Eddie Murphy’s Return Date To His Best Franchise Revealed
Eddie Murphy was in Coming 2 America, which was a fantastic sequel. Now, the man is returning to his best franchise with an upcoming sequel movie.
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The 1980s solidified many genres that became the landscape of Hollywood. Some of those genres not only lasted until today but have thrived. One of those genres is the action-comedy. The likes of Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart as CIA agents in Central Intelligence or Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in Bad Boys and sequels all owe their success at least partly to Eddie Murphy. When Murphy was 23, one of his biggest movies was released to theaters and began a franchise. Beverly Hills Cop made the actor a household name in 1984. The franchise saw a sequel three years later in 1987 and a third in 1994. Fans have been clamoring for a fourth installment for decades, and now they may have gotten their wish.
Back in 2020, news broke that Beverly Hills Cop had found a new home at Netflix. There was a proposed release date that has come and gone in 2021. ComicBook reports that the long-awaited fourth installment now has a production date. The entertainment website sat down with longtime producer Jerry Bruckheimer. The legend revealed that the team was getting back together for a fourth Beverly Hills Cop for Netflix. He commented that production would begin in ten days, putting everyone together at the end of August. It’s been nearly 20 years since Don Simpson, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Eddie Murphy were together bringing Axel Foley to the screen. By the time the film is released on Netflix, it may be every bit of the two-decade wait.
Beverly Hills Cop 4 isn’t the first time the series looked to relaunch. Back in 2013, CBS was working on launching a TV series centered on Axel Foley’s son. The series starred Brandon T. Jackson and featured Eddie Murphy in the pilot. The series was ultimately not picked up, and Murphy explained that it was primarily due to a misunderstanding between him and the network. They wanted him in more of a regular role while the actor had only agreed to the pilot. Murphy admitted that when they tested the pilot, audiences liked it more when he was on screen. While the original Beverly Hills Cop was released to critical and audience acclaim, the two sequels that dropped after essentially brought the franchise to a close. It remains to be seen if the fourth installment can recapture the original’s magic.
The franchise revival is far from new in Hollywood. Films like The Incredibles and Blade Runner received revival films in recent memory that pulled on the nostalgic heart strings. Top Gun: Maverick showed how nostalgia could pay off at the box office as it decimated every other film in the theaters. Then there is the flip side. Films attempting to bag the nostalgia don’t always succeed. In the case of Ghostbusters (2016) and Coming 2 America, audiences didn’t respond with the kind of love and admiration their predecessors garnered. With Eddie Murphy attached to one of the films that bombed with audiences, he and Netflix are hoping to reverse the trend for the actor and his past franchises.
