When The Naked Gun arrived in August 2025 , the idea of Liam Neeson fronting a broad slapstick parody sounded risky, yet it quickly became one of the year’s surprise comedy bright spots.
Directed by Akiva Schaffer and produced by Seth MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door, the legacy sequel cast Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr., earning strong reviews and just over 102 million dollars worldwide on a relatively modest 42 million dollar budget.
On paper, those numbers and their awards run made a follow-up feel almost inevitable. The film holds an 87 percent critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, a generally favorable Metacritic rating in the mid-70s, and wins such as Best Comedy at the Critics’ Choice Awards and Best Comedy Film from the St. Louis Film Critics Association.
The key detail sits outside the frame of Neeson’s performance or the film’s reception. Schaffer explained that roughly a week after the movie opened, Paramount’s ownership effectively changed through its merger with Skydance, leaving everyone waiting to see whether the new regime actually wanted another installment.
Producer Erica Huggins has acknowledged that she and the writers already kicked around a big concept for a second film, while Schaffer says he and co-writers Dan Gregor and Doug Mand even kept a list of potential gags, but none of that matters without a studio mandate.
Merger Math: Why A Solid Hit Still Wasn’t Enough
From a distance, shelving a sequel to a Certified Fresh comedy that more than doubled its budget looks strange, yet the merger context changes the calculus.
The 102.1 million dollar gross for The Naked Gun is respectable, but it sits in a mid-tier zone where executives typically weigh long-term franchise potential against fresh priorities set by new ownership.
The Paramount-Skydance deal folded the studio into a new corporate structure intent on rationalizing overlapping projects, trimming risk, and consolidating brands that fit a coherent slate.
In that environment, a spoof-driven comedy anchored to a single star in his seventies does not automatically rise to the top, even with a familiar logo and strong critical buzz.
By comparison, modern studio strategy tends to favor IP that can support streaming spin-offs, cross-platform tie-ins, and multiple tonal lanes, something the tightly defined Naked Gun style may struggle to provide.
The Naked Gun (Credit: Domain Entertainment)
There is also the shadow of internal creative politics around this property. Original trilogy director David Zucker has publicly said he declined executive producer credit on the reboot and later criticized various attempts to revive the franchise over the years, including earlier Ed Helms and script iterations that failed to move forward at Paramount.
While Zucker ultimately expressed satisfaction that Schaffer’s film succeeded, his long history with the brand and his clear preference for his own comedic approach have kept the conversation around any continuation unusually sensitive.
That kind of corporate pause can easily become a quiet end, especially for mid-budget comedies that do not dominate box office charts.
Fan Hopes, Franchise History, And The Long Game
For fans, the frustration comes from how effectively Neeson seemed to break his own “serious action dad” mold.
Long praised for his deadpan turn in a 2011 bit on the BBC mockumentary Life’s Too Short, he finally got a full film built around that comic persona, and critics singled out how his grave seriousness amplified the absurdity of Schaffer’s set pieces.
The reboot managed to honor Leslie Nielsen’s original performance while reframing the series through Frank Drebin’s son, a choice that critics saw as a smart way to refresh the concept without discarding its slapstick DNA.
The movie’s success also arrived at a moment when theatrical studio comedies were seen as struggling, which is partly why outlets like Time Out and The Guardian highlighted it as a standout example of how broad parody can still connect.
That context made early reports of sequel discussions from producer Erica Huggins, noted in coverage of the film’s development and awards run, feel encouraging at the time. The subsequent studio silence, followed by Schaffer’s “not planning another” clarification, therefore lands as a whiplash shift rather than a slow fade out.
However, the Naked Gun brand has a history of disappearing and then resurfacing in new forms. The original trilogy wrapped in 1994; a planned Leslie Nielsen-led fourth film stalled and was canceled in 2009; and later attempts with Ed Helms and different creative teams cycled through before this Neeson version finally reached screens three decades after the last theatrical entry.
If those metrics line up with strong viewer engagement and help the movie keep winning comedy awards, Paramount Skydance could eventually see value in returning to the well, particularly if Neeson remains open to more comedic work as he steps back from action-heavy roles, something he has hinted at in interviews with outlets like Variety.
For now, though, Schaffer’s message is clear: the people who made The Naked Gun have ideas, enthusiasm, and even a rough playbook for a second film, but ownership changes and corporate strategy have frozen the sequel in place.
Fans hoping to see Frank Drebin Jr. back on another disastrously handled case will have to treat this first outing as a self-contained victory and watch whether streaming performance, awards momentum, and evolving studio priorities ever thaw the project out of development limbo.
Marvel kicked off the Avengers: Doomsday marketing push with four distinct looks rolled out alongside screenings of Avatar: Fire and Ash.
The first spot brought back Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, showing him stowing his Captain America suit while revealing a son, a nod to post-Endgame life. Next came Chris Hemsworth’s Thor in a moment of prayer, hinting at personal stakes amid cosmic threats.
The third teaser surprised with Fox-era X-Men characters, tying into the multiverse expansion, and the fourth spotlighted Wakandans alongside the Fantastic Four, including glimpses of superhero suits in a dry Talokan.
Each ended with a green Doomsday clock bearing the Avengers symbol and runes, building a countdown vibe that had fans buzzing online.
Then the Russo Brothers upended expectations via Instagram. They declared the releases over the prior four weeks were neither teasers nor trailers but stories and clues, capping it with a simple “pay attention.”
This move echoes their past Infinity War tactics, where trailers faked Hulk’s involvement or altered shots to protect twists, much like No Way Home hid multiverse Spider-Men.
Clock Codes Crack Open Endgame Echoes
Fans quickly zeroed in on the Doomsday clocks as the puzzle pieces the Russos wanted were spotted. One popular theory points to time codes embedded in the runes, each linking to specific Avengers: Endgame moments around the xx:xx:20 timestamps.
Steve Rogers’ clock at 1:24:20 jumps to the Ancient One warning Bruce Banner about branched timelines causing mass suffering.
Thor’s 1:17:20 lands on Loki, disguised as Captain America, coordinating a search, potentially teasing multiverse deception or Steve’s return to action.
Avengers: Doomsday (Credit: Disney+)
The X-Men teaser at 1:11:20 shows Rocket asking if Thor is crying, which could foreshadow emotional losses or tie to Thor’s Deadpool & Wolverine tears. Finally, the Wakanda Fantastic Four clock at 1:04:20 features Rocket offering Ant-Man a space trip, hinting at interstellar team-ups or Rocket’s role in the chaos.
These Endgame nods make sense given Doomsday’s positioning as a direct follow-up, where time heist fallout triggers incursions and multiversal collapse. The repeated 20-second mark feels deliberate, as if Russo layered the clues to reward sharp-eyed viewers without overcomplicating the hunt.
IGN notes the clocks’ runes fuel speculation on whether the footage even comes from the final cut or exists purely as narrative breadcrumbs.
Screen Rant highlights how elements like a waterless Talokan suggest incursions are already ravaging worlds, aligning with Steve’s aged appearance and family reveal, possibly set in a timeline twist.
This approach turns passive viewing into active sleuthing, boosting engagement as Doomsday builds toward its December 18, 2026, release.
Multiverse Mayhem: What Clues Say About Doom’s Plan
Theories now swirl around how these stories feed into Doctor Doom’s scheme, with Robert Downey Jr. playing the multiverse variant. One reads the clocks’ warning that Endgame’s time meddling birthed the fractured reality Doom aims to fix or dominate.
Steve’s warning fulfillment points to billions dying in colliding universes, while Thor’s Loki moment suggests shape-shifting trickery central to the villain’s strategy.
Rocket’s lines imply Guardians involvement in the Earth-side defense, perhaps racing against Doom’s Sentinel attacks on X-Men as speculated in fan breakdowns.
Gizmodo calls the Instagram caption cryptic fuel for debates on whether clips show real scenes or fabricated setups, mirroring past MCU misdirects. The Comic Book Movie ties it to multiverse incursions directly stemming from the heist, positioning Doomsday as the bill coming due.
From a business angle, this layered rollout keeps Doomsday atop conversation trackers months out, especially with Fantastic Four and X-Men integrations pulling in lapsed viewers.
Past Russo projects like Endgame grossed over 2.7 billion dollars, partly on sustained hype from similar puzzles, and early buzz positions this as a sequel capitalizing on that playbook.
Yet risks linger if clues mislead too far; fans recall Infinity War’s Hulk fake-out, frustrating some. Still, the strategy fits Marvel’s post-Endgame phase two pivot to interconnected spectacles, where trailers double as mini episodes priming the saga.
Reddit threads dissect runes frame by frame, with users like u/Fear_Itself arguing the codes scream multiverse fracture as Doom’s entry point.
As more promo drops, these stories could evolve, perhaps revealing how Wakanda’s suits and Namor’s desperation signal Doom’s early strikes. The Russos’ nudge ensures every clock tick feeds the frenzy, setting up a film where past mistakes ignite the biggest team-up yet.
