Mel Gibson Drops ‘Lethal Weapon 5’ Update

Mel Gibson says he is still “absolutely” planning to direct Lethal Weapon 5, revealing older, very different versions of Riggs and Murtaugh and hinting that the long-delayed sequel could finally escape studio limbo.

Nearly three decades after Lethal Weapon 4, Mel Gibson has offered one of the most revealing updates yet on the long-awaited fifth movie in the iconic action franchise.

Speaking at Fan Expo Boston, Mel Gibson confirmed that he still intends to direct Lethal Weapon 5 and revealed that the new film will take a dramatically different approach to the aging partnership between Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh.

And there is one major problem: the movie is reportedly trapped in Hollywood’s corporate machinery.

Riggs and Murtaugh are getting old

Mel Gibson, who played the volatile LAPD detective Martin Riggs throughout the original film series, said the fifth installment will not simply attempt to recreate the formula of the previous movies.

“The characters are quite different,” Mel Gibson explained, noting that the protagonists are now older. According to the actor, one character has retired while the other has moved into a desk job and is dealing with weight gain.

Although Gibson did not identify which character has retired, the description suggests the sequel will embrace the decades since audiences last saw the pair together.

Rather than pretending Riggs and Murtaugh have somehow remained frozen in the 1990s, Lethal Weapon 5 appears poised to make their age part of the story.

Forget the giant Hollywood explosions

Fans expecting a massive modern action spectacle may also be surprised. Mel Gibson said the sequel will be relatively “low-tech,” with fewer giant explosions and less emphasis on increasingly elaborate action sequences.

Instead, the movie will focus more heavily on the characters. He described an action sequence involving a foot chase, filmed with the intensity and style traditionally associated with a car chase.

The goal, he suggested, is to preserve the energy of Lethal Weapon while making the story more personal.

That could make the fifth movie feel less like a conventional franchise reboot and more like a final chapter for two characters audiences have followed since 1987.

Richard Donner’s final wish

There is also a deeply personal reason Mel Gibson wants to make the movie. Original Lethal Weapon director Richard Donner had been developing the fifth film before his death in 2021. Gibson recalled that Donner asked him to take over if he were no longer able to direct.

Gibson eventually agreed. He subsequently worked with screenwriter Richard Wenk, known for movies including The Equalizer franchise, to complete the screenplay.

Gibson said the pair approached the script with Donner’s filmmaking philosophy in mind—and made a bold assessment.

He believes the fifth screenplay is better than all four previous scripts.

Warner Bros. turmoil stalled the sequel

Despite the enthusiasm, Lethal Weapon 5 has yet to enter production. Mel Gibson said he and Wenk completed the screenplay and were preparing to move forward, but studio complications prevented the project from gaining momentum.

He described Warner Bros. as being caught in “quicksand,” leaving the film buried in corporate uncertainty.

Gibson now hopes changes involving Warner Bros. and Paramount could ultimately free the sequel from development limbo.

“If” the situation changes, he suggested audiences could potentially see the movie within roughly another year.

Could Riggs and Murtaugh finally return?

The original Lethal Weapon arrived in 1987 and became a major action hit, spawning Lethal Weapon 2 in 1989, Lethal Weapon 3 in 1992 and Lethal Weapon 4 in 1998.

More than 25 years later, Gibson’s latest comments suggest the fifth installment is still alive.

The biggest question now isn’t whether Gibson wants to make Lethal Weapon 5. It is whether Hollywood will finally get out of the way.