If you're a Beverly Hills Cop fan who lost faith long ago that a new sequel would ever happen, we don't blame you. The project has spent an ungodly amount of time in development hell, and it's so often the case in Hollywood that projects like that end up dissipating into nothingness. Now, though, the impossible seems to be possible, as not only has Beverly Hills Cop 4 started production with the title Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley, but the project has brought on Taylour Paige and Joseph Gordon-Levitt to join Eddie Murphy in the cast.
Deadline has the scoop on this development, noting that filmmaker Mark Molloy is still attached to direct the film after replacing duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah this past spring. The project is being produced by Netflix, and while there are few plot details presently available, the trade says that the movie will follow Eddie Murphy's titular Axel Foley as he investigates "the murder of a friend."
The movie will be the second long-awaited sequel starring Eddie Murphy to be released on streaming in the last few years, as Coming 2 America arrived as an Amazon Prime Video exclusive back in March 2021. With Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley entering production now, it's likely that we'll see it as a part of Netflix's upcoming movie slate in 2023 – though fans shouldn't expect to learn about the official release date until the film is few months away from hitting the subscription service (which is just Netflix's way of doing things).
Taylour Paige earned a great deal of attention for her turn as the eponymous character in 2021's Zola, and this year she's already appeared in two films: Lena Dunham's Sharp Stick and Katie Aselton's Mack & Rita.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has two Netflix films on his resume in Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman's Project Power and Aaron Sorkin's The Trial Of The Chicago 7. Most recently he starred in the Showtime series Super Pumped, and he voices Jiminy Cricket in Robert Zemeckis' Pinocchio (the first trailer for the Disney+ original dropped last week).
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley will be the first sequel in the series produced since 1994. The original movie was a huge hit for Eddie Murphy early in his career, and stars the actor as a wise-cracking cop from Detroit who travels to Beverly Hills in the hopes of solving a homicide involving a childhood friend. Judge Reinhold co-starred in all three of the previous movies as Detective William "Billy" Rosewood, Axel's partner, but it is unclear if he will be a part of the third sequel.
With things progressing so quickly for Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley, expect more casting news to be announced very soon. In the meantime, you can put your Netflix subscription to good use by checking out the best movies on the streaming service.
