Frank Drebin Jr. Is on the Case in the Naked Gun Reboot

Thirty years after Leslie Nielsen’s last onscreen attempt to stop a death ray targeting the United Nations, we are finally getting another Naked Gun movie. The franchise’s next installment is set to hit theaters August 1, 2025. This time, it won’t be Nielsen behind the badge. Instead, Liam Neeson is donning the yellow rain slicker in a “legacy sequel” playing Frank Drebin’s son.

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, the original entry in the spoof comedy franchise, hit theaters in 1988. Directed by David Zucker, the film starred Nielsen as Detective Frank Drebin, who tries to stop a death ray assassination plot against Queen Elizabeth II in the U.S. during her state visit. Drebin’s deadpan and outlandish quips earned the film an immediate spot in the pantheon of crime comedies. Two sequels followed. The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear in 1991, which featured Drebin foiling a scheme to kidnap a top nuclear scientist. The franchise’s third installment, Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult, was released in 1994, in which the detective emerges from retirement to stop a plot to bomb the Academy Awards.

But, as is often the case, after a third entry, the jokes dried up. In 2013, a reboot was first announced by Paramount, which cast The Office star Ed Helms to play “Frank Drebin, no relation.” That did not quite pan out, in part because David Zucker, the producer and director of the first two Naked Gun films, was not on board. He insisted any version of a reboot would be “inferior” to the originals. He even briefly returned to the franchise in 2017 to rework a Drebin’s son-is-a-secret-agent version, but that did not pan out either.

The film was revisited once more in 2021, and this time with Seth MacFarlane at the helm. Zucker, however, did not return, leaving the door open for Neeson to be cast in the role as Frank Drebin Jr., the detective’s son and now a police lieutenant. Also joining the film is Paul Walter Hauser as Captain Ed Hocken, Jr., the son of Drebin Sr.’s longtime partner, a role he once played in the original trilogy. Hocken Jr. will, of course, have a top-notch mustache to rival his dad’s in the original films. Fans will also see Pamela Anderson returning to film as Beth, a femme fatale with a very suspicious brother who is murdered, starting a chain of events in the film’s mystery. The cast also includes Kevin Durand, Danny Huston, Liza Koshy, Cody Rhodes, CCH Pounder, Busta Rhymes, and Eddy Yu.

The film’s first teaser trailer debuted in April. It was not the warmest of welcomes from longtime fans. David Zucker told TMZ that he “regrets watching” the teaser, which he went on to call a “nuclear ray” that he “can’t unsee.” But there is some good news. Neeson appears to be fully committed to the franchise’s screwball style, taking obvious and repeated jabs at his trademark, icy stare from his Taken role. In one part of the trailer, he dramatically recites the lines “Once you kill a man for revenge, there’s no going back” before grabbing the arms of his attacker and using them as a club. “A voice in your head saying over and over ‘That was awesome,’” he finishes.

The film also does not shy away from more emotional moments that directly reference the franchise. In one moment in the trailer, Frank and Ed Jr. cry in front of memorial plaques for their late fathers. The first includes their “highest commendation … for always trying,” a perfect callback to Police Squad.

Humor aside, the story, in the few details we’ve seen, is as silly as the Naked Gun can get. Beth approaches Drebin Jr. to help him solve the murder of her brother, the police force. If Drebin Jr. is unsuccessful, the Police Squad will be closed. A suspect, Drebin Jr., interrogated, is released because of an unusual crime. “I spent 20 years in prison for that one,” he says. “Man’s laughter?” Drebin quips back. “Must have been quite the joke,” the junior detective adds back.

As always, if a suspect doesn’t have an alibi for the time of the crime, they have a long list of fake offenses. In one case, a suspect says they served time for illegal hologram use. The other, “violence through infernal noise makers,” and the third, 20 years for “man’s laughter.”

There’s more one-liner gold to be found in the trailer, too. As Drebin Jr. is banging on the door to the bathroom of a coffee shop, he says, “I’m inside.” As the owner asks what he’s doing, Drebin tells him he’s “doing police business,” referring to the interrogation. After a frustrating chase, Neeson starts to bring down an attacker with a single punch, looking a bit too confident in his abilities. When the henchman asks what’s wrong, Drebin barks back, “You better start running,” proving that his father’s skills may have been passed on after all.

The humor is loud and, of course, a bit broad, but it is also cheeky in true Naked Gun fashion. If the teaser is anything to go by, The Naked Gun 2025 is setting up to be the nostalgic, campy slice of fun we all need just in time for summer.