The Naked Gun Returns, and It’s as Ridiculous as Ever

Leslie Nielsen’s big moustache and distinctive gravelly voice will not grace the latest The Naked Gun, but the slapstick crime-solving comedy is officially coming back to the big screen on August 1, 2025. Longtime Naked Gun actor and director David Zucker announced the new installment as well as its star, Liam Neeson, during the D23 Expo on Friday.

The Naked Gun franchise, which includes three films, made Nielsen a household name for his deadpan performance as the well-meaning but easily flustered Detective Frank Drebin. Nielsen’s character would return in a 2025 “legacy sequel”, The Naked Gun, but this time Neeson will play Drebin’s son.

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! First premiered in 1988, and follows Detective Frank Drebin as he and his partners, Captain Ed Hocken and Lieutenant Nordberg, attempt to stop a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II. While the Queen is visiting the United States, Drebin is racing to foil the scheme. In the first installment, Nielsen parodies spy and action movies with his thick “Kiwi” accent and emotionless delivery that had previously been used in the spoof The Naked Gun.

The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear, in which Drebin attempts to stop a plot to kidnap a top nuclear scientist, was followed in 1991. The third film, Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult, saw Drebin out of retirement and on the case of a plot to bomb the Academy Awards. That 1994 film was considered the final Naked Gun film. Nielsen and Zucker were hesitant to make more sequels after that, although a fourth entry was suggested in 2000.

In 2013, a reboot was announced for the franchise, which at the time would be titled The Naked Gun. Ed Helms was cast as “Frank Drebin, no relation” in the new project, which was said to be in development by Paramount. However, that reboot never came to fruition, and the rights to the franchise lapsed back to Zucker in 2020.

One reason for that delay was creative. David Zucker, one of the producers and directors of the first two Naked Gun films, was not at the helm of the reboot. He famously refused to take part in the new installment, saying that it would be “inferior” to the original. He also stated that it was necessary to be in the chair for the production: “It’s my film that Leslie did. It’s my family.” However, Zucker got back involved with the franchise in 2017, rewriting a draft in which Drebin’s son was a secret agent. That film was never made, however.

The project was revisited in 2021. Seth MacFarlane would direct, and he did not need Zucker’s blessing or involvement to do so. That’s when Liam Neeson was cast as Frank Drebin Jr, the son of Drebin from the original trilogy. Drebin Jr. would be a police lieutenant himself, tasked with foiling major crimes.

Distributors Respond to The Naked Gun Reboot

Neeson will be joined by Paul Walter Hauser, who will portray Captain Ed Hocken, Jr., Drebin Jr.’s partner, who is the son of Hocken Sr., Drebin Sr.’s long-time partner. Hauser, who will also be starring as Mole Man in Fantastic Four: First Steps later this year, was cast back in October 2023.

Filming for the new film was to begin in late 2023, but some new actors were still added to the cast. Pamela Anderson, Kevin Durand, Danny Huston, Liza Koshy, Cody Rhodes, CCH Pounder, Busta Rhymes, and Eddy Yu have joined Neeson and Hauser in the new project. Anderson will be playing a sultry femme fatale named Beth, who enlists Drebin’s help when her brother is murdered and the police can’t find his killer.

That murder case is the plot of The Naked Gun 2025, which starts Drebin Jr. on a journey to find the killer to save the Police Squad. There’s a nod to those films by having Ed and Frank Jr. break down at the sight of plaques honoring their father and his long-time partner in the new film. But a key line at the start of the trailer also references the first Naked Gun.

Beth approaches Drebin Jr. in a coffee shop bathroom, telling him that the Police Squad will be disbanded if he can’t solve her brother’s murder, to which he quickly responds, “I’m on it.”

In a tone-deaf moment, the trailer also had a joke that many felt was poor taste. Ed Jr. uses a line aimed at Drebin’s absentee parenting: “Sometimes I wonder if you even care.” In the following scene, Drebin Jr. is handcuffing a suspect and making derogatory, bigoted jokes about him.

But The Naked Gun has been back for three decades, so it’s probably hard to please anyone who wants the campy 1980s tone to return. It should be noted, however, that many of the jokes in the trailer are in the same vein as those of the previous Naked Guns, with similar settings and costuming to the original films.

The trailer also had Neeson in full parody mode, lampooning the famous “particular set of skills” monologue from his Taken franchise of films. After the character dramatically recites the line, “Once you kill a man for revenge, there’s no going back” to a villain, he rips off his attacker’s arms and uses them to bludgeon other assailants. “A voice in your head saying over and over ‘That was awesome,’” Neeson deadpans after his action scene.

What You Can Expect from the Trailer

The tone of the trailer is in line with the legacy films, but it also has callbacks to the early films from the 80s. David Zucker told TMZ that he had seen the trailer, and said he “regretted it,” adding that, “I can’t unsee it.” While some old fans may feel that way, others are likely to be pleased that The Naked Gun is, at the very least, trying to capture some of the spirit of the original films.

The bare bones of the story are intact, it seems, as it still has the absurd settings and gags, while the plot about Beth and her murdered brother is largely a MacGuffin to get the cast from set piece to set piece. Lines like one suspect bragging that he served 20 years for “manslaughter” are undercut when another character clarifies that the charge was “man’s laughter,” to which Drebin replies, “Must have been quite the joke.”

Neeson has been throwing himself into both of his film franchises this year. He recently had a “full-body armor” Halloween costume made in the likeness of the Batsuit armor he wore in the recent The Little Things. That suit comes just months after he re-wore that armored suit from 2023’s Batman: Caped Crusader in a Friday the 13th costume. So we know he’s ready.

The trailer for The Naked Gun 2025 was also the franchise’s first ever, released in April. As with any trailer, there were likely jokes edited out, but it still seems as if Neeson is ready to commandeer a public restroom in the name of “police business.” Whether The Naked Gun 2025 will live up to the original films or not is yet to be seen, but one thing is for sure: Neeson is going to try and kick ass as hard as he can while wearing one bad-ass blazer.