Seth MacFarlane Reboots The Naked Gun Without Zucker

The shrieks of violence. The farting and pulling down of underwear. And, of course, the very particular set of comedic skills that have made The Naked Gun one of the most beloved spoof comedies of all time. It’s all coming back, 33 years after the release of the third and final Naked Gun film.

Paramount Pictures announced on Thursday that Naked Gun 2025 will be released on August 1 of that year and will star Liam Neeson in the role of Frank Drebin’s son. It will serve as a “legacy sequel” to the three-film series that started with the 1988 film The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, in which Leslie Nielsen played a dim-witted, well-meaning detective.

The Naked Gun films are known for their flubbed lines, nonsensical characters, and broad physical comedy. Drebin, as played by Nielsen, is dedicated to preventing crimes against the state and goes about solving them in a bizarre, over-the-top fashion. In the original film, Drebin is set the task of foiling an assassination attempt against Queen Elizabeth II, who is visiting the United States. The audience is also introduced to Drebin’s primary antagonist, Inspector Stavro Edwards, a Russian spy who is planning to assassinate the Queen, and Drebin’s boss, Captain Ed Hocken, a bumbling police chief.

The film’s gonzo, meta takes on buddy-cop films, particularly old-school detective shows, had audiences rolling in the aisles, so much so that Paramount greenlit two sequels. The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear, released in 1991, involves Drebin and Hocken uncovering a conspiracy to kidnap the world’s leading nuclear scientist. Drebin, Hocken, and Police Squad’s Junior Sergeant Al Gamble (played by Ed O’Neill) take on a terrorist plot to blow up the Academy Awards in the third film, Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult, released in 1994.

The third film didn’t quite click with audiences as much as its predecessors, and a reboot seemed like a no-brainer. One was in the works as far back as 2013, when Paramount announced it was developing one with Office star Ed Helms in the title role as “Frank Drebin, no relation.” However, after years of dormant development, the 2013 project fizzled out, partly due to the unwillingness of David Zucker to participate. Zucker, who produced the first two Naked Gun films and directed the original The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, had this to say of rebooting the franchise: “I don’t think we should, because it’s inferior to the original product.” Zucker worked on a version of the reboot for a time in 2017 but stepped away after Drebin’s son was written into the story as a secret agent. Neeson was added to the project after Seth MacFarlane signed on to direct and produce in 2021, with Zucker not being a part of the creative team at all.

Who’s Laughing With Him?

The first role that Paul Walter Hauser will play after this reboot is due for release is that of Mole Man in Fantastic Four: First Steps, but before he dons that leather trenchcoat, he’ll be playing Captain Ed Hocken, Jr., the son of Drebin’s longtime Police Squad partner, in Naked Gun 2025.

He won’t be alone in carrying Drebin’s and Hocken’s legacy: Pamela Anderson has also joined the cast as a femme fatale named Beth. Beth’s brother has been murdered, and Drebin Jr. is the only person who can help her solve the crime. If he fails, the Police Squad will be disbanded. One suspect, who has been arrested by Drebin Jr., says to his sidekick that he was “locked up for 20 years for man’s laughter.” Drebin quickly corrects him, telling him it was “manslaughter,” and adds, “Must have been quite the joke.”

Kevin Durand, Danny Huston, Liza Koshy, Cody Rhodes, CCH Pounder, Busta Rhymes, and Eddy Yu round out the supporting cast.

The Teaser Trailer Was Released in April

The first teaser trailer for Naked Gun 2025 was released in April, and while it was met with some confusion and mixed reactions, it shows that Neeson is putting a new spin on his “particular set of skills.”

As David Zucker said to TMZ in an interview about the teaser, “I can’t unsee it. I can’t unsee it. It was not necessary, and I’m sorry we did it.” However, that won’t stop this installment from being able to deliver some chuckles to the franchise, if the teaser is any indication.

Neeson’s Drebin is carrying on the absurd one-liner comedy the original Naked Gun is known for, while also parodying his Taken persona as he subverts his typical “hero with a particular set of skills” image. A key scene in the trailer sees Neeson refer to that “Taken” trope, acting in classic revenge flick style as he says, “Once you kill a man for revenge, there’s no going back.” He then proceeds to remove the arms from a man who was trying to stab him and use them as weapons, prompting Drebin to utter, “A voice in your head saying over and over ‘That was awesome.’”

In the film, Frank Drebin Jr. and Ed Hocken Jr. are lauded at their fathers’ plaques at the police department, to which they both get very visibly emotional. Frank then almost has an emotional breakdown and rips out some hedges nearby while Ed quips, “Daddy issues,” to which Frank yells, “Quiet, clown!”

In one scene, Frank is questioned by a detective as he exits a coffee shop bathroom. The cop asks if “the white part” had been flushed, and Drebin, ever the righteous defender of the badge and city, responds that he “did not clean the toilet for police business, I am using it for police business.” Before the cop can argue any further, Frank breaks a hole in the cop car window and jumps in, much to the officer’s surprise.

Is the Naked Gun a Stupid Movie?

Audiences don’t expect all the jokes in a Naked Gun film to land perfectly, but the beats just don’t quite match up to the originals. They are broader, more pun-heavy, and intentionally “stupid,” so Neeson’s early introduction to the series may turn off fans. However, those very same qualities are also what made people flock to these films in the ’80s and ’90s.

A full trailer and more details about The Naked Gun 2025 are likely to be on the way, but the few scenes we got from the teaser were a nice throwback to what made the films such a summer staple in the first place.