When Danny Glover publicly revealed that he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in July 2026, a condition that had been kept private for the last three years, it looked as if the long-gestating Lethal Weapon 5 was as good as dead. And yet, news of the elusive fifth installment in the Lethal Weapon franchise has resurfaced with another update.
According to Mel Gibson (via Collider at Fan Expo Boston), he has apparently completed the script with The Equalizer screenwriter Richard Wenk. Gibson even remains attached to directing Lethal Weapon 5 in addition to reprising his iconic role as Martin Riggs. It would mark the first time a Lethal Weapon movie is directed by someone other than the late Richard Donner, who passed away at 91 in 2021. Donner directed all four movies between 1987 and 1998.
Gibson received a blessing from Donner, who asked the star back then to take over in case he couldn’t complete the project himself. Back then he insisted that Donner should be the one to continue with the project, even telling him, “Shut up! You’re not going anywhere.”
Unfortunately, things didn’t work out as planned. After Donner died, Lethal Weapon 5 was left under Gibson’s stewardship. Now, the actor has gone on record to say that “the fifth script is better than all of the others”, and even though he and Wenk were ready to go into production, nothing has been confirmed at this point.
Why Lethal Weapon 5 Is Ditching the Usual Sequel Formula
Still, his latest update at least gives us a glimpse of what to expect should the movie get the green light from Warner Bros. Instead of the usual go-big-or-go-home formula typically seen in blockbuster sequels, Gibson surprised us by opting for a smaller-scale approach. He mentioned that “the characters are quite different” and added: “One’s retired. The other one’s on a desk job. He’s putting on too much weight, it’s low-tech.”
He also revealed that Lethal Weapon 5 “doesn’t get into the big explosions and all this sort of stuff”, even though the movie still retains the energy of a “big action film”. He cited his own Apocalypto as a prime example, where the foot chase was “filmed like a car chase.”
A character-driven Lethal Weapon 5 sounds like a logical choice for Gibson and Glover. Except that given Glover’s current condition, it wouldn’t be wise to give him a bigger role than the co-star part he played four movies ago.
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Assuming the fifth movie does manage to move forward, with Gibson suggesting it might be next year or so if the studio-related setback is all clear, the best strategy would be rewriting Glover’s role to reflect the veteran actor’s Alzheimer’s disease.
Gibson could level up Chris Rock’s Lee Butters — the then-rookie LAPD detective previously seen in Lethal Weapon 4 — as a co-lead who’s now Murtaugh’s son-in-law after marrying his eldest daughter Rianne (Traci Wolfe).
Although the latter is no longer a full-time actress, she still shows up with occasional work, such as playing a journalist in She Said (2022) and appearing in a television series called Mother, May I Have a Kidney? It would be nice to see her return to the Lethal Weapon franchise.
Given the script highlights character development more, the fifth movie could also address Butters and Rianne’s current marriage life after decades have passed. Regardless of what happens to Lethal Weapon 5, it’s hard to imagine Warner Bros. would easily give up on the franchise that helped the studio rake in over $952 million worldwide. The first movie, released in 1987, skyrocketed Mel Gibson into stardom and even made Lethal Weapon the blueprint of the buddy-cop formula alongside 1982’s 48 Hrs. Subsequent sequels – Lethal Weapon 2, 3 and 4 – continued to generate box-office hits, even though the reviews were mixed.
Presently, Gibson is busy with post-production work for his two-part biblical saga The Resurrection of the Christ, a sequel to The Passion of the Christ. Lionsgate is currently set to release its first part on May 6, 2027, followed by the second part on May 25, 2028. With Gibson himself already 70 years old, here’s hoping Warner Bros. wouldn’t take too long to get Lethal Weapon 5 off the ground before it’s too late.
The original Lethal Weapon is currently streaming on Max and Netflix, with the sequels available to rent or buy digitally, giving fans a chance to revisit Riggs and Murtaugh’s partnership before any news of a fifth film becomes official.
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