Joseph Gordon-Levitt Previews His New ‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F’ Character

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has officially joined the Beverly Hills Cop franchise as Detective Bobby Abbott in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. The movie premieres July 3 on Netflix.

Photo by John Sciulli/Getty Images for Netflix

Detective Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) is back on the beat in Beverly Hills. 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.

“I loved Beverly Hills Cop ever since I was a little kid when I was probably too young to be watching this stuff and it was my older brother that loved everything Eddie Murphy. Yeah, I mean, that just makes it feel momentous,” the actor told me. “What I wanted from a new sidekick was someone who could be formidable to Axel Foley, that wouldn’t fall for his tricks ‘cause that’s this character’s thing, is he’s able to trick everybody. He’s sort of a con artist that uses his con artistry to solve cases and I wanted a character who would see through that, and the result of that would also be, if it’s someone who could see through Axel Foley’s tricks, it’s probably someone who’s sort of sensitive and/or emotionally intelligent, or sort of self-aware and kind of a new take on what it means to be a masculine action police hero guy that’s different from prior generations.”