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Damon Wayans Joins ‘Lethal Weapon’ TV Series Cast As Murtaugh — But Who Will Play Riggs?

By Jonathan Franks
Published on: 00:03 PST, Feb 14, 2016

Actor Damon Wayans will reportedly star in the Lethal Weapon TV series as Roger Murtaugh.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Fox is ready to move forward with bringing Lethal Weapon to the small-screen and has enlisted Damon Wayans for one of the show’s leading roles.

The TV series reboot of the blockbuster movie franchise — which starred Danny Glover and Mel Gibson as Roger Murtaugh and Martin Riggs — is being developed behind the scenes by Fox along with Warner Bros. Television.

According to the report, the official logline for the show is as follows.

“When Texas cop and former Navy SEAL Martin Riggs suffers the loss of his wife and baby, he moves to Los Angeles to start anew. There, he gets partnered with LAPD detective Roger Murtaugh (Wayans) who, having recently suffered a ‘minor’ heart attack’ must avoid any stress in his life.”

Fans of the Lethal Weapon film franchise should recognize that synopsis as the main story line from the 1987 Richard Donner-directed box-office hit.

According to Box Office Mojo, Lethal Weapon generated over $120 million at the box-office worldwide when it was first released back in March of 1987. Many fans and critics would agree that it helped to redefine the buddy cop action-comedy and boosted the careers of actors Glover and Gibson along the way.

Damon Wayans Lethal Weapon
[Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images]
The success of Lethal Weapon led to three follow-up sequels: Lethal Weapon 2(1989), Lethal Weapon 3 (1992) and Lethal Weapon 4(1998).

Nearly two decades after the release of the fourth film of the franchise, Murtaugh and Riggs still have a large fan base that either own all of movies or enjoy watching them when they periodically air on television.

Therefore, the fact that the Lethal Weapon television series is finally up and running should excite quite a few devoted fans of the franchise and also fans of Damon Wayans’ work.

Over the years, Damon Wayans has definitely had his share of success on the small-screen. The 55-year-old actor first made huge waves in Hollywood back in the 1990s with the success of In Living Color –– a variety sketch show that quickly became a hit series for Fox.

Damon Wayans In Living Color
[Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images]
During his time on In Living Color, Damon Wayans brought so many different memorable characters to the small-screen, including Homey D. Clown, Anton Jackson, Handi Man, and Blaine Edwards from the Men on Film segments.

Decades after the series ended its original run, In Living Color is still being played in syndication — allowing those characters and so many others to generation after generation.

The fact that Damon Wayans is returning to Fox should turn heads and hopefully generate enough interest to get the show picked up for a full season.

As of right now, according to the Hollywood Reporter, the role of Martin Riggs (originally played by Mel Gibson) has not yet been cast. Hopefully, the on-screen chemistry that Damon Wayans has with whomever is chosen to fill that slot in the cast will reflect the same chemistry that made the Lethal Weapon films such big hits.

[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]

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