They might be a great deal older, but, that seems unlikely to prevent Riggs and Murtagh to make a big screen comeback after almost two decades of absence. That’s true guys! Lethal Weapon 5 might just be happening. The latest news suggests that Mel Gibson and Danny Glover are discussing with Warner Bros. about the project. Richard Donner who had directed the first Lethal Weapon is also getting set to helm this film as well. The sequel might also see Channing Gibson (Lethal Weapon 4) coming back to write it.
The report stated that the team is “on board” and everyone is “huddling on the possibility” of making Lethal Weapon 5 with Warner Bros. We don’t think that it is all officially signed, but, the discussions are on, and we might see at least one final chapter of this extremely successful cop film franchise. Lethal Weapon 4 had released in 1998, and this means that the next sequel would be at least 20 years after the last one. To see it objectively, the original Lethal Weapon came out in 1987 that means that the four films were all released within an 11-year-time span.
Danny Glover had earlier famous said in the film, “I’m getting too old for this s***.” That was 20 years back, and it applies to all of them now. Mel Gibson is 61, and Danny Glover is 71. Therefore, his capability to do an action film is highly limited. While Mel is more capable, but, he is also past his prime to do a Lethal Weapon film. Richard Donner is the true X-factor as the 87-year-old director hasn’t handled a movie since he directed 16 Blocks in 2006.
It is not yet clear as to why they are planning to make the film now. However, this is not the first time that the film came up for discussions. There was a time when a reboot was being planned. Over the years, we heard that the film was under development with Gibson and Glover and then the project was dubbed as “dead in the water.” Shane Black, the writer of the first Lethal Weapon, had said last year that he had written a long treatment for Lethal Weapon 5 which was subsequently discarded.
“I wrote a 62-page treatment with my friend Chuck for ‘Lethal Weapon 5’ that would’ve been, I think, a very good movie. It was interesting. It was essentially an older Riggs and Murtagh in New York City during the worst blizzard in east coast history, fighting a team of expert Blackwater guys from Afghanistan that’s smuggling antiquities. And we had a young character that actually counter-pointed them.”
So far the highly popular Lethal Weapon films have collectively made $955 million globally. Mel Gibson’s career has seen a sort of revival recently. Therefore, despite the fact that they are all too old for an action movie, this might actually happen. Deadline has noted that there are “a lot of moving parts” to the project and nothing is decisive. Therefore, don’t just become too optimistic still, but, the possibility of Lethal Weapon 5 being made is pretty strong.
