Liam Neeson is doubtful as to whether his hit comedy The Naked Gun will receive a sequel, despite its positive reception from both audiences and critics.
The 73-year-old’s new film, which is a reboot of the spoof comedy franchise starring Leslie Nielsen, has already earned more than $42m (£31m) in its first two weeks at the global box office.
The film, which also stars Pamela Anderson, achieved a 91 per cent score on Rotten Tomatoes, the highest ever for the Naked Gun series.
Neeson, though, isn’t convinced that fans will see him reprise his role as Frank Drebin Jr, the son of the main character from the first three films and Police Squad TV show, played by Nielsen.
Speaking to Newsweek, he said: “I think it's a one-off, yeah. And if it succeeds, good.”
He added: “I think the film's going to have a few giggles and a few laughs in it, and God, we all need that at the minute. I think it's probably a one-off. Not that the experience wasn't great, it was. It's terrific, working with Pamela, Danny Huston, all these terrific guys."
Kevin Durand and Paul Walter Hauser also star in the film, which features cameos from former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping and WWE wrestler Cody Rhodes.
The Lonely Island alum Akiva Schaffer has directed the film, with Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane serving as producer. The script is by Dan Gregor, Doug Man and Schaffer, who collaborated on 2022’s popular Emmy-winning Chip ‘N Dale: Rescue Rangers.
In a four-star review, The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey writes: “The question of how Neeson compares to Nielsen matters less than how perfectly he fits into a 2025 Naked Gun, which subtly shifts the punchline away from the self-seriousness of cop shows and towards the self-seriousness of cops themselves, in a world increasingly suspicious of their intent and authority.
“This Frank Drebin insists that the past was better, when ‘the only things that were electric were eels, chairs, and Catherine Zeta-Jones in Chicago’.”
The first Naked Gun film, released in 1988, was written and directed by Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams and David Zucker, and was based on their television series Police Squad!.
The show parodied the genre of police procedurals that were popular at the time, with the original trilogy making over $216m at the box office.
