From Nielsen to Neeson: A New Era of The Naked Gun

Three decades. That’s how long fans have been waiting for the return of the unmistakable sounds of slapstick criminal investigations and a wildly strange crime-solving universe. The Naked Gun, a spoof comedy franchise with a distinctly wild-eyed sense of humor and an infinite number of hyperbolic, meta plot twists, is finally coming back, with the long-delayed sequel due out on August 1, 2025.

This time, however, it won’t be Leslie Nielsen, the original detective, but Liam Neeson as his long-dead son in the upcoming “legacy sequel.”

The franchise began in 1988 with the spoof-comedy The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, which followed its two-dimensional and dimwitted protagonist Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) as he attempted to stop the assassination of Queen Elizabeth II during her state visit to the U.S. It was an instant hit, with a classic line of zany crime-comedies to follow. The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear was released in 1991 and features Drebin stopping a terrorist plot to kidnap a nuclear scientist; in 1994, Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult saw the detective out of retirement trying to foil a plot to blow up the Academy Awards.

After that, it fell silent. For a while in the 2010s, there were rumors of a new Naked Gun reboot on the table, with Ed Helms originally set to be the star. The resulting film, The Naked Gun: Funny of Die, has never been made in large part due to uncertainty on the part of Zucker, the franchise’s original producer and director of the first two films. David Zucker has long maintained that any reboot was simply going to be “inferior” to what had come before it, but came back on board to help rework a Frank Drebin Jr.-centered story for a little bit in 2017 before the production finally fizzled out.

It was only in 2021 that the project was picked up once again, with Seth MacFarlane taking over directorial duties (sans Zucker), and Neeson got in the mix as Frank Drebin Jr., Frank’s police lieutenant son, who seems to have inherited a similar comedic passion for butting into cases and falling.

The Rest of the Gang

Paul Walter Hauser has been cast as Drebin Jr.’s partner, Captain Ed Hocken Jr., the son of Frank Sr.’s partner in the original trilogy, though we’ll have to wait a little longer to see Hauser’s new character take action, as his other upcoming film, Fantastic Four: First Steps, is not due out until February. Anderson has also been cast as a classic femme fatale named Beth, whose brother was recently murdered and now seeks Drebin Jr.’s help in solving the case, lest he close down the entire Police Squad. Joining the cast as well are Kevin Durand, Danny Huston, Liza Koshy, Cody Rhodes, CCH Pounder, Busta Rhymes, and Eddy Yu.

It’s hard to say how people will feel about the new Frank Drebin coming into focus. The first teaser trailer, which was released in April, was met with a less-than-enthusiastic response, with franchise stalwart David Zucker issuing a statement to TMZ in which he said of the trailer, “I can’t unsee it. I don’t regret unseeing it. I just can’t.” However, fans may be able to take some comfort that Neeson seems committed to embracing the innately wacky tone of the franchise, parodying his other, deadpan “I have a particular set of skills” action film persona with a gravelly directness. In one part of the trailer, for example, Neeson states, “Once you kill a man for revenge, there’s no going back,” before ripping off an attacker’s arms and tearing into him with them.

There are some tender, emotional moments in the trailer, too, with Frank and Ed Jr. holding each other in the film’s opening while they view tributes to their respective fathers, who were each police squad partners.

But there are some classic jokes in there, too. Beth (Anderson) is the sister of Frank Jr.’s murder victim. He is now working with her to clear his name and keep Police Squad open. When he interrogates a suspect in a coffee shop bathroom, the suspect explains he’s been in jail 20 years “for man’s laughter,” to which Drebin deadpans, “Must have been quite the joke,” after the suspect corrects him with “manslaughter.”

Neeson is being tossed around and is tumbling down stairs and, like the rest of the film, having fun with the police action hero gimmick.

The jokes are hit or miss—lazy, groan-inducing puns on the most basic comedic level—but that’s just how fans loved it the first time around, too. If this is an indication of what we’ll get in 2025, The Naked Gun looks like it will be perfect mindless entertainment for summer 2025.