Between Chris Farley and The Naked Gun, Paul Walter Hauser's having a big week

Paul Walter Hauser’s been hovering on the verge of a really big breakthrough for a few years now, pushed along by eye-catching performances in films like Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell, and TV shows like serial killer drama Black Bird. (And also, yes, obviously, the I Think You Should Leave sketch where he loves his wife very much.) Now, Hauster’s having something of a banner week, having secured roles in both the upcoming Chris Farley biopic and a co-starring role in that weird-ass Naked Gun reboot that Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson are making. (That’s in addition to the roles he already had on the books, including voicing Embarrassment in this summer’s Inside Out 2.)

The Farley news broke yesterday, building on reports from a few weeks back that Hauser was circling the role as the legendary Saturday Night Live comic. Produced by Farley’s old boss, Lorne Michaels, the film will be directed by Josh Gad.

Today, meanwhile, news broke that Hauser will also co-star in The Naked Gun, where he’ll be playing the police captain role played by George Kennedy in the original franchise. Which will be a little odd, in that, in the original franchise, it’s shown that Detective Frank Drebin and Captain Ed Hocken were old friends, which is a bit trickier to portray when Hauser is basically half of Liam Neeson’s age. Still, it’s not like Hauser hasn’t demonstrated his comedy chops before, and it’s easy to imagine him slipping into the deadpan rhythms of the franchise.

The Naked Gun is being directed by the genuinely funny Akiva Schaffer, which is pretty much the only reason—at least, prior to Hauser’s casting—that we weren’t looking at the whole project with an eye toward gnawing existential dread. The film is currently aiming at a potential 2025 release, by which time Paul Walter Hauser will presumably have lined up another dozen or so projects for us to tell you all about.