30 Years Later, Eddie Murphy Returns To His Most Beloved Franchise
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“Okay, everybody’s ready here, okay!” Yes. It’s real. Eddie Murphy is heading back to Beverly Hills for a fourth installment of the classic and beloved action-comedy franchise Beverly Hills Cop.
Netflix recently dropped a teaser trailer, meaning it’s officially official: Beverly Hills Cop is coming back, and Murphy is “back on the beat in Beverly Hills,” the official synopsis for Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, reads.
“After his daughter’s life is threatened, she (Taylour Paige) and Foley team up with a new partner (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and old pals Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and John Taggart (John Ashton) to turn up the heat and uncover a conspiracy,” the description continues.
The movie will bring back Detective Axel Foley, played by Murphy, and he’s coming as “the same Axel Foley,” producer Jerry Bruckheimer told Netflix’s Tudum.
“He’s still on the streets. He’s still doing what he does,” he continued. “Obviously, with age, you get wiser. But he still has the twinkle in his eye.”
The original film was released in 1984 and became a huge box-office hit, skyrocketing Murphy’s fame playing Axel, a Detroit-based detective who breaks nearly every rule for a cop and heads to southern California to try and solve the murder of his childhood best friend.
Since the original, there have been two other releases in the franchise, including Beverly Hills Cop III, which came out in 1994, meaning the upcoming sequel will be 30 years after the last one — and nearly 40 years since the original.
But the movie showrunners promise to bring back the same charm of the original. “Some of the funniest moments in Axel F are when Eddie’s improvising,” Director Mark Molloy told Tudum.
Adding: “For me, a big part of my job was to create the right environment, cast the right people around Eddie to allow him to do what he does best.”
The new Beverly Hills Cop movie, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, hits Netflix in the summer of 2024.