The Naked Gun reboot has had its release date delayed. The original Naked Gun was a 1988 police procedural parody movie starring Leslie Nielsen as Detective Sergeant Frank Drebin that spawned two sequels in 1991 and 1994. The upcoming Naked Gun reboot, which was directed by Akiva Schaffer and produced by Seth MacFarlane, will star Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr. alongside an ensemble cast that includes Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, Kevin Durand, Danny Huston, Liza Koshy, Cody Rhodes, CCH Pounder, and Busta Rhymes.
Paramount Pictures has announced that the Naked Gun reboot, which is still untitled, has been delayed from its original release date of July 18, 2025. It has been delayed by just two weeks and is now set to premiere on August 1, 2025. The movie, which has already wrapped filming as of June 28, may have been moved to August to make up for the absence of the Dakota Fanning horror movie Vicious, from The Strangers director Bryan Bertino, which was moved from August 8 to February 28 as part of the same release schedule shift.
What The Release Date Delay Means For The Naked Gun
The Movie Has Potentially Been Aided By This Slight Delay
The reboot of the iconic comedy movie is no stranger to delays, as The Naked Gun was trapped in development hell for nearly a decade after being originally announced in 2013. However, it does not seem that this release date delay is related to any of the factors that led to it struggling to get made. Because it is only being delayed by two weeks, this seems to indicate that it is being moved as part of the normal day-to-day rescheduling that naturally occurs with releases that are nearly a year out, rather than any post-production delays or quality concerns.
The following weekend is so far clear of major tentpoles…
The new release date for The Naked Gun also offers it less theatrical competition. On its original premiere date, it would have been sandwiched between the release of DC’s Superman the weekend before and Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps the weekend after. On its new date, it will still have to contend with the second weekend of Fantastic Four and the debut of the DreamWorks sequel The Bad Guys 2, but the following weekend is so far clear of major tentpoles, which could potentially allow the movie to have more time to bring in audiences without combatting summer blockbusters.
Our Take On The Naked Gun Delay
August Could Be The Perfect Time For The Comedy
While August movie releases can sometimes be subject to late summer box office doldrums, this new date could potentially be a major boon for the comedy reboot. The lack of new major tentpoles during the end of the summer blockbuster season usually allows for the success of more offbeat or unusual titles in August, such as Bullet Train and The Invitation in 2022 and Good Boys in 2019. The return of the kooky The Naked Gun characters and world might be tailor-made for this particular period.
Source: Paramount Pictures