Beverly Hills Cop 3 almost broke the franchise formula in a key way and could have transformed it completely. Eddie Murphy had an incredible run of hits during the 1980s, following the success of his acting debut 48 HRS. It felt like he couldn’t miss, with everything from Trading Places to the critically lambasted fantasy The Golden Child becoming smash hits. It was the original Beverly Hills Cop movie that cemented Murphy’s stardom, with the film still being one of the highest-grossing R-rated movies of all time.

To this day, Axel Foley remains the star’s most famous role, and Murphy later returned for two more Beverly Hills Cops. Even if Murphy himself disliked the Beverly Hills Cops sequels, they were both successful. That said, the third movie was easily the lowest-grossing and received the worst reviews. Murphy’s dislike of the third entry made sure that it took decades for Netflix’s Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F to arrive also.

Beverly Hills Cop 3 Almost Sent Axel Foley To London

Beverly Hills Cop could have become London Cop

In an almost searingly honest 1989 interview with Rolling Stone, Murphy said Beverly Hills Cop 2 was “probably the most successful mediocre picture in history.” The star felt the Tony Scott movie just replicated the 1984 original but lacked the freshness. In a 2024 interview on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Murphy walked back his previous critique of the 1987 follow-up by stating “The first two Beverly Hills Cops are really good.” He didn’t sound thrilled at the idea of making a third entry back in 1989 though, even though he was aware Paramount was developing one.

The only reason to do a Cop III is to beat the bank, and Paramount ain’t gonna write me no check as big as I want to do something like that. In fact, if I do a Cop III, you can safely say, “Oooh, he must have got a lot of money!

Cut to five years later, and the John Landis-helmed Beverly Hills Cop 3 sent Murphy’s Axel back to California to investigate a counterfeiting operation hidden inside a theme park. There were many other versions of the sequel developed though, with one from Chinatown screenwriter Robert Towne which followed Axel trying to deal with being a celebrity cop. Another outrageous concept would have paired Foley with Paul Hogan’s Crocodile Dundee in a bizarre franchise crossover.

According to a 1992 article from The L.A. Times, the biggest swerve in Beverly Hills Cop 3’s development would have relocated Axel to London, where he would have teamed with a Scotland Yard detective; Sean Connery was earmarked for this part. Reportedly, there was an alternate pitch that saw Axel, Billy (Judge Reinhold) and Taggart (John Ashton) fly to London to rescue Ronny Cox’s Bogomil when he’s taken hostage by terrorists. It’s unknown how seriously the London pitches were considered, and issues over the sequel’s rising budget kept Axel rooted in Beverly Hills.

London Cop Could Have Opened Up The Franchise Even More

Beverly Hills Cop 3 nearly made the series international

Murphy gave an interview with The Bobbie Wygant Archive in 1994 that briefly touched on the London pitch, and even revealed Japan was considered as a location too. In hindsight, it was a missed opportunity for Beverly Hills Cop 3 not to take Axel to a new locale and see how he fared. Having the fast-talking detective dealing with a totally different culture and clashing with a new set of detectives would have been a fascinating experiment.

The issue with the third film is how stale it feels. Murphy apparently wanted Axel to be more of a mature character and tried to sideline the comedy as much as possible. The sequel badly needed a new template to work with, and finding Axel in London and clashing with somebody like Sean Connery sounds way better than having him running around a Disney World parody. Had London Cop – or whatever the title would have been – been a hit, future sequels could have taken him to other iconic cities.

Tokyo Cop or Paris Cop are pitches that write themselves, but for that format change to have worked, the second movie should have tried it. Given this was the 1990s when sequels played things safe, it’s little wonder Beverly Hills Cop 3 didn’t color far outside the lines. Still, considering how little anyone liked the 1994 installment, the studio should have taken the risk anyway.

Murphy’s Hatred Of Beverly Hills Cop 3 Delayed The Fourth Movie By 30 Years

Axel F spent a LONG time in development hell

Beverly Hills Cop 3 was meant to be another huge success for Paramount, but instead, it made less than half of the second film’s gross. Its underperformance also signaled that Murphy’s time as the king of R-rated action comedies was drawing to a close, though he soon reinvented himself with family fare like 1998’s Dr. Dolittle. Murphy has dubbed Beverly Hills Cop 3 as “garbage” and “atrocious” in the years that followed and appears to carry a genuine distaste for it. That’s also why Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F took so long to arrive.

Murphy refused to sign up for another entry without a solid script in hand – a task that ended up taking close to 30 years. The fourth entry also went through many drafts, with directors like Brett Ratner and Adil & Bilall trying to get it off the ground. Thankfully, Axel F is said to be the best outing since the original, to the point that Beverly Hills Cop 5 is in early development. Hopefully, it won’t take about three decades for a fifth film to happen though.

Source: Late Night with Seth Meyers, Rolling Stone, The L.A. Times, The Bobbie Wygant Archive/YouTube