Pamela Anderson Joins Liam Neeson in The Naked Gun

One of the defining sounds of slapstick-crime-solving is coming back from a 30-year retirement. According to Deadline, the Naked Gun movie franchise—home to all of those overcooked puns, zany hijinks, and incredible reactions to low blows—is officially returning in 2025. This time, however, Leslie Nielsen won’t be leading the charge. Liam Neeson will step into his predecessor’s oversized shoes to play Frank Drebin’s son in the film, described as a “legacy sequel.” The new The Naked Gun will hit theaters on August 1, 2025.

Frank Drebin was the crime-solving detective at the center of the Naked Gun movie trilogy. In The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988), Drebin, played by Nielsen, finds himself in the precarious position of trying to stop a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II as she makes a state visit to the United States. It worked. The goofy comedy was a hit, with critics and viewers who took to its offbeat absurdity and flat delivery. Drebin got two more sequels, The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991) and Naked Gun 33½: The Final Insult (1994). In those films, Drebin investigated the kidnapping of the “premier nuclear scientist in the world” and, years later in his retirement, the assassination attempt on the Academy Awards using an electromagnetic pulse bomb. The franchise fizzled after Naked Gun 33½, but attempts to reboot it were in the works for nearly a decade.

Paramount first announced an attempted reboot with The Office alum Ed Helms in the lead in 2013. Helms was reportedly cast as “Frank Drebin, no relation.” Zucker had no interest in that film, and producers couldn’t get past that creative impasse. “It’s never going to be as good,” Zucker told Deadline in 2023. “I just won’t be involved, and Paramount knows that.” But there was a little bit of a false start in 2017, too. Zucker was involved in that go-around, and he had even helped reshoot a cut of the Drebin’s son-as-secret-agent spin. Despite his involvement, that film, too, was canned.

It wasn’t until 2021 that Seth MacFarlane became attached to direct without Zucker’s help that the franchise found new life. That’s when Liam Neeson reportedly entered the picture, having been cast as Frank Drebin Jr., Drebin Sr.’s bumbling son and a lieutenant on the police force.

Welcome to the Clunkers

Neeson’s co-star will be Paul Walter Hauser, who plays Captain Ed Hocken, Jr. The actor is probably best known for his soon-to-be-released role as the Mole Man in Fantastic Four: First Steps. Hocken was Drebin Sr.’s partner, and Neeson and Hauser’s characters are next-generation versions of the old police duo. Pamela Anderson also joins the cast, playing a femme fatale named Beth. Her brother was killed in the film’s opening scene, which helps set up the main murder-mystery plot Drebin Jr. is trying to solve to save the Police Squad from being disbanded. The full cast is rounded out by Kevin Durand, Danny Huston, Liza Koshy, Cody Rhodes, CCH Pounder, Busta Rhymes, and Eddy Yu.

The film’s first teaser trailer was released in April, but received a tepid response from fans and critics. Zucker was harsher, telling TMZ at the time he “kind of regretted” seeing the teaser and that “I can’t unsee it.” There is some good news, though. In that clip, Neeson is hard at work embracing that quirky, screwball style, offering a meta nod to his perennial “those are a special set of skills” “Taken” trope from his crime thriller series. “Once you kill a man for revenge, there’s no going back,” he bellows in one moment from the trailer, then proceeds to rip off an attacker’s arms to use as bludgeoning clubs. “A voice in your head saying over and over ‘That was awesome,’” he croons.

Those early moments might be eerie echoes of the original trilogy, but the movie looks like it won’t skimp on some earnest callbacks either. Later in the clip, Frank and Ed Jr. stand in front of plaques honoring their dads and tear up at their dads’ memories. Drebin Jr. stands in his father’s footsteps, and it seems like the film won’t shy away from pointing that out.

Despite that heavy emotion, this is still The Naked Gun. Drebin Jr. is trying to solve the murder of Beth’s brother before the department is disbanded to investigate. He stops by her penthouse, and she promises, “I think you’ll have a real feeling when you walk in.” If they don’t find the killer, the Police Squad will be shut down. One of their suspects tells Drebin Jr. that he spent 20 years in prison for “man’s laughter.” “Oh, manslaughter,” Drebin Jr. corrects. “Must have been quite the joke.”

From a bathroom takeover in the middle of a coffee shop to his trademark “just one second” that never comes, Neeson has seemingly embraced the badge. It’s all in a day’s work.

Sure, it might not be everyone’s cup of tea. It’s broad. It’s punny. It’s ludicrously silly, but it’s also a chance to revisit something you may have spent part of your childhood gawking at. The Naked Gun 2025 looks to be a promising dose of zany fun that people will either love or hate, but at the very least, it won’t be your standard crime movie.