Mel Gibson Says Lethal Weapon 5 Script Is Done and Ready — If Paramount Unlocks It
Mel Gibson has laid out the fullest picture yet of Lethal Weapon 5, and the good news for fans is that the script is finished. The bad news: it is stuck in what Gibson calls "industrial film hell," waiting on a corporate reshuffle to clear the way.
Speaking to Collider at Fan Expo Boston, Gibson said he and screenwriter Richard Wenk completed the script and were heading into production when Warner Bros. "got into trouble" and the film "got buried." He pointed to David Ellison at Paramount, who he said has absorbed or will absorb Warners, as the person who could unlock the project. If Ellison "takes the chains off," Gibson suggested audiences might see the film "in another year or so" (Deadline).
The numbers behind that corporate tangle are simple enough: Warner Bros., the studio that released all four Lethal Weapon films between 1987 and 1998, has been navigating financial difficulty, and Paramount — under Ellison's leadership — has been consolidating Warner assets. That combination of events left the fifth film without a clear greenlight.
Gibson also confirmed on the Inspire Me podcast that the film is still in active development and that he is personally involved (Yahoo Entertainment).
The project carries an emotional weight for Gibson. Original director Richard Donner was working on the Lethal Weapon 5 script when he died in 2021 at age 90. Donner had asked Gibson to take over the franchise if anything happened to him, and after Donner's death, Gibson finished the script with Wenk while asking himself, "What would Donner do?" Gibson said he would "absolutely" want to direct the film, as Donner wanted.
As for the story itself, Gibson dropped some concrete details. The characters are older — one retired, the other on desk duty and "putting on too much weight." The film does not lean on big explosions but still carries "the energy and drive of a big action film." He described one set-piece as a foot chase filmed like a car chase: it has echoes of the earlier films but, in his words, "deals more about the people in it."
Gibson also said the new instalment only harks back to the previous four films in a minimal way and is "a story all on its own." He thinks the script is the best in the series.
Lethal Weapon launched in 1987, directed by Donner and written by Shane Black, with Gibson as the reckless Martin Riggs and Danny Glover as the weary Roger Murtaugh. Three sequels followed through 1998. A Fox television adaptation ran for three seasons from 2016, though its renewal was jeopardised in 2018 by complaints about on-set behaviour by star Clayne Crawford (Deadline).
Back in 2011, Warner Bros. set Shane Black to write a treatment for a Lethal Weapon 5 reboot (Deadline). That version never materialised. The one Gibson and Wenk wrote may yet get its chance — if the corporate chains come off.
