Neeson Spoofs Himself in Upcoming Naked Gun Movie

It’s been 30 long years since audiences were last treated to the signature whir of slapstick crime-solving, but the wait for a Naked Gun sequel may finally be over. The Naked Gun franchise, a spoof-comedy series that became a mainstay of OTT rental bins with its grandiose, tongue-in-cheek take on every crime ever, has gotten a green light from Sony for a new entry in the series, with a release date set for August 1, 2025.

This time around, the laugh track isn’t going to be led by Leslie Nielsen, who starred as the chronically unlucky detective Frank Drebin in the first three Naked Gun films. Instead, according to a synopsis of the film, Liam Neeson will star as Drebin’s son in what has been described as a “legacy sequel.”

A Brief History of the Naked Gun Franchise

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! First premiered in 1988 and swiftly became a fan favorite in its own right. A parody of cop films, The Naked Gun’s humor centered on its wildly unhinged premise and Nielsen’s earnest, deadpan delivery, as he played Frank Drebin, a detective assigned to protect Queen Elizabeth II during her state visit to the United States from an assassination attempt.

The premise proved to be a hit, and the series expanded to two sequels. The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear, released in 1991, centered on Drebin’s investigation into the kidnapping of a nuclear scientist. Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult, the third film in the series, came in 1994 and found Drebin coming out of retirement to protect the film industry from a bomb plot at the Academy Awards.

The third film, however, proved to be the last for a while. After the critical and commercial failure of a potential fourth film in the series, Naked Gun 4 1/2: The Pyramids of Glasnost, a reboot was first announced by Paramount in 2013. Comedy actor Ed Helms was cast in the role of “Frank Drebin, no relation” for the film, but production was pushed back in the years that followed. In part, that was because David Zucker, producer and director of the first two Naked Gun films, wasn’t on board to produce or direct the reboot. Zucker held fast to his belief that the reboot was sure to be “inferior” to the original trilogy, and was reportedly briefly re-involved in 2017 to help recraft a version of the script that put Drebin’s son forward as the secret agent at the center of the film. Neither the Drebin son concept nor the agent Drebin Jr. idea has yet to come to fruition.

Sony rebooted the project in 2021, and after a further three-year wait, it’s with Seth MacFarlane at the helm — and without Zucker. Liam Neeson, however, came on board in 2023 as Frank Drebin Jr., a police lieutenant who finds himself following in his father’s clumsy footsteps.

Meet the Naked Gun 2025 Cast

Paul Walter Hauser will play Captain Ed Hocken, Jr. in the film, Drebin Sr.’s colleague and the son of Frank and Ed Sr.’s long-time partner. Hauser, who will be seen this summer as Mole Man in the Fantastic Four prequel Fantastic Four: First Steps, also took to social media to confirm that production is now underway. Pamela Anderson will play Beth, a sultry femme fatale with a brother who’s been murdered and an aversion to wearing pants. Beth, we gather from the synopsis, hires Drebin Jr. to solve the case — otherwise, the Police Squad will be closed down for good. Drebin’s murder-solving mayhem will be joined by Kevin Durand, Danny Huston, Liza Koshy, Cody Rhodes, CCH Pounder, Busta Rhymes, and Eddy Yu, too.

The film’s first teaser, released in April, received a warm reception, but was less well-received by David Zucker, who felt so regretful about watching the teaser that “I can’t unsee it,” he told TMZ. While his taste in comedy may not be fully catered for, at least Neeson appears to be picking up where he left off in the franchise’s slapstick style. He parodies his own gruff “look what you made me do” spiel from the Taken series with a line in the trailer: “Once you kill a man for revenge, there’s no going back,” he says to one attacker. He then tears off the guy’s arms and whips them around like clubs, before adding, “A voice in your head saying over and over ‘That was awesome.’”

Alongside these more modern references, there are also some sweet tributes to the franchise in the trailer, too. In one brief moment, Frank and Ed Jr. get misty-eyed while in front of a line of plaques to their fathers.

Of course, this isn’t to say that the classic one-liners have gone anywhere. In one exchange that sums up the Naked Gun in a nutshell, Drebin is helping a suspect to his feet when he tells the cop that he “served 20 years” for a crime. “Man’s laughter?” Drebin assumes that the perp served 20 years for “manslaughter.” “Must have been quite the joke,” Drebin concludes in his normal, matter-of-fact tone.

The Trailer for the Naked Gun 2025

While the story of the Naked Gun 2025 centers around Beth’s plot to save the Police Squad from being shut down after Drebin Jr. is brought on to solve her brother’s murder, it’s also packed with the all-signature gags and over-the-top, breathless humor that the franchise is known for. There are hints that the badge-wearing comedy will be delivered in a similar tonal vein to the classics, too. In one instance, Drebin commandeers an entire coffee shop bathroom for “police business” and waltzes out with his uniform and badge on backwards — the source of his investigations, he concludes, is “inconclusive.”

The film will certainly not be to all tastes. The humor is broad, and the puns are very present, but the original Naked Gun films certainly weren’t critics’ choice, either. But if this trailer is any indication, it looks set to be a return to form for Sony’s most delightfully ridiculous franchise.