Liam Neeson Says Retirement from Action Movies May Happen in 2025

Liam Neeson‘s beloved run as an action movie star may be coming to an end next year. The Oscar nominee spoke to People magazine and teased his retirement from the genre that reignited the back half of his acting career. Neeson’s role in 2008’s “Taken” transformed him into an action icon, and he’s never stopped kicking butt on screen in the 16 years since. Even well into his 70s, Neeson continues to perform his own fight scenes with some help from longtime stunt collaborator Mark Vanselow.

“I’m 72 — it has to stop at some stage,” Neeson told the publication. “You can’t fool audiences. I don’t want Mark to be fighting my fight scenes for me.” 

While Neeson has not yet set a specific date for his last action movie role, he did say that it will likely be in 2025, adding: “Maybe the end of next year. I think that’s it.”

Since his action movie breakthrough with “Taken” in 2008, Neeson has gone on to headline dozens of action movies. He was front and center for two “Taken” sequels and also fought like hell in action films such as “Unknown” (2011), “The Grey” (2012), “Non-Stop” (2014), “Run All Night” (2015), “The Commuter” (2018), “The Ice Road” (2021) and more. Neeson’s latest action project, “Absolution,” arrives in November and reunites him with his “Cold Pursuit” director Hans Petter Moland.

“When he’s immersed in the character he is, you see the hurt, you see the pain,” Moland told People about what makes Neeson such an enduring action hero. “He becomes that man.”

While Neeson is eyeing a retirement from action movies sometime in 2025, he’s continuing to film them for the time being. He was cast earlier this year opposite Zachary Levi in the “Hotel Tehran,” a new action-thriller from Guy Moshe. The project filmed in late summer.