Eddie Murphy gets his Foley groove back in the ‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F’ trailer

Summer, a.k.a. blockbuster sequel season, is upon us, and so is the official trailer for one of its most highly anticipated entries, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.

If you immediately started hearing Harold Faltermeyer’s iconic theme in all its ’80s synth glory, that’s because Eddie Murphy and Axel Foley are deeply embedded in the pop culture zeitgeist. The sequel brings the Detroit detective and some old friends into the 21st century on Netflix this July.

Those old friends in question, Judge Reinhold and John Ashton, join newcomers Taylour Paige as Foley’s estranged daughter Jane — a criminal defense attorney in Beverly Hills — and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Det. Bobby Abbott — Foley’s new partner and, further complicating matters, Jane’s ex-boyfriend.

After Jane’s life is threatened, she and Foley team up with Abbot, Billy Rosewood (Reinhold), and John Taggart (Ashton) to uncover a conspiracy. Kevin Bacon also stars as Capt. Grant, with Bronson Pinchot reprising his role as Serge and Paul Reiser returning as Det. Jeffrey Friedman.

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Directed by Mark Molloy, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F premieres on Netflix on July 3. Molloy recently told Entertainment Weekly that he was more than a little intimidated directing Murphy, having grown up a fan of the Beverly Hill Cop series. But he learned it’s sometimes best to just let Eddie Murphy be Eddie Murphy.

 “You’ve got one of the greatest comedians, if not in my eyes, the greatest comedian in the world,” Molloy said. “A huge part of my job is to create a space for improvisation to thrive. I always want to get what’s on the page, but when you have someone like Eddie Murphy, you want to let him be free.”

He added, “And as I look back on the film, some of the funniest moments in the film is when Eddie is improvising and the audience loves it.”

Older and questionably wiser, Axel F finds the iconic character in some uncharted territory, namely, fatherhood. The sequel offers a glimpse of Axel that audiences have never seen while remaining true to the s—-talking ethos of the original.

“Eddie, John, and Judge sat in the car, and they would just talk s—,” Molly says of filming the three franchise vets. “And they told me that a lot of the first film is some of those moments when they were just allowed to sit there and talk to each other.”