Like many, if not most, action movie fans out there, I love director Richard Donner's original Lethal Weapon flick written by Shane Black (The Predator, Iron Man 3) and starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. I could take or leave most of the sequels, but it can't be argued that they are just as much fun as the original film, especially Lethal Weapon 2 which famously added Joe Pesci (Goodfellas, Home Alone) to the mix as Leo Getz. Anyhow, today we have word that the long-rumored and much-anticipated fifth entry in the franchise, fittingly titled Lethal Weapon 5 may be coming our way sooner than anyone expected. Hell, it might even begin shooting later this year!

This killer news (rumor) comes from MoiveHole who claim to have talked to "a pal who works in location management on various series, including Fox's" Lethal Waepon series, and the source told them this.

"Gibson, Glover, Pesci doing that. [The] script is super solid I heard. [It] may shoot this year. Doubt there will be overlap with TV."

I guess it makes sense that this source would feel the need to point out that there will doubtfully be any overlap with the recent hit TV series. I mean, I've never watched an episode of the show, but it seems to have been quite popular. Matt Miller's hit Lethal Weapon TV series based on Shane Black's original film was produced over on FOX with Clayne Crawford as Martin Riggs, Damon Wayans as Roger Murtaugh, and Thomas Lennon as Leo Getz - for its first two seasons. Then in May 2018, Crawford was fired from the show, resulting in the Martin Riggs character being killed off. He was replaced in the third season by Seann William Scott, as a new character named Wesley Cole. In October 2018, after the third-season premiere, Wayans announced that he would leave the series following the end of production on the third season.

And let's not forget It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia which gave us a glimpse of just what a fifth Lethal Weapon movie might look like.

The Lethal Weapon franchise famously kicked off back in 1987 with (The Omen, Superman, The Goonies) director Richard Donner's original film. Donner produced the movie along with super-producer Joel Silver (Die Hard, Predator) and directed the flick from an infamous spec script written by Shane Black who went on to pen such classics as The Monster Squad, The Last Boy Scout, Last Action Hero, and The Long Kiss Goodnight). The first film starred Mel Gibson as Martin Riggs, Danny Glover as Roger Murtaugh, along with Gary Busey (Point Break, Predator 2) as Mr. Joshua and Tom Atkins (Night of the Creeps, My Bloody Valentine 3D) as Michael Hunsaker.

The last entry we saw in the Lethal Weapon franchise was Donner's Lethal Weapon 4. That fourth entry saw the return of Gibson, Glover, and Joe Pesci, along with new additions such as Chris Rock (What to Expect When You're Expecting, I'm Gonna Git You Sucka) as Detective Lee Butters and Jet Li (The Forbidden Kingdom, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor) as Wah Sing Ku. Rene Russo (Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Endgame) reprised her role as Lorna Cole from Lethal Weapon 3. Again this Lethal Weapon 5 rumor comes to us via MovieHole.