Mel Gibson's Three Sequels Announced, Zero Scripts Filmed Since 2016

Mel Gibson announced Lethal Weapon 5 is in development with a script he believes surpasses all previous installments—and he's been announcing it, in various forms, since 2016, with nothing ever shot.

This is not a production timeline. This is a holding pattern that looks, from the outside, exactly like one. Gibson has now publicly claimed three separate sequels exist in some state of readiness: Lethal Weapon 5, Lethal Weapon 6. A prequel.

None have entered principal photography. Danny Glover's actual involvement remains unclear beyond Gibson's stated enthusiasm, the financing structure is unannounced—yet the announcement itself performs the function of a deal, occupying space and generating articles while keeping the intellectual property warm without requiring the studio to commit resources that would make it real.

Compare this to Gibson's actual directing work. Hacksaw Ridge moved from announcement to theatrical release in 18 months. The Passion of the Christ took three years from greenlight to screens. These projects had financing locked, schedules, actors under contract—they lived in the material world. The Lethal Weapon sequels live in the interview world, existing as aspirational talk rather than production greenlight. This mirrors a dynamic that emerged in the 1990s when aging action franchises faced post-studio-system economics and studios stopped greenlighting tentpole sequels outright.

It's not a lie. It's structural uncertainty transferred from the studio's balance sheet onto the public conversation.

Instead, they created what economists call "real options"—keeping the announcement loop active while the star and press sustain audience hunger, maintaining franchise optionality without capital commitment. If the star's public profile improves or audience appetite resurges, green-light production. If it doesn't, the studio has lost nothing but press releases. The tell is always the same. Compare announcement velocity to production velocity. When they diverge sharply, when you hear about five sequels but see production on zero, you're watching optionality masquerade as development. It's not a lie. It's structural uncertainty transferred from the studio's balance sheet onto the public conversation.