Naked Gun’s Legacy Continues With Star-Studded Cast

Nobody. Nobody does funny-crime-fighting quite like Leslie Nielsen. The slapstick icon and his running gag about not sweating made classic comedy spoofs like The Naked Gun the gold standard of the genre. But now, three decades after the franchise’s last film, the one-man parody legacy will be passed on to Liam Neeson.

Deadline reports the Naked Gun is officially back with a new sequel, The Naked Gun: Funny, Dirty and Dangerous: The Naked Gun, hitting theaters August 1, 2025. Neeson will take over from Nielsen in a “legacy sequel” as Frank Drebin’s son, who is also a cop with his fumbling crime-fighting agency.

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! Originally opened in 1988, and became a top-rated crime-comedy classic. Nielsen’s bombastic misadventures as Detective Frank Drebin were pined for in nostalgia queues ever since. In the first film, Drebin uncovers an assassination plot against the Queen of England during her state visit to the United States, and spends most of the film nearly screwing up a series of convoluted set pieces in embarrassing but good-hearted ways.

The original film was an immediate hit, and two sequels quickly followed. 1991’s The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear upped the stakes, with Frank Drebin taking on a scheme to kidnap the world’s greatest nuclear physicist. Drebin made a third appearance in Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult in 1994. In that film, he retires from the force but returns for one last case to stop a plot to detonate a bomb during the Academy Awards telecast.

Unfortunately, that was the last word in The Naked Gun for the next 30 years. The Naked Gun reboot was announced by Paramount in 2013 and even had an actor attached. The Office star Ed Helms was onboard to star as “Frank Drebin, no relation,” but that project fell by the wayside before the studio started development. Part of that is to do with the franchise’s past producers and directors. David Zucker, a major creative figure on the original films, notably stayed away from the project in an attempt to keep the film as true to the originals as possible. Zucker served as producer and director for the first two films, and said any reboot “can’t be as good as the originals,” arguing the original premise could not be duplicated again. He was briefly brought back into the fold in 2017 to help overhaul a reworked script that still centered on Drebin’s son, this time as a secret agent. It, too, eventually folded.

That brings us to the current version, which also places Drebin’s son in the lead role, but this time as a police lieutenant. Seth MacFarlane has taken over as director and executive producer, reworking his previous version. MacFarlane is no stranger to spoofing classic action genres, having directed and written two of his hit Family Guy series of movies, as well as other film projects like the cult satire Ted. According to IMDb, Zucker had been brought in to supervise the script at one point but was later removed.

Neeson entered negotiations to star in the film in 2021 and was cast as Frank Drebin Jr. He is joined by fellow Police Squad Jr. Paul Walter Hauser, who plays Captain Ed Hocken Jr., the son of Drebin Sr.’s long-time colleague and friend. Hauser will also star as Mole Man in the upcoming Fantastic Four: First Steps, out August 29. Pamela Anderson will be the femme fatale luring Frank Jr. into the mystery of her brother’s death, which sets off the action. Kevin Durand, Danny Huston, Liza Koshy, Cody Rhodes, CCH Pounder, Busta Rhymes, and Eddy Yu round out the rest of the eclectic cast.

The first teaser trailer dropped back in April, much to the surprise of almost everyone. Zucker was not happy, telling TMZ that while he “regretted” watching the trailer, “I can’t unsee it.” For some fans, there are reasons to get excited, too. Neeson appears to be taking on the comedy with aplomb, poking fun at the earnest mystery of his “particular set of skills” brand from the Taken series of films. “Once you kill a man for revenge, there’s no going back,” Neeson’s Drebin intones in the trailer. “It’s a voice in your head saying over and over, ‘That was awesome, ’” he finishes while yanking off the arms of one of his attackers and using them as a bludgeon.

The trailer also features an emotional callback for the old characters, with Drebin Jr. and Ed Jr. tearing up over plaques dedicated to the memory of their fathers. “I never knew how much fun you could have kicking ass and taking names,” Ed Jr. says, to which Drebin Jr. wistfully replies, “I know.” He goes on to nostalgically recount the time his dad slipped on a banana peel and “didn’t say jackshit.” Drebin Jr. may not have learned from his father’s mistakes, though. It’s still “The Naked Gun,” so the juvenile humor is there.

The film’s plot is largely a handoff for the barrage of gags. Based on the trailer, we learn that Beth’s brother was murdered, so she enlists Drebin Jr. to solve his murder before the police force is disbanded. Police business ensues, including a sequence where Frank Jr. commandeers a coffee shop bathroom to stop crime. Other jokes in the trailer include Drebin Jr. dryly recounting that a suspect was in prison for 20 years “for mans’ laughter,” only for Ed Jr. to correct him that it was “manslaughter,” to which Drebin replies, “Must have been quite the joke.”

Neeson looks like he has the deadpan delivery down. The script itself relies on classic, simplistic puns and juvenile humor, so most of the trailer’s jokes probably won’t raise eyebrows. But that’s also why many of us loved the first Naked Gun films in the first place. For the kind of nostalgic escapism we all seem to be in the mood for this summer, the trailer looks perfectly primed for a summer screening to drink a beer to.