Mel Gibson and Danny Glover Are Returning for Lethal Weapon 5, Says Producer
Lethal Weapon fans might be in for a big surprise! More than 30 years after the first installment in the action film franchise, there’s a new sequel reportedly in the works.
Producer Dan Lin confirmed Lethal Weapon 5 is close to happening during a roundtable interview with The Hollywood Reporter published Monday. According to Lin, Mel Gibson and Danny Glover are returning for the movie, as well as director Richard Donner.
“We’re trying to make the last Lethal Weapon movie,” he said. “And [Richard] Donner’s coming back. The original cast is coming back. And it’s just amazing. The story itself is very personal to him. Mel [Gibson] and Danny [Glover] are ready to go, so it’s about the script.”
Lethal Weapon 5 has had a long on-again-off-again history in the time since the fourth film premiered in 1998. Donner has hinted at the existence of a fifth film multiple times, but most recently lamented that it likely would not happen due to issues with the studio Warner Bros.
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“I’m ready to do 5. It’s called Lethal Finale,” the director said in a February 2018 interview. “It is dark, but I wanted to end it on an emotional note, and I don’t think it’s gonna happen. It’s heartbreaking.”
Nevertheless, the fifth movie now seems ready to go with all the major players on board, according to Lin, whose most recent productions include Oscar-nominated film The Two Popes and thriller It Chapter Two. Though Lin said they are still waiting on the script, Donner said in the same 2018 interview that Channing Gibson, who wrote the fourth film, will pen the screenplay.
The popular buddy cop franchise follows Los Angeles police officers Roger Murtaugh (Glover) and Martin Riggs (Gibson). In addition to the four films, the franchise spurred a TV series by the same name that ran from 2016 through 2019 with a different cast.
