upfronts 2016

Fox Orders Lethal Weapon and The Exorcist to Series; Look Out, Movies, TV Can Do Reboots, Too

PRV042498 LETHAL WEAPON II - HANDOUT TRANSPARENCY - MOVIE - Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon II. [PNG Merlin Archive]
Not to old for this… Photo: Warner Brothers

TV isn’t the new movies, TV — or at least Fox’s fall lineup —  is literally old movies. The network has announced its first batch of series orders for 2016–2017, and high-profile adaptations of Lethal Weapon and The Exorcist are among them. The former stars Rectify’s Clayne Crawford in the Mel Gibson role, with Damon Wayans Sr. stepping in to Danny Glover’s shoes. The latter stars Geena Davis and features two priests (Alfonso Herrera and Ben Daniels) trying to tackle one demonic possession. In other drama news, Fox also picked up APB, which is about a tech billionaire (Justin Kirk) starting a private police force in Chicago, and Pitch, about the first woman (Kylie Bunbury) to play Major League Baseball. On the comedy side, Fox liked that Adam Pally–Leighton Meester time-travel idea as much as the rest of us and picked up Making History. It also added The Mick, starring It’s Always Sunny’s Kaitlin Olson as a two-bit hustler who has to assume custody of her rich sibling’s spoiled children. Whether or not those children are possessed by demons, and whether or not those demons will be dealt with in an Exorcist crossover episode, is really up to Fox.

Fox Picks Up Lethal Weapon and The Exorcist