10 More Best Actor Replacements In Movies

The Beverly Hills Cop movies, which follow the various mishaps of wise-cracking lawman Axel Foley, are landmark action comedies from the 1980s. They turned actor Eddie Murphy into a superstar, gave directors Martin Brest and Tony Scott space to flex their filmmaking chops, and also gifted audiences with one of the best movie soundtracks of the decade, with composer Harold Faltermeyer's "Axel F" enduring in pop culture legend.

But the core component is undoubtedly Murphy. So much of his personality comes from the fact that he’s played by Eddie Murphy, a fast-talking eighties comedy legend, which is why it’s crazy to think that the character was initially earmarked for Sylvester Stallone. 

Sly, making his second appearance on this list, rewrote most of the original Beverly Hills Cop script to make it more dramatic. Ultimately, the studio decided this wasn’t the direction they wanted to go in, and said bye-bye to Rocky Balboa. Murphy was eventually chosen as his replacement, and movie comedy history was made.

If you’re curious as to what a Stallone-penned Beverly Hills Cop would have looked like, he recycled most of his ideas into his 1986 movie Cobra.