Neeson Parodies Taken Persona in The Naked Gun

The world’s foremost expert on bullet wounds and hard drives has a new film to solve. After 30 years of radio silence, the sound of butts being kicked will be heard from Hollywood to Bollywood with the announcement of the latest installment of spoof comedy series The Naked Gun. The latest chapter in the absurd, assault-packed franchise is slated to arrive on August 1, 2025. And in a particularly ironic twist, the one solving the case will no longer be Leslie Nielsen but Liam Neeson, who will be playing Frank Drebin’s son in the “legacy sequel.”

Fans may remember the original The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, which first hit theaters back in 1988. After that release, two sequels were made in quick succession: 1991’s The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear and 1994’s Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult, both of which followed Nielsen’s bumbling but well-intentioned hero Frank Drebin as he pursued killers and saved the day with bad disguises and fast running. In the original Naked Gun, Drebin and his fellow Police Squad officers are racing to prevent an assassination attempt on Queen Elizabeth II when she comes to the United States. However, every suspect has an airtight alibi, which means the plucky and perpetually out-of-shape detective will have to infiltrate the space program and play dress-up to solve the mystery.

The naked, or non-naked, joke of Drebin accidentally getting himself into sticky situations has been a blockbuster bonanza since it first set foot on screen in the 80s, but after the third installment in 1994, things seemed to wind down. Paramount set a reboot in motion in 2013, which cast The Office’s Ed Helms in the titular role but—spoiler alert—not as Drebin, Sr. The Hollywood Reporter first reported that this version of the Police Squad’s adventures was officially dead on arrival. In part, this was because of the lack of commitment by key players in the original cast, and specifically, David Zucker. The producer and director of the first two Naked Gun films told The Hollywood Reporter that a reboot was out of the question due to creative differences. “The problem is that a reboot is always inferior,” he said. “And in this case, there’s no reason to make a bad Naked Gun movie.”

While Zucker hasn’t worked on the franchise in recent years, he did get re-involved with the concept in 2017, briefly assisting with a pass at a script where Drebin’s son was a secret agent instead of a cop. That movie didn’t get the green light either, and the next three years saw more silence than laughs.

The project was rebooted in 2021—sans Zucker—and Seth MacFarlane was brought on as director. It was also around this time that Liam Neeson was cast as Frank Drebin Jr., a police lieutenant who follows in the clumsy footsteps of his dad. Neeson joins a whole new cast of characters, including Paul Walter Hauser as Captain Ed Hocken, Jr., the son of Drebin Sr.’s longtime partner in crime solving. Hauser is known for roles in films such as I, Tonya and Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, and is set to appear in the upcoming Fantastic Four: First Steps as the Mole Man. Also joining Neeson and Hauser in the film is Pamela Anderson, playing a femme fatale named Beth, whose brother has been murdered and who recruits Drebin Jr. to help her. Kevin Durand, Danny Huston, Liza Koshy, Cody Rhodes, CCH Pounder, Busta Rhymes, and Eddy Yu will also appear in the film, though their roles have yet to be announced.

The film released its first teaser trailer last April, and the response was less than universally positive. David Zucker was particularly upset, and told TMZ he “regretted” watching the teaser. “I can’t unsee it. I can’t unsee it,” Zucker said when asked about the trailer. But all may not be lost, with the eagle-eyed catching some Easter eggs that indicate some care has been taken to ensure Neeson’s turn in the police badge is up to snuff. In the trailer, the Liam Neeson fans have known and loved for decades for playing dour “does-what-is-necessary” heroes, is on full display as Drebin Jr. parodies his own “particular set of skills” trope from his more well-known Taken films. In one clip, he somberly tells a criminal before gruesomely dismembering him, “Once you kill a man for revenge, there’s no going back.” “But he was going back. A voice in your head saying over and over ‘That was awesome,’” he dryly says as he swings the still writhing limbs around like a flamboyant percussionist.

The franchise has even been paying tribute to its roots in small ways, such as a few lines in the trailer where Frank and Ed Jr. get emotional in front of two commemorative plaques dedicated to their fathers.

It’s also business as usual as far as keeping things absurd in the new installment, with the casting of Pamela Anderson, and Drebin Jr.’s over-the-top one-liners, including a part in the trailer where he commands officers to “move up,” and the victimizing thug replies with the number of cops “packin’ a boot.” Drebin Jr. later tells them all to back off while he shops for coffee, muttering, “God, I miss my father,” as he leaves through a bathroom stall, ostensibly for “police business.” “Busy night,” the officers respond as he strides away, an array of garbage bags tied together like a lasso at the ready.

Of course, for every “sentimental” moment in the trailer, there is a counter-balancing gag. This is still a The Naked Gun movie, after all, and while the plot itself is a serviceable excuse to kick off the foot-shooting, it is only so deep. The mystery to be solved in this installment, which centers around Beth’s brother, involves a device that can sabotage America’s new moon rocket, which will leave our new hero Drebin Jr. at risk of being demoted, or worse, if he doesn’t help her out. If that’s not bad enough, if he fails to help Beth, the entire Police Squad will be shut down. Some of this urgency is glossed over in the typical Naked Gun fashion, such as one suspect who says he spent 20 years in jail for “man’s laughter.” Correcting him that it was “manslaughter,” Drebin Jr. simply responds, “Must have been quite the joke.”

Neeson hasn’t been known for his comedy chops in the past, but it looks like The Naked Gun may be just the movie to get him cracking and busting some moves. If this trailer is any indication of what fans can expect from the new installment, things are more or less in full swing for a no-holds-barred return to the original laughs that defined the franchise in the 80s. And something is exciting about the unapologetically broad humor of The Naked Gun’s original appeal being primed just in time for summer movie season in 2025, even if it does involve David Zucker repeatedly telling everyone who will listen that they will “screw it up.”

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