From Retired Agent to Ridiculous Cop: Neeson Goes Full Spoof

The Naked Gun, the uproarious spoof comedy franchise, has announced a return in 2025. An original trilogy of films from the ’80s and ’90s, The Naked Gun stars the late Leslie Nielsen as Detective Frank Drebin, who faces off against nutty villains and schemes to keep the world safe. Drebin’s return to the big screen will be a “legacy sequel,” according to the Hollywood Reporter, which will feature Liam Neeson in the role of the detective’s son.

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The Naked Gun 2025 is set for August 1, 2025. As with the original, Drebin, played this time by Neeson, is enlisted by a seductive woman to stop an assassination attempt when a major public event takes place in the city. The original, The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, first came out in 1988 and starred Nielsen in the role of Drebin, a police lieutenant. In the original, Drebin faces off against a plan to kill Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to the US, with a newly modernized weapon.

The over-the-top premise with total commitment to the wildest part of the script was a hit, and two sequels followed. The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear came out in 1991 and sees Drebin staving off a kidnapping plot of a top nuclear scientist. In Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult, Drebin is also pitted against a plot to blow up the Academy Awards. This was the last of the Naked Gun movies. As with most early-’90s crime comedies, the sequels faded away after a while, with some ideas for a revival coming and going for decades.

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A reboot was announced in 2013, and Ed Helms was even cast as “Frank Drebin, no relation,” but that project didn’t come to fruition for a few reasons. Most of it had to do with the co-writer of the first two films, David Zucker, who was originally attached to produce and direct. He had a hand in writing the new version but ultimately dropped out due to “creative differences.” He and his partners thought it would be “inferior” to the original if he were not at the helm, so they ended up stepping back.

Zucker later got back on the project in 2017 and spent some time working on another rewrite of a different version. It was once again shelved, and Drebin was no longer to be the son but was a secret agent instead. Drebin didn’t come back until Seth MacFarlane took the project up in 2021 without Zucker. By this time, Neeson had been brought on to be Frank Drebin Jr., the police lieutenant’s son.

New Cast

Joining Neeson in the new film will be Paul Walter Hauser, who will be playing the role of Captain Ed Hocken, Jr., son of Drebin Sr.’s long-time partner and friend. He will also be seen as the Mole Man in Fantastic Four: First Steps, coming out later this year. Pamela Anderson will play the femme fatale Beth, who approaches Drebin to help solve the murder of her brother. The case at the center of the film is still hazy, but you can expect lots of puns and parody to fill the hours, with Kevin Durand, Danny Huston, Liza Koshy, Cody Rhodes, CCH Pounder, Busta Rhymes, and Eddy Yu all making appearances.

The first teaser of the film was released in April and generally got a mixed reception from viewers. David Zucker, who stepped away from the project in the beginning stages, told TMZ he regretted watching the clip after its release, “I can’t unsee it,” he said.

Here’s some good news: Neeson looks game. He’s already in on the joke, parodying his typical granite-faced “this is my particular set of skills” Taken character. “Once you kill a man for revenge, there’s no going back,” he drawls in one scene, as his face is getting ripped off by his attacker’s hands. He then holds them up by the wrist like swords and bashes the goons with them. “A voice in your head saying over and over ‘That was awesome,’” he adds.

He’s also getting a little weepy with his son over the Police Squad legacy, as they give each other emotional speeches in front of plaques honoring their fathers. Classic.

The jokes still come fast and hard in The Naked Gun tradition, with the plot sort of secondary to all the gags. This time around, Drebin Jr. is on the clock to help Beth with her brother’s murder. If they can’t crack it, Police Squad is in danger of being disbanded. There are plenty of zingers along the way, the first of which comes from a suspect Drebin interrogates. He says he did 20 years in “man’s laughter.” “No, man ’slaughter,” Drebin corrects him. “Must have been quite the joke.”

In the trailer, you can see Drebin commanding a coffee shop bathroom to be cleared for “police business” and generally being extremely committed to his interpretation of his job description. At the end of the day, there’s only one way to do The Naked Gun, and Neeson seems up for it. It’s nonsensical, broad, and punny as all hell.

That doesn’t mean that the humor won’t land or won’t be classic. The jokes were the key to the franchise’s charm back in the day, so there’s every reason to believe 2025’s take on the series will be just as iconic and wonderfully silly.