When Does Lethal Weapon Season 4 Come Out? Is It Renewed?

What is Lethal Weapon about?

Adapting the Mel Gibson and Danny Glover films for weekly television was always going to be a gamble, and for its first two seasons, FOX's Lethal Weapon actually pulled it off. Damon Wayans brought real warmth to Roger Murtaugh, a detective trying to protect his heart health while his new partner courts disaster at every turn, and Clayne Crawford (who played the original Riggs role) gave the show an unpredictable, genuinely dangerous edge that kept the buddy dynamic from feeling too comfortable. The show was loose, funny, and moved fast enough that you could overlook the formula.

Then Crawford was fired after season two over on-set conduct, and Seann William Scott stepped in as a new character, Wesley Cole. Scott is likable and does his best, but the energy shifted noticeably. The show became smoother and less interesting at the same time. Cole is a more conventional charming rogue, and without the friction of the original pairing, Murtaugh's exasperation has less to push against. Season three often felt like a show running on habit.

Audiences mostly followed along, and the IMDb score reflects a fan base that enjoyed the ride more than it scrutinized it. Critics were warmer on the first season than the third, which is about right. The casting upheaval dominated coverage in a way that overshadowed discussion of the show itself, which was both unfair to the people still making it and not entirely undeserved given how much the transition cost the series in terms of chemistry.

What the show did best in its prime was make Wayans the center rather than the straight man. Murtaugh is funny on his own terms, anxious and loving and occasionally ridiculous, and Wayans played that without condescension. That the show lost its footing precisely when it leaned more heavily on his co-star says something about how much the whole thing depended on him from the start.

Created by Matthew Miller

Is Lethal Weapon renewed or cancelled?

Why was Lethal Weapon cancelled?

Lethal Weapon's cancellation came down to one thing more than anything else: Clayne Crawford. The actor playing Martin Riggs was reportedly difficult on set throughout the show's run, and after complaints from cast and crew, FOX removed him ahead of season three. That kind of mid-run lead replacement is almost always a death sentence, and replacing Crawford with Seann William Scott, however game the effort, couldn't hold the audience together.

The ratings reflected that damage clearly. The first two seasons performed reasonably well for FOX, but season three saw a significant drop in viewership. Audiences who had invested in the Crawford-Damon Wayans dynamic simply weren't coming back for a reconfigured version of the show. The chemistry that made the original film franchise work depended on a specific kind of odd-couple tension, and rebuilding that from scratch in a third season, with a lighter comedic tone to match Scott's persona, felt like a different show wearing the same name.

FOX ultimately had a struggling drama on its hands with diminished ratings, an audience that had already moved on, and no obvious path back to what had made the first two seasons work. Cancelling after season three was the network cutting its losses rather than investing further in a show that had lost its footing.

Lethal Weapon Season 4 Release Date

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Lethal Weapon latest news

• Why Fox Canceled Lethal Weapon After Three Seasons

  NewsAPI:/FILM · 2025-06-24cancellation