Neeson and Hauser Lead Police Squad in New Mission

It’s been 30 years since we last heard the dulcet tones of The Naked Gun narrator, but that is all about to change. The spoof comedy franchise, which parodied 1980s crime shows and feature films with broad slapstick gags and an array of rubbery disguises, has been given the green light for a new installment. The Naked Gun 2025 will drop into cinemas on August 1, 2025, with Liam Neeson taking the helm as the son of late star Leslie Nielsen’s Frank Drebin. In the official trailer for the “legacy sequel,” the Taken star finds his character framed for murder and on the run from the police.

The original Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! was released in 1988, with the film quickly becoming a cult classic crime-comedy. The movie starred Nielsen as the dim-witted, but good-hearted Detective Frank Drebin, who attempts to stop a coup to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II during her state visit to the United States. The film was a hit with audiences, and in 1991, The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear was released. In the sequel, Drebin and his Police Squad had to foil a plot to kidnap a top nuclear scientist. Drebin then came out of retirement in the 1994 sequel Naked Gun 33&8531;: The Final Insult to save the day when a bomb is set to go off during the Academy Awards.

The franchise had been on ice ever since, with no real sign of a reboot for nearly two decades. The original producer and director of the first two Naked Gun movies, David Zucker, was said to have been involved in a reboot, but he hesitated to confirm this, as he believes it will be “inferior” to the originals. The rumor for a Naked Gun remake took a new turn when Paramount first announced the new movie in 2013 and cast The Office star Ed Helms to play “Frank Drebin, no relation.” However, little came of the project, with Zucker re-engaging briefly in 2017 to help rework a version where Drebin’s son was a secret agent. That version of the film also failed to be given the go-ahead, and it seemed that fans of Frank Drebin would have to wait some time for his return.

Enter Seth MacFarlane. The creator of Family Guy has since picked up the keys to the project without Zucker, and it seems the good news is that fans will have to wait no more. Neeson will take the lead role as Frank Drebin Jr., a law enforcement lieutenant who has inherited his father’s knack for getting kicked down the stairs while trying to solve crimes. This is the first time Neeson has been involved with the franchise, with his deadpan legacy assured to feature heavily in the reboot.

Paul Walter Hauser will play Captain Ed Hocken, Jr., son of Drebin Sr.’s long-time partner. Hauser can currently be seen in theaters in Fantastic Four: First Steps in the role of the Mole Man. Pamela Anderson will also join the cast in the role of Beth, a sultry singer with a murdered brother, which is the mystery Drebin Jr. needs to solve. The cast also includes Kevin Durand, Danny Huston, Liza Koshy, Cody Rhodes, CCH Pounder, Busta Rhymes, and Eddy Yu.

The first teaser trailer, released in April, divided opinion. David Zucker, unable to resist an opportunity to comment on his own franchise’s rebirth, spoke to TMZ about the teaser trailer, saying, “I saw it, I shouldn’t have seen it, but I can’t unsee it.” However, fans of the new installment may have something to cheer about. In the trailer, Neeson embraces the over-the-top style that worked so well in the originals, spoofing his anguished “particular set of skills” character from the Taken movies. In one shot, Drebin Jr. slams a gun to his head and cries, “Once you kill a man for revenge, there’s no going back” before ripping off the arms of his attacker and using them as impromptu batons. He then turns to the camera to add, “A voice in your head saying over and over ‘That was awesome.’”

In another, he and his friend break down in tears in front of a wall of blue plaques dedicated to the work of their fathers. With scenes like this mixed in with the death-defying stunts, it certainly seems like Neeson has bought into the high-concept screwball style.

The central plot of the film, the murder that Beth needs Drebin Jr. to solve, is less of a focus than the one-liners and the elaborate setups for the set pieces. When Beth tells Drebin Jr. that the Police Squad will be shut down if they fail to solve the crime, his partner reminds him, “It’s a good gig,” before adding, “Unless you go down.” A character they interview for clues about the murder case later says, “It wasn’t murder. I served 20 years for it.” Ed Jr. is incredulous and replies, “Man’s laughter?” The suspect corrects him to “manslaughter,” and Drebin Jr. adds, “Must have been quite the joke.”

The more or less nonsensical jokes are a series staple, and it’s good to see they will be front and center again. The hero gets held up in a coffee shop toilet by the police chief because he needs to do some “important police business,” using the fact that his parents had identical initials to their police squad badge numbers, and many more are too bizarre to give away. They are also peppered by deathly serious one-liners that leave our hero casually delivering gags like, “As long as they’re dead, they’re all doing the same crime.” But that’s just the way it is in The Naked Gun.

The gags won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but then the old films never really were, being broad and pun-heavy in a deliberately ridiculous way. But if the trailer is any indication of the tone, The Naked Gun 2025 looks set to be everything fans of mindless summer fun could ask for.