Naked Gun Trailer Showcases Neeson’s Comedy Chops

The sound of klaxons blaring and stun guns going off is once again about to flood cinema theatres worldwide. The Naked Gun, the slap-happy spoof comedy franchise starring Leslie Nielsen, has officially announced a sequel, with an August 1, 2025, release date. The film is being billed as a “legacy sequel,” following the adventures of Frank Drebin Jr., Drebin Sr.’s son, played by Liam Neeson. The Naked Gun 2025 will see Neeson trade in his past dramatic roles for the name of the Police Squad and floppy hat in what is set to be a nonsensical, madcap ride.

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! was first released in 1988. Directed by David Zucker, the original film cast Nielsen as Detective Frank Drebin, an accident-prone officer who finds himself at the center of an assassination plot on Queen Elizabeth II when she visits the U.S. for an annual state dinner. The franchise would later expand with two sequels. The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear, released in 1991, starred Nielsen as Frank Drebin, who has to protect the country when a crazed killer abducts the nation’s top nuclear scientist, Dr. Edwin Potts. The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult was released in 1994, and saw Drebin recruited out of retirement to investigate the murder of a couple, and later put a stop to a bomb plot to blow up the Academy Awards.

After that, it all went dead. A new Naked Gun reboot was first announced in 2013, with Paramount casting The Office alum Ed Helms as “Frank Drebin, no relation.” The project never advanced past its early stages, partly due to David Zucker pulling out of the production. Zucker, who produced and directed the first two installments, said he would not be involved in a remake, deeming any franchise reboot to be “inferior.” He was briefly lured back into the fold in 2017, when he helped to retool another reboot in which Drebin’s son had taken his father’s place as a secret agent. That film was also ultimately shelved.

Then came 2021, and Seth MacFarlane took the director’s chair in what became the new Naked Gun 2025. MacFarlane and his producing partners brought Neeson into the fold, casting him as Drebin Jr., the son of the original Police Squad lead character. Drebin, a lieutenant in the police force, has inherited his father’s trademark bad luck when it comes to fighting crime.

Who’s Who in the Return of The Naked Gun

Playing Captain Ed Hocken, Jr., Drebin Sr.’s close friend and frequent sidekick’s son, is Paul Walter Hauser. The actor is no stranger to taking on both oddball and tough-guy roles, with an upcoming film, Fantastic Four: First Steps, casting him as the Mole Man. Pamela Anderson stars as femme fatale Beth, whose brother has recently been murdered, and his death is the driving mystery in the film. Kevin Durand, Danny Huston, Liza Koshy, Cody Rhodes, CCH Pounder, Busta Rhymes, and Eddy Yu all join the cast as well, meaning there’s a lively lineup of characters that will hopefully do justice to the Police Squad’s unique and enduring parody aesthetic.

When the first teaser trailer was released in April, it was met with less than stellar reviews from critics, with The Wrap giving it a grade of C+ and David Zucker himself stating that, when speaking to TMZ, “I can’t unsee it.” However, there is some good news for fans. Neeson seems to have thrown himself headfirst into the film, as he appears to be channelling the slapstick energy of Nielsen’s first Drebin and spoofing his iconic dramatic characters in the process.

In one scene, Neeson holds up a stern finger in his typical Taken “particular set of skills” demeanour, and recites a monologue directly lifted from his other work: “Once you kill a man for revenge,” he proclaims, before gesticulating to the right and left, “there’s no going back.” As a pair of goons approach Drebin Jr. and proceed to knock him around, he tears both of their arms off and uses them to dispatch his assailants. “A voice in your head saying over and over,” he concludes, before wildly flapping his arms in a Bugs Bunny-like send-up of his previous roles, “‘That was awesome.’”

The trailer also features more sentimental moments for the actors to chew on as well. In one such scene, Drebin Jr. and Ed Jr. tear up in front of two plaques commemorating the work of their fathers, and former Police Squad partners.

But it’s still The Naked Gun. The plot, such as it is, involves Beth seeking Drebin Jr.’s help to find her brother’s killer before the Police Squad is disbanded. One suspect, Drebin Jr., is told at one point, “did 20 years for man’s laughter.” Drebin Jr. corrects the offender, saying that it should have been “manslaughter.” “Must have been quite the joke,” he dryly responds.

From clearing out a coffee shop bathroom for his own “police business” to stopping a would-be goon, and replying with the deadpan delivery of “bad choice of career, friend,” to cracking open heads with his umbrella and all the while muttering to himself “stay with me” as he clutches his head in pain, it would seem Neeson has eagerly and enthusiastically taken to badge-wearing himself. Or, at the very least, to falling while wearing it.

The film’s humor isn’t for everyone, but it’s broad, pun-riddled, and deliberately ridiculous, so anyone who wasn’t sold on the originals will probably be turned off as well. But for everyone else, it’s a callback to a different time, when summer blockbusters were goofy and mindless, and slapstick humor didn’t take itself too seriously. If the trailer is any indication, the 2025 Naked Gun may just be the thing to transport people back in time this summer.