in his hospitalization in Georgia. "Luckily, due to quick action and great care, he is already on his way to recovery," Corinne said at the time.

Foxx had been filming the action-comedy Back in Action with Cameron Diaz and Glenn Close around the time of the incident, though he was not on set when the episode occurred. The comedian shared his first brief update three weeks after the incident, writing, "Appreciate all the love!!! Feeling blessed" on Instagram.

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Foxx then shared his first video update in July, explaining why he didn't make any video posts in the weeks following his health scare. "I just didn't want you to see me like that," he said. "I want you to see me laughing, having a good time, partying, cracking a joke, doing a movie, a television show. I just didn't want you to see me with tubes running out of me and trying to figure out if I was going to make it through."

Later in the video, Foxx debunked rumors that he'd gone blind or become paralyzed as a result of his medical condition. "But I did go through… I went to hell and back. My road to recovery had some potholes as well, but I'm coming back, and I'm able to work," he said. "I know they talk about people crying on videos — you can do a take two — but I'm not gonna do a take two. It is what it is. If you see me out from now on and every once and a while I just burst into tears, it's because it's been tough, man. I've been sick, man. But now, I've got my legs under me, so you're gonna see me out."

Foxx publicly acknowledged his health scare while accepting the Vanguard Award at the Critics Choice Association’s Celebration of Cinema and Television: Honoring Black, Latino and AAPI Achievements last December. "I couldn’t do that six months ago, I couldn’t actually walk to [the stage]," he said. "And I’m not a clone, I’m not a clone. I know a lot of people saying that I was cloned out there."

The actor also said that he experienced an unusual phenomenon during the scariest moment of th experience. "I wouldn’t wish what I went though on my worst enemy because it’s tough when it’s almost over, when you see the tunnel,” he said at the same event. “I saw the tunnel; I didn’t see the light. It was hot in that tunnel too, I don’t know where I was going. ‘S---, am I going to the right place?'"

Later, Foxx said that he struggles to recall most of his health incident. "I had a bad headache, asked my boy for an Advil," he said to a crowd in a TikTok. "[Snaps fingers] Boom, I was gone for 20 days. I don't remember anything."

Foxx also told Gayle King that filming the standup special wasn't the most pleasant experience. "It was excruciating because the worry is what gets you," Foxx said. "We’ve got a great show in the room, but we don’t know what they may laugh or what they may not laugh at. Any comedian will tell you that's the thing, the worry is the thing. Usually, when you do a stand-up special, you go out for a year and a half and work every nook and cranny, then you tape it. You don’t just show up in Atlanta and turn the camera on."

Jamie Foxx's What Had Happened Was hits Netflix Dec. 10. Watch the full trailer above.