There’s been plenty of talk surrounding Lethal Weapon 5 over the last two decades, but it never actually felt close to becoming a reality until recently. There had been countless attempts at mounting another installment in the classic buddy cop franchise, but there was always some sort of major obstacle in the way whether it was the reluctance of the core team to return, the failure to crack a worthwhile story or a complete lack of interest from the studio.
However, that all changed twelve months ago when Lethal Weapon 5 was officially confirmed to be in active development, with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover set to try and dispel the notion that they were too old for this sh*t by returning as Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh, and 90 year-old filmmaker Richard Donner stepping behind the camera for the first time since 2006.
By the time the movie actually firms up a production schedule, completes filming and makes it into theaters, the central trio will boast a combined age of roughly 230, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Donner’s confirmed that Lethal Weapon 5 will mark the final bow for the most influential buddy cop series in Hollywood history.
“This is the final one. It’s both my privilege and duty to put it to bed. It’s exciting, actually. It’s the last one, I’ll promise you that.”
The first four outings remain incredibly popular among fans and continue to find a larger audience with each passing generation, but such a long gap between movies always poses a risk, and we’ve seen plenty of similar efforts both find success and bomb spectacularly. As great as it’ll be to see the band back together, the law of diminishing returns had already set in over 20 years ago, so let’s hope the script is strong enough to justify the existence of Lethal Weapon 5.