Why the ‘Naked Gun’ Reboot ‘Scares’ Glenn Howerton
The recently-released teaser trailer for Akiva Schaffer’s reboot of The Naked Gun provoked a number of responses from fans online. Some thought it looked great. Others claimed it was disastrous. And a number of people were mostly fixated on the fact that a 72-year-old Liam Neeson is playing a character who is canonically 31.
One person who seems to be a tad reticent about the new Naked Gun movie is Glenn Howerton — and not just because he’s soured on the idea of reboots altogether after not landing the lead role in the new American Psycho.
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Prior to the trailer’s release, the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star was a guest on The Movies That Made Me, a terrific podcast in which actors and filmmakers discuss the motion pictures that influenced their lives. Speaking with the podcast’s hosts, screenwriter Josh Olson and legendary filmmaker Joe Dante, Howerton admitted that while his list didn’t include the comedy classic Airplane!, it did find room for the much-maligned Airplane II: The Sequel.
That’s because Howerton saw the movie when he was a young kid, before he was aware of the first Airplane! or any other spoof movie in the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker style. “To me it was this absurdist masterpiece,” Howerton explained. He also extolled the virtues of ZAZ’s Top Secret! because “it’s just an excuse to string a bunch of jokes together, and I’m fine with that.”
According to Howerton, these movies “showed me that giving a sort of a dramatic performance of absurd material is actually far funnier than giving an absurd performance of absurd material.” For example, Leslie Nielsen’s famous “Don’t call me Shirley” line was delivered with “the same gravitas that he would give a great dramatic performance.”
Which is a comedy lesson that Howerton clearly took to heart:
Howerton also expressed his admiration for The Naked Gun and quizzed Dante about his time directing its TV antecedent Police Squad! “I’ll tell you what scares me guys,” Howerton added. “I love Liam Neeson, but apparently they have either remade or are remaking The Naked Gun with Liam Neeson playing Frank Drebin and I don’t know if it’s going to work.”
“It’s a bad idea,” Dante bluntly responded.
“I kind of think so too,” Howerton agreed, although he did concede that a comedy starring Neeson could be fun, if it wasn’t connected to the Naked Gun franchise. “If I heard that Liam Neeson was doing a riotous comedy that wasn’t already made — brilliantly done already by an iconic actor giving an iconic performance — I’d be maybe less concerned.”
It’s a completely understandable reaction. But for all we know, 2025’s The Naked Gun could reach some kid the same way Airplane II inspired Howerton, despite also being wildly unnecessary.
