Mel Gibson has shared a new update on the progress of Lethal Weapon 5, saying that there is a “really good scenario”.
It’s been a few years already Mel Gibson first announced that Deadly Weapon 5 was under consideration. Since then, not much has changed in the status of the buddy cop sequel, which was said to star Gibson and Danny Glover again, as they’re once again too old for the kind of shenanigans they’re getting involved in. While in the years since Gibson first hinted at the late sequel, original Deadly Weapon Helmer Richard Donner passed away and Gibson took the directing role himself. Now while discussing thriller Bandit, Gibson provided an encouraging update: screen frenzy. He said:
“To be [coming along] great, we have a very good screenplay that I developed. Well, Donner developed it, Richard Donner developed it with Richard Wenk of course, and they had a really good template. I had the honor of sitting down with the writer after Richard died and doing a few more sketches and trying to do it in the spirit of what we thought Donner would do [want]because I knew the man so well. We tried to get that flavor, and we were quite happy with what we came up with. The only slowdown now is with all the commotion at Warners, with Discovery coming in and the new boss, and they’re chopping up everyone else and throwing them out and getting new people. It always takes time for these companies to regroup, so that was a delay, but I’m pretty sure we’ll get it up and running, probably in the first quarter of the new year.”
Lethal Weapon 5 could have fallen victim to the Warner Bros. Discovery Merger
As a movie that seemed like perfect material for HBO Max, the merger with Warner Bros. Discovery can seal the fate of Deadly Weapon 5 before it got off the ground. However, with other sequels such as Evil Dead Rise and DC movie blue beetle being shifted to theatrical releases, this could now be the way the Mel Gibson-fronted movie will be released.
The studio’s biggest concern around the film is whether there will be enough interest in a new one deadly weaponn movie to justify a theatrical release. With 80s and 90s nostalgia at an all-time high, this could be one of the few opportunities Warner Bros. Discovery has to try and cash in on the craze before it’s over.
That’s all for the future, of course, because until the cameras start rolling, it’s always possible that the plug could be pulled out of the film at any point. However, Gibson appears to be as confident as possible that filming will begin in early 2023. If so, we could see Riggs and Murtaugh on the case one last time in 2024. previous outings of the odd clutch, the first four Deadly Weapon movies are available on HBO Max.