Mel Gibson Says He Still Wants to Direct Lethal Weapon 5, Although It Sounds Like It's in Development Hell

Lethal Weapon 5 is still on Mel Gibson’s radar, although it sounds mired in development trouble.

Gibson, who famously played suicidal LAPD detective Martin Riggs alongside Danny Glover’s family man cop Roger Murtaugh in the ‘80s action classic, told Collider that a screenplay from screenwriter Richard Wenk was completed following the death of Lethal Weapon franchise director Richard Donner in July 2021 at the age of 91.

As for what Lethal Weapon 5 might look like, Gibson said its characters would be older, as you’d expect, and so the movie would be more character driven than previous entries.

“It only harks back to the others in the minimal way, but it’s a story all on its own,” Gibson said. “The characters are quite different. They’re older. One’s retired. The other one’s on a desk job. He’s putting on too much weight, and it’s low-tech. It doesn’t get into the big explosions and all this sort of stuff. But it still has the energy and, I think, drive of a big action film. Like, let’s say for instance, Apocalypto. It’s a foot chase, right? But it’s kind of filmed like a car chase. So it still has all the elements of what was in the other films, but not nearly so complicated. But it deals more about the people in it.”

Gibson confirmed that he’d like to direct the movie, but it’s “tied up in some kind of industrial film hell that you can’t extract it from to make it.” He appears to be pinning his hopes on Paramount chief David Ellison giving it a shot in the arm, assuming his bid to buy Warner Bros. actually goes through.

The first Lethal Weapon, released in 1987, helped launch Gibson and co-star Danny Glover to broader film success, following Gibson's starring role in the Mad Max franchise and Glover's success in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple. The franchise similarly launched the career of Shane Black, who would go on to write Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and direct Iron Man 3, The Nice Guys, and The Predator.

Gibson is no stranger behind the camera either, winning an Oscar for best director for Braveheart. He also directed The Passion of the Christ, Apocalypto, and WWII film Hacksaw Ridge. 2027 is set to see the release of The Resurrection of the Christ: Part One, directed by Mel Gibson from a script he co-wrote with Randall Wallace.

Photo by Bertrand LAFORET/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.