The Naked Gun Gets a 2025 Update With Familiar Jokes

It’s been 30 years, but the familiar voice that bellowed, “Mayday, mayday! I need some backup here!” is finally returning to the silver screen. The Naked Gun, the spoof crime-comedy franchise full of tired plots and even more tired puns, is making its much-anticipated return with a third film arriving on August 1, 2025. This time, however, it’s not Leslie Nielsen behind the badge but Liam Neeson, who will be playing Frank Drebin’s son in a “legacy sequel.”

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! was first released in 1988 and became a classic among crime comedies. Starring Nielsen as Detective Frank Drebin, the original film found the lovable cop trying to prevent the assassination of Queen Elizabeth II during her U.S. state visit. The film’s brand of hyperbolic humor and genre parody caught on with moviegoers, and two sequels followed. The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear, released in 1991, features Drebin out to stop a plot to kidnap a leading nuclear scientist. In the 1994 Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult, the retired cop must again come out of retirement to foil a bomb plot set to go off during the Academy Awards.

Interest in the franchise waned after the third film. Paramount first attempted a reboot in 2013, casting The Office’s Ed Helms as “Frank Drebin, no relation.” The project stalled, however, for several reasons. David Zucker, the producer and director of the first two Naked Gun films, refused to be involved with a new version, explaining that the original films “were so good that anything we did would be inferior.” The director temporarily re-joined the project in 2017, working on a version of the script where Drebin’s son was a secret agent. That version never made it to production, either.

The third film was again renewed in 2021 with Seth MacFarlane taking the director’s chair and without Zucker on the team. It was also then that Neeson was cast as Frank Drebin Jr., a hapless police lieutenant just like his father.

Welcome to the Police Squad!

Accompanying Neeson on his deadpan adventure is Paul Walter Hauser, who will be playing Captain Ed Hocken, Jr. The actor, who will play Mole Man in an upcoming Fantastic Four film, plays the role of Drebin Sr.’s long-time cop partner. Pamela Anderson, of Baywatch fame, will be playing the femme fatale Beth, whose brother has been murdered and who will need Drebin’s help in solving the case. Kevin Durand, Danny Huston, Liza Koshy, Cody Rhodes, CCH Pounder, Busta Rhymes, and Eddy Yu will round out the film’s character roster.

The first teaser trailer was released in April to a lukewarm reception. David Zucker, still harboring some reservations about the reboot, reportedly told TMZ: “I have no idea who’s producing this movie…But I just watched the teaser and I wish I hadn’t. I can’t unsee it.” But there are some reasons to be optimistic for fans of the series. The actor himself appears to be getting into the film’s screwball spirit with comedic self-parody that recasts his past “I have a particular set of skills” tough-guy persona from the Taken series. In one scene, Neeson intones, “Once you kill a man for revenge, there’s no going back,” before ripping off an attacker’s arms and using them to his advantage as weapons. “A voice in your head saying over and over ‘That was awesome,’” he concludes.

The trailer also has some touching moments. Neeson and Paul Walter Hauser’s characters can be seen getting teary in front of plaques commemorating their fathers. The father-son duo are bequeathed Police Squad detectives’ badges during the scene, a moving tribute to the franchise’s long-running Police Squad franchise.

But if a tip of the hat to the franchise’s original doesn’t make you laugh, then a typical hoot-yourself Naked Gun pun is sure to be the trick. The movie’s plot is secondary to its gags and hasn’t been revealed. But the basic setup is a familiar one: Beth asks Drebin to help her solve the murder of her brother. If he can’t, then Police Squad will be closed down. The man accused of the murder protests that he’s innocent because he was locked up for 20 years. “For what?” Drebin asks. “Man’s laughter,” he is told. “Must have been quite the joke,” Drebin deadpans in response.

On the way to finding out, expect the film’s new characters to do everything from commandeering a coffee shop’s bathroom for “police business” to spouting deadpan non-sequiturs without a single care in the world. In short, Neeson looks like he’s all in.

Mindless comedy is not for everyone, and the Naked Gun never pretended to be anything other than broad, pun-filled, joyously ridiculous humor. But it’s also exactly what fans loved about the first two films. If the trailer is any indication, The Naked Gun 2025 looks set to be a dose of nostalgia-infused hilarity we can all use by the time it arrives for the summer.