Thirty-six years (and a handful of delays) after the original film dropped, the “Top Gun: Maverick” sequel finally landed in theaters in May 2022. Fortunately, it seems fans won’t have to wait as long for the next installment as Paramount recently announced it reached a deal for “Top Gun 3.”
It’s been reported that Tom Cruise will reprise his role as Navy fighter pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell — hopefully he will be promoted beyond captain or finally retiring.
Sequel stars Glen Powell and Miles Teller are also slated to return as Lt. Jake “Hangman” Seresin and Lt. Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, respectively. Producers Jerry Bruckheimer and David Ellison are expected to sign on as well.
The original 1986 “Top Gun” introduced viewers to Cruise’s daring, if not impulsive, “Maverick” as a student attempting to prove his mettle at the Navy’s elite fighter pilot school. In the sequel — decades later — he has to contend with his status as an aging aviator while reconciling the loss of his best friend and co-pilot “Goose” (Anthony Edwards).
“Top Gun: Maverick” was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture last year, and it took home an Oscar for Best Sound. Moreover, its nearly $1.5 billion in box office revenue shows that even after nearly four decades, fans have never lost that loving feeling for the franchise.
Paramount has not yet released information about the third movie or its story. Production and release dates are also unclear.
Sarah Sicard is a Senior Editor with Military Times. She previously served as the Digitial Editor of Military Times and the Army Times Editor. Other work can be found at National Defense Magazine, Task & Purpose, and Defense News.
