Fox’s Lethal Weapon pilot casts its Mel Gibson surrogate

By William Hughes | March 10, 2016 | 10:37pm

Aux Features TV

Fox has finally named the Mel Gibson surrogate for its TV take on Lethal Weapon, casting Rectify co-star Clayne Crawford in the part of suicidal wild-man detective Martin Riggs. Crawford will star opposite Damon Wayans Sr.’s Roger Murtaugh in the reboot of the ’80s buddy-cop franchise, presumably instilling a whole new generation with a fundamental misunderstanding of diplomatic immunity and the relative dangers of sitting on a toilet. The Fast And The Furious star Jordana Brewster and Mad Men’s Kevin Rahm are also set to appear.

Crawford has starred for three seasons (plus one final one, expected to air this fall) on Sundance’s Rectify, playing the hard-nosed, conservative step-brother of dreamy released convict Aden Young. Hopefully, all those years of Southern Gothic repression have given him a nice reservoir of inner madness to draw from, as he attempts to channel some—but, hopefully, not all—of Gibson’s wild energy from back in the days when being visibly crazy made the man a box office star instead of a Hollywood pariah.