'Lethal Weapon': First Look at Season Premiere

Lethal Weapon is gearing up for its return, and FOX recently released some first look photos to get fans excited for the season 3 premiere.

The photos feature series star Damon Wayons and his new co-star Seann William Scott, as well as a some other cast members.

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As fans are aware, Scott stepped in when original series star Clayne Crawford was let go from the show.

Scroll down to see photos from the first episode of Lethal Weapon season 3, and let us know in the comments what you’re most excited about for the new season!

Aftermath for Murtaugh

In season three, Wayans reprises his role as Roger Murtaugh, the character originate by Danny Glover in the original Lethal Weapon film series.

For the first two seasons of the show his co-star was the aforementioned Crawford, who was let go after allegations of bad behavior on-set.

Crawford played Martin Riggs, who was played by Mel Gibson in the movies.

New Partner

Following Crawford’s exit, Scott was brought on-board to play Wesley Cole, an ex-CIA agent who becomes Murtaugh’s new partner.

During a recent conversation with Deadline, Lethal Weapon showrunner/executive producer/developer Matt Miller spoke about Cole and where the inspiration for the character came from.

He explained that the idea for Cole came from a news story he read around the same time that the show was experiencing headline-making disruption.

Inspiration

“It was about a CIA agent who had served overseas in Iraq and had became very disillusioned,” Miller said of the article.

“He came back and became a cop but his philosophy as a cop was not to run in and shoot people, take down bad guys,” he went on to say.

“What he was looking to do is always defuse the situations as opposed to escalate them,” Miller added.

Opposites Attract

Miller also opened up about the changes from Crawford’s character to Scott’s character.

“He is the opposite to Riggs who had a lot of anger and a lot of angst, who is looking to go in and maybe shoot all the bad guys,” he explained. “This is a guy who is looking to go into a situation with the bad guys and say, ‘ok, guys we can talk about this.’ “

“Of course the situations evolve always, chaos follows him wherever he goes; we still want the action comedy, all the explosions, all the drama all the set pieces,” Miller added.

The Next “Lethal Weapon”

Miller went on to say that, since “Riggs was the lethal weapon in the show,” they had to have “a new catalyst for the show, new energy and someone who by definition could qualify as the lethal weapon.”

He also stated that the season 3 premiere will introduce Cole in a similar way to how Riggs was introduced in the series premiere.

“We open the season the same way we did in the pilot where we met Riggs and heard about his backstory. The same thing happens with this character Cole,” Miller revealed. “We are going to meet him abroad, see the circumstances, the tragedy that sends him back to LA. At the same time, we are going to wrap up Riggs’ demise.”

Getting Back in The Saddle

Following that opening, the show jump forward by about half-a-year and pick up with Murtaugh unable to move on “because of Riggs” dying.

“He wears the same sweats for weeks, people think he is homeless, walks around the house in an old bathrobe; he can’t move past Riggs,” Miller said. At the same time we will meet Cole who has now moved to LA to try and reconnect with his family, and he’s got a job as an uniformed police officer.”

“He’s working as an uniform cop at the same time as Murtaugh is pursuing Riggs’ demise and has been chasing these bad guys,” he continued. “That’s how they both meet and realize that they have to work together.”

Familiar Faces

Wayans and Scott are not the only stars of the upcoming season, however, as the show also features many other important characters. Two of those stars are Kevin Rahm and Jordana Brewster.

Rahm plays Captain Brooks Avery — who is based on Steve Kahan’s Captain Ed Murphy from the Lethal Weapon films — and Brewster plays Dr. Maureen Cahill — who is based on Mary Ellen Trainor’s character Dr. Stephanie Woods from the movies.

Trish Murtaugh, Defense Attorney

Another important star on the show is Keesha Sharp, who plays Trish Murtaugh, the wife of Wayans’ character. This role was originally played by actress Darlene Love in the Lethal Weapon movies.

Trish is a fierce defense attorney who was previously a managing partner at a high-profile law firm.