We live in an era where the major Hollywood studios have found a way to weaponize nostalgia and make money out of it, and because of that, no popular franchise with a built-in fanbase is ever truly over. Over the last decade or so, countless dormant brands have been resurrected after a long absence for new outings, and despite the wildly inconsistent quality of the final product, the box office returns are usually enough to justify their existence.
The last installment may have arrived 22 years ago, but Lethal Weapon 5 has started gathering some serious momentum over the last little while. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover are set to reprise their iconic roles as Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh, with series director Richard Donner poised to step behind the camera for the first time since 2006’s Bruce Willis vehicle 16 Blocks.
Glover recently admitted that Lethal Weapon 5 has the potential to be something extraordinary, and in a new interview to promote his alternative Christmas movie Fatman, Gibson confirmed that the project is being worked on right now.
“Absolutely. The man who was behind all of that, the man who brought it to the screen and gave it the goodies is working on it right now, Richard Donner. He’s a legend.”
A lot of Lethal Weapon fans like to pretend that the TV show never existed, and they’ve been quietly hoping for decades that the gang would get back together to make a fifth movie. Especially after almost every other big name franchise from the 1980s and 90s has been given similar treatment.
Donner turns 91 in a few months, though, and with Gibson and Glover now 64 and 74 respectively, if Lethal Weapon 5 ends up becoming a reality, then it will definitely need to live up to the standard set by the previous films to avoid the obvious jokes that the cast and crew are definitely too old for this sh*t.
