Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F follows Axel Foley as he returns to Beverly Hills in an all-new adventure. Axel is drawn back to sunny California when his estranged daughter, Jane, is threatened. Teaming up with his old friends Taggart and Rosewood, along with Jane’s ex-boyfriend, Detective Bobby Abbot, he leaves a trail of chaos in his wake as he does whatever it takes to protect his daughter and, hopefully, reconnect with her as well.

The classic bombastic action and comedy returns in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, but with a new level of depth, with Axel Foley confronting how his choices impacted his family. Murphy has returned as both the star and producer, leading a cast of long-time cast members from the franchise and newcomers alike. Mark Molloy kicks off his directorial debut not only with this long-awaited sequel, but showing his skills as not just an action and comedy storyteller, but an ability to focus on character as well.

Screen Rant interviewed Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F stars Judge Reinhold and John Ashton about returning to the franchise. Reinhold shared what he loved about the original and hopes to see in a potential fifth movie. Ashton explained how Taggart has grown and his excitement regarding working with Bacon again.

“Marty [Brest] Gave Us A Template. In That Template Was His Love Of Characters”

Reinhold and Ashton reflected on how their characters, Rosewood and Taggart, have evolved since they were first introduced in the original Beverly Hills Cop. They also shared what they appreciated about this sequel that they believe many others aren’t able to pull off.

Judge Reinhold: One thing I liked about the movie that, I saw it last night for the first time, is that a lot of movies, a lot of sequels feel like they have to fill in every gap, and there’s a lot of exposition and everything has [to be explained], and we don’t have that.

John Ashton: No. We’re very, very comfortable with each other, so

Judge Reinhold: Yeah. So Billy is naturally not naive anymore. He’s still a friendly decent guy, but he’s a badass detective. So I like that.

Absolutely. How about Taggart?

John Ashton: Well, I’ve got a little more authority now at this point. And like I said before, we’re friends off camera as well as on camera and friends have disagreements sometimes. So in this one, Eddie and I have our disagreements in it and get back and forth in it, but friends have disagreements, but they still love each other and they get back together again.

Judge Reinhold: I love the scene between the two of ’em. I really did. This movie really… yeah. That was jamming, man.

It feels like you guys have been together forever. Mark Malloy did such a phenomenal job for his feature film directorial debut. He knocked it out of the park. His love of action films and action comedies and buddy cop films really shines through with this movie. Can you talk about working with him as the director of this film?

Judge Reinhold: Well, Marty [Brest] gave us a template. In that template was his love of characters. Mark is more straight ahead action.

John Ashton: Tony Scott was more action too.

Judge Reinhold: Yeah, he was. Yeah.

John Ashton: But we had already established our characters.

Judge Reinhold: Yeah, but there’s little, the relationships were very important to Marty.

Judge Reinhold & John Ashton Want To Do Another Beverly Hills Cop Movie

Both Ashton and Reinhold revealed that they would love to return for a fifth installment in the Beverly Hills Cop franchise. Reinhold also shared what he would like to see in a potential sequel with relationships being the heart of the story. They also reflected on how it felt to have the band back together after all these years.

John Ashton: Oh, I’d love to do another one. I’d love to do another.

Judge Reinhold: Yeah. It’s all about the script. Luckily, Eddie feels that way too. That’s why it took so long. He was adamant about not doing it. And even Jerry will tell you, I didn’t know if it was going to happen because I didn’t know if we were going to find a script that Eddie would approve of. So it’s all about the story. But I want to see one that has that same humanity in relationships more.

Now we have a few newcomers to the franchise: Kevin Bacon, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Taylour Paige. Talk to me about how their injection of fresh blood changed the dynamic on set.

Judge Reinhold: First of all, we love them. Everybody is just so A-Team. Taylour is such an exciting talent. Joseph is, to me, he’s like Jack Lemon. You can put him anywhere. You can put him in anything. It was so cool to see what he brought.

John Ashton: Kevin and I worked [together] before we did. She’s Having A Baby together back in the eighties. So it was fun to get back with Kevin again and do some work with him.

Judge Reinhold: I love what Kevin did. I really do love him in the role.

John Ashton: And the nice thing is too, other than the action and the comedy and all that stuff, there’s so many nice little tender scenes with Eddie and Taylour. When he says, Hey, I’ve been a father as long as you’ve been a daughter. I thought that was a great line.

Judge Reinhold: Yeah, I think Mark concentrated on that, as he should have. I missed some of that stuff between us, but I guess that’s what he figured it was all about. It was all about Axel and Jane and that’s cool. It played beautifully.

I’m not going to lie. It was great seeing you guys back. You guys haven’t been back together on screen since like 87, so it was fantastic seeing you guys back together.

Judge Reinhold: Yeah, that was a wild night. The three of us in the car, it felt like we were just picking up where we left off.

John Ashton: It’s weird when people say 40 years, years ago. It was yesterday.

Judge Reinhold: Didn’t feel like that. It just didn’t.

About Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F