Why Did Martin Riggs Leave Lethal Weapon? Martin Riggs is the driving character of the Lethal Weapon Franchise. The Lethal Weapon Franchise has four movies and one series that ran for three seasons. But we are interested in Clayne Crawford’s Lethal Weapon (the series) and not Mel Gibson’s. Still, Mel’s is the original and more authentic Martin Riggs, and if you haven’t heard, we might be seeing him again.
Lethal Weapon ran for three seasons with 55 episodes, and Clayne remained with them for two seasons, which added to 40 episodes. After the second season, Clayne left the show, which saddened the fans. It had to be a big decision since he played the primary role in the series. With IMDb ratings barely crossing 7, Season 3 saw a dip in popularity.
Season 2 barely touches the 7’s with a minimum rating of 7.9. So why would someone want to put an axe on his leg? Or why would Clayne leave such a good-going show to sabotage his good-going career? It’s simple because some things come over popularity, and this time it was tolerance. So let’s see what led to Martin Riggs’ death and Clayne’s exit in the premiere of Season 3.
Why Did Martin Riggs Leave Lethal Weapon?
The production team and crew fired Clayne Crawford (Riggs) for bad behavior. It wasn’t immediate. The team and Crawford had their verbal fights more than just numerous times. Everyone, including Clayne, was public with what happened and why couldn’t they work together anymore. The team couldn’t tolerate Clayne’s demands and his fear of the action scenes.
Clayne kept losing his temper and lashed out at the crew for the smallest of incidents. He once had to undergo therapy to get back to work. Once when he was directing an episode of Season 2, an actor on the set got hit, leading Clayne to give an earful to the members present. But this wasn’t it. There was more.
Crawford and his co-star Damon Wayans were also not on good terms with each other. There were times they didn’t even want to do a scene together. Through a released audio tape, we can hear them abusing each other. In a podcast, Crawford revealed that he believes the team set him to direct an episode to get a chance to fire him.
A report claimed Clayne shouted at children during a scene, but he denied the claims. Reports also say that Clayne suffers from anger management issues and can’t handle minimal overdue. Tending to all these, Warner Bros. decided to fire him and closed his story by killing him with a gunshot.
We can’t confirm whether it was the case, but Clayne has some issues to defeat or why so many people would be after him. Though Seann William Scooty replaced Martin Riggs as Wesley Cole, he couldn’t replace the fan’s heart.
Wayans also decided to leave the show for good because of his health and age. But we think it was too much for him, especially after the experience, or maybe things weren’t going well between the cast.
Where Is Clayne Crawford Now?
Lethal Weapon gave Clayne the inkling that TV series wasn’t for him. He focused on movies and appeared in The Integrity of Joseph Chambers (2022), before which he appeared in The Killing of Two Lovers (2020).
He has no upcoming movies or shows. He is active on his Instagram and keeps updating his fans with his daily life schedule. Clayne owns a farm and is seen driving his tractor around with his grandson, about which he posts on his account.
We can’t say take a side here with whose fault it was, but it seems everyone did something or the other wrong. Lethal Weapon started well but couldn’t keep it together. Though the series has already ended, another movie from the franchise is coming soon. While we wait for the Lethal Weapon Finale, let’s wish Clayne a great career ahead.
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