A fourth Naked Gun film was announced in 2009, as a direct-to-TV sequel starring Leslie Nielsen, with Alan Spencer being attached to write. It was cancelled due to Spencer's departure and Nielsen's death. After several years of development, including being redeveloped as a reboot starring Ed Helms in 2013, it was announced in January 2021 that Seth MacFarlane had been hired to develop the project, and he expressed interest in casting Neeson. Although MacFarlane was hired to direct, Schaffer replaced him after the film was greenlit in October 2022, and Neeson was cast. Anderson was cast in April 2024, and further casting took place in May. Filming began in Atlanta, Georgia, in May and wrapped in June.
The Naked Gun premiered at the SVA Theater in Manhattan on July 28, 2025, and was released in the United States by Paramount Pictures on August 1, 2025. It received positive reviews from critics and grossed $102.1 million worldwide on a $42 million budget.
Plot
Lieutenant Frank Drebin Jr. of the LAPD Police Squad singlehandedly dispatches a gang of bank robbers while disguised as a schoolgirl. Unbeknownst to him, this was a distraction to steal a gadget called the "P.L.O.T. ("Primordial Law Of Toughness") Device" from a safe deposit box. Police Chief Davis reassigns Frank when his over-the-top law enforcement becomes a legal liability. While paying tribute to his late father Frank Drebin Sr., he prays to him to send him a sign of his approval, like an owl for example.
Frank investigates software engineer Simon Davenport's fatal car crash, deeming it suicide, but notices a matchbook at the scene. Simon's sister Beth, a crime novelist, argues otherwise, but Frank discourages her from investigating further. Frank finds Richard Cane, Simon's wealthy employer at Edentech, at the company's tech expo. After they mutually appreciate the Black Eyed Peas, Cane donates a self-driving electric car to Police Squad – which wreaks havoc with Frank behind the wheel – and invites Frank to his personal nightclub. Frank notices the matchbook found at Simon's crash site has the same logo as the nightclub.
Cane privately demonstrates how he will use the stolen P.L.O.T. Device to revert humans to their primitive nature, culling the population for his fellow billionaires, who will be safely insulated in a bunker. Frank, while interrogating one of the bank robbers, learns about the deposit box, which was Simon's, connecting the two cases. At Cane's club, Beth distracts Cane with improvised scat singing while Frank fights many goons to access security footage, discovering that Simon met discreetly with a journalist. Davis suspends Frank after Cane reveals Frank's activities. Beth stays with the demoralized Frank, and he finally considers moving on from memories of his late wife. Frank and Beth spend a romantic weekend at an alpine lodge. They have a threesome with a magical snowman, but the snowman turns violent after they neglect it, forcing Beth to kill it.
Frank finds the journalist murdered and is easily tricked into incriminating himself. He flees in the electric car, but Cane overrides the controls and attempts to kill Frank just as he did to Simon. Frank blows out the windshield, but is trapped again by the car driving head-on into balloons, bees, and a replacement windshield. He accidentally activates Clippy, who helpfully unlocks the doors. Meanwhile, Police Squad has been decommissioned. Beth reveals that Simon feared the misuse of the P.L.O.T. Device, but Frank suspects that Beth is using him and angrily leaves her home.
Frank captures Cane's henchman Gustafson and frightens him into confessing to Cane's plan to activate the P.L.O.T. Device at the New Year's ball drop at a mixed martial arts match. Frank heads to the match at the "Ponzi-scheme.com Arena", equipped with an earpiece that blocks the P.L.O.T. Device's influence. Beth plans to kill Cane, but he sees this coming as telegraphed in her book. Frank finds the P.L.O.T. Device inside the New Year's balls, but he loses his pants as he accidentally activates the lowering mechanism, indecently exposing himself to the entire audience, leading them to not respect his order to evacuate. Cane prematurely activates the P.L.O.T. Device, and mindless violence erupts throughout the city. Frank fights through innocents by ricocheting ejected handgun magazines, but cannot catch up with Cane, who is escaping on his motorbike. His father's spirit arrives as an owl, airlifting Frank and blinding Cane with its excrement. Cane folds in agony after one punch to the gut. Beth arrives, ready to shoot Cane in revenge, but Frank talks her down. Frank and Beth use the P.L.O.T. Device to calm the crowd and embrace lovingly as Cane is arrested. In the aftermath, as the credits roll, Frank faces "investigation" by "Internal Affairs" – actually the name of a tropical resort, where he spends his time with Beth.
Later on, in a post-credits scene, "Weird Al" Yankovic attempts to perform a show in Cane's bunker, only to find it completely empty and gets frustrated and confused in the process.
Although 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994) was intended to be the final installment in the Naked Gun franchise, in 2009, it was revealed that a fourth film starring Leslie Nielsen was planned as a direct-to-TV sequel, titled The Naked Gun: What 4? The Rhythm of Evil. The script followed the story of Frank training a young rookie, but due to financial reasons, it was canceled in 2009. It was written by Alan Spencer, who said he signed on to write the film as a "rescue mission" to save an inferior sequel from happening, and impressed Paramount executives and online reviewers so much that it was briefly shifted to the theatrical department, while the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker team, original writers of the saga, tried to stop it from happening.
Spencer wrote a sizable role for Nielsen, who would be passing the torch to a new generation of incompetent police, but Paramount asked him to reduce the part to a cameo for budgetary reasons, and later decided to remove his character altogether. After this last request, Spencer left the project.[8][9][10] Nielsen died in November 2010.[11][12][13]
First development with Ed Helms
In December 2013, Paramount Pictures announced that a reboot of The Naked Gun franchise was in development with Ed Helms cast in the role of Frank Drebin, while the script was being co-written by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant.[14] By January 2014, Garant revealed that the working title of the project was Episode IV: A New Hope, while announcing that it was intended to be a sequel to the original films. Helms was intended to portray a character that introduces himself as "Frank Drebin, no relation" so that the movie can introduce a new protagonist without contradicting what came before.[15] In March 2015, David Zucker stated that he was offered a producing role on the project, but had declined to be involved because he felt like it would differ in comedic style and ultimately be inferior to his original films.[16][17] In August 2015, Helms confirmed that the script was still being written, while acknowledging the concerns that Zucker had with modern-day audience reception, and a need for something other than the spoof genre of the previous movies.[18]
Second development with David Zucker and Pat Proft
By March 2017, a re-write of the script was being completed by David Zucker and Pat Proft, with the plot being reworked to feature the son of Frank Drebin,[19] who would have been a secret agent rather than a policeman. The script was originally titled The Naked Gun 444 1/4: Nordberg Did It, but was later renamed Naked: Impossible, parodying the Mission: Impossible, Bourne and Daniel CraigJames Bond franchises.[20][21] Zucker felt that "they don't make cop movies anymore. When you do parody, you've got to spoof something current."[22] According to Zucker, Jon Gonda at Paramount liked the script, written by him and Pat Proft that was presented to the studio in 2018, but that somewhere along the line the studio decided not to go with it. Zucker also said that he went on a meeting with Paramount in around 2019, where a female head of production complained over a "mild" joke about a "police officer having to adjust her Kevlar vest or have a breast reduction". He explained saying that a "stupid, mild joke" was too much for them [Paramount].[23]
In January 2021, it was announced that Seth MacFarlane had been hired to further develop the project. After MacFarlane had previously expressed interest in casting Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr. in 2015, he was hired by the studio. MacFarlane and Paramount approached Neeson with a pitch to star in the movie.[24][25] In June, Neeson said MacFarlane was working on a new draft of the script, with the studio additionally negotiating his potential role as director. He expressed excitement at the opportunity to explore a more comedic role should he decide to star in the movie, while stating that development on the project was ongoing.[26] In February 2022, Neeson again confirmed that Paramount was still courting him to star in the legacy sequel.[27]
In October 2022, the film was greenlit with Neeson in the lead role as Frank Drebin Jr. and Akiva Schaffer directing. Dan Gregor and Doug Mand were hired to write a new draft of the script from a previous draft with contributions from Mark Hentemann and Alec Sulkin. In December 2024, it was determined by the Writers Guild of America that Gregor, Mand, and Schaffer would be credited on the screenplay while Hentemann, MacFarlane, and Sulkin contributed additional literary material.[28] MacFarlane and Erica Huggins served as producers, under their production company Fuzzy Door Productions, with Domain Entertainment providing additional funding.[29] Zucker was again offered a credit on the film, as an executive producer, but he declined, saying he did not wish to claim credit for a project he was not involved with.[30] Zucker said after the film's release that he had no intention of watching it (as was standard procedure for him regarding sequels to his work) but was pleased it was a success and was on good terms with the director and writing crew. He had declined to get involved in the film mainly because he believed he would have done the film differently.[30]
The Naked Gun premiered at the SVA Theater in New York on July 28, 2025, and released in the United States on August 1, 2025.[39][40] It was originally scheduled for July 18, 2025.[41]
Reception
Box office
As of October9,2025[update], The Naked Gun has grossed $52.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $49.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $102.1 million.[3][4]
In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside The Bad Guys 2, and was projected to gross around $15 million from 3,344 theaters in its opening weekend. It grossed $6.3 million on its first day, including $1.6 million from Thursday previews.[42] It went on to open to $16.8 million, finishing in third behind holdover The Fantastic Four: First Steps and The Bad Guys 2.[42][43]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 88% of 322 critics' reviews are positive.The website's consensus reads: "With Liam Neeson's gravelly gravitas proving to be a perfect fit for Frank Drebin's deadpan buffoonery, The Naked Gun revives the original trilogy's daffy sense of humor like it never went out of style."[44]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 75 out of 100, based on 48 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[45] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.[46][47]
Hanna Flint of Time Out gave the film a perfect five stars out of five rating, and wrote, "In the thick of reboot culture, The Naked Gun is a prime example of filmmakers taking a nostalgic piece of cinema and making good on its legacy. It honours the humour above all, and you'd be hard-pushed to find a funnier film this year."[48]
IndieWire's David Ehrlich awarded the film a B+ grade, and wrote, "That's a delicate tango in the context of an increasingly rare studio movie that exists for no other purpose than to make people laugh, but it's one this hilarious new take on the old ZAZ masterpiece pulls off with a rose between its teeth."[49]
In The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw gave the film four out of five stars, writing: "[Neeson] deadpans it impeccably, but perhaps doesn't quite have Nielsen's eerie innocence. In any case, it doesn't stop this reboot of the Naked Gun franchise from being a lot of fun: amiably ridiculous, refreshingly shallow, entirely pointless and guilelessly crass. It is a life-support system for some outrageous gags."[50]
Future
In August 2025, producer Erica Huggins said that the actors, writers, and producers were discussing a sequel.[51]
↑Benjamin Svetkey and Julian Sancton, Benjamin Svetkey and Julian Sancton (May 7, 2025). "Where, Oh Where, Did 'Megalopolis' Go?". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on May 8, 2025. Retrieved May 9, 2025.
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