Drebin’s Son Carries on the Badge in Comedy Reboot

Leslie Nielsen’s crotchety, crime-solving comic legacy is finally coming back, 33 years after The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! First hit theaters. A new Naked Gun film is slated for release on August 1, 2025, with Liam Neeson in the lead role (per The Hollywood Reporter).

It’s not a remake or reboot with Nielsen playing the bumbling Detective Frank Drebin. Instead, the upcoming sequel is reportedly a “legacy” spinoff, with Neeson playing Drebin’s son in the modern day. The film’s working title is The Naked Gun 2025.

Fun fact: today’s Drebin will be brought to life by The Marksman star Liam Neeson. I wonder if he’ll be killed in a doorway at some point?  

The first Naked Gun film debuted in 1988, which was quickly followed by two sequels. Nielsen’s titular detective tries (and mostly fails) to save Queen Elizabeth II from a planned assassination in the original film, and from there he’s embroiled in more over-the-top schemes. The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear sees Drebin investigating a plot to kidnap “the most valuable nuclear scientist in the world,” while Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult has him reluctantly return from retirement to save the Oscars from a bomb plot.

That was it for Drebin, however, with the comedy franchise struggling to maintain its momentum after the third film. In 2013, Paramount announced a new Naked Gun reboot, with The Office alum Ed Helms cast as a character described as “Frank Drebin, no relation.” But after that project failed to get off the ground (thanks in part to David Zucker’s unwillingness to return as the original films’ producer and director), the rights to Naked Gun briefly reverted to Universal Pictures. That turned out to be good news for fans of the original films, since Zucker penned a script that he and his brother Jerry reworked in 2017; however, this Drebin sequel—which reportedly cast Drebin’s son as a secret agent—also fell through.

The film’s reboot gained new traction in 2021, when Seth MacFarlane took the helm as director and producer (sans the Zucker brothers). And that’s when Liam Neeson came into the picture, with the actor cast as Drebin’s son in the role of Lt. Frank Drebin Jr.

Neeson isn’t alone in the family-friendly farce, with Paul Walter Hauser set to star as Captain Ed Hocken, Jr., Drebin Sr.’s partner’s son. The latter is perhaps best known for his role in Fantastic Four: First Steps, where he plays Mole Man. Pamela Anderson is also attached, as the film’s femme fatale, Beth, whose brother has been murdered and whose death kicks off the main mystery. Other cast members include Kevin Durand, Danny Huston, Liza Koshy, Cody Rhodes, CCH Pounder, Busta Rhymes, and Eddy Yu.

A teaser trailer for the film was released in April, and it was met with a fairly lukewarm response from fans. David Zucker—who, despite having limited involvement with the film, was quick to put down the new installment—expressed his regret at watching the teaser to TMZ. “I just saw the trailer for the new Naked Gun,” Zucker said. “I can’t unsee it.” On a brighter note for fans of the film, the trailer shows Neeson playing with and poking fun at his well-known serious, no-nonsense character from the Taken franchise. In one particularly cringe-inducing moment, he coldly tells an attacker: “Once you kill a man for revenge, there’s no going back.” He then proceeds to tear off the man’s arms and beat him with them. “A voice in your head saying over and over ‘That was awesome,’” Neeson adds later, deadpan.

Elsewhere in the trailer, the new Drebin and his partner pay their respects to their fathers in a hall of fame with plaques dedicated to the achievements of their fathers’ Police Squad. There’s a poignant moment in which the two weep in front of these artifacts of the old Squad.

Fans will remember that Beth (Anderson) is enlisting Drebin’s help to solve the murder of her brother. If Drebin and Hocken Jr. can’t crack the case, the Police Squad will be disbanded. To help nudge the detectives along, she’s revealed to have a mysterious tattoo of a mustache with a moustache on it (say that five times fast). Otherwise, the film’s plot is likely to be secondary to the jokes, like the suspect who spent 20 years in prison for “manslaughter”—but that’s The Naked Gun’s style. When someone corrects him that it’s “man’s laughter,” Drebin can’t help but add: “Must have been quite the joke.”

Pulling the tampon out of the name tag, assuming it’s “police business,” and then commandeering the entire bathroom at a Starbucks because of it? Saying someone is a “piece of work” when you’ve just hanged someone from a cop car door? Flailing around on screen with an expressive, emotive face that signals complete seriousness even as you do anything? Neeson seems ready and willing to hang up his badge.

There’s no word yet on the exact release date of the film, although the official release window is slated for August 1, 2025. Given the sheer volume of jokes the trailer manages to pack into its two-minute run time, there’s at least a fighting chance this retooling of the classic Police Squad does justice to Nielsen’s legacy. If nothing else, at least Drebin Sr. will be along for the ride.