Beverly Hills Cop: The Foley Torch Passes to Brandon T. Jackson

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The television pilot for the sort-of sequel to the Beverly Hills Cop film franchise has at last found a leading man to be overshadowed by Eddie Murphy’s legacy. Now, that might sound a little pessimistic in terms of my expectations of how well the potential series will perform, but it’s actually just part of the pilots pitch. The new Beverly Hills Cop features Axel Foley’s son doing the best he can to escape the enormous shadow cast by his police chief father. It’s a fitting premise for the kind of show this could be, so a fitting actor was required. And just who rose to the challenge of reinvigorating this long dead franchise? Brandon T. Jackson.

As reported by TVLine, Jackson – known for such films as Tropic Thunder and Percy Jackson & the Olympians – was cast in the role of Aaron Foley, a Detroit police officer who heads to Beverly Hills to do his crime fighting far away from his father, Axel Foley. The series will take advantage of Murphy’s name and have him guest star in the pilot as the senior Foley, with the possibility of him recurring should the pilot get a series order. I’m not one for television adaptations of movies, but the way this is serving as a continuation of the Beverly Hills Cop films has my interest more than a little piqued.

The pilot was developed for CBS by Shawn Ryan (The Shield, Last Resort) and Murphy. This could be the best way to handle Beverly Hills Cop since every attempt to get a fourth film off the ground has been met with trouble. Perhaps if the television series takes off, they could make a fourth movie staring Jackson as Aaron. I would certainly be open to that possibility, especially if the series is as great as it could be. But this is just early hopes and dreams. For now, let’s just get a series order.