Do you feel the need? The need for sequels? After Top Gun: Maverick blasted its way to the top of the box office rankings, becoming the highest-grossing film of Tom Cruise‘s career, Paramount has reportedly set its sights on a third instalment. Entertainment website Puck is reporting that Maverick writer Ehren Kruger is “officially at work” penning a script for Top Gun 3, which will reunite Cruise with new stars Glenn Powell and Miles Teller.
According to the initial reports, producers Jerry Bruckheimer and David Ellison are returning to the fold, however. no director has been confirmed for the project. At this stage, it would appear that Maverick’s Joseph Kosinski would be the frontrunner. Considering the film managed to snag an incredible USD$1.49 billion in box office revenue worldwide, it would be wise to run it back again.
Top Gun: Maverick was released in 2022 as a belated continuation of the 1986 Tom Cruise Navy action vehicle. The film revisited Cruise’s pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, several years out of service and now working as a mentor for emerging fighter pilots, as he attempts to get his illustrious career back on track. When Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, the son of Maverick’s late partner joins the ranks, a flood of memories returns, thrusting the ageing pilot into uncharted emotional territory.
The film was a breakout success, outperforming initial box office expectations and reviving the public’s interest in the at-cinema entertainment spectacle. At the time, Academy Award-winning filmmaker and Cruise Minority Report collaborator Steve Spielberg famously quipped that Top Gun: Maverick had “saved the entire theatrical industry”.
For Cruise, who at 61 is enjoyable arguably the most lucrative patch in his four-decadeslong career, another Top Gun film makes total financial sense, and it’s certainly not out of the blue. Just last week, Warner Bros. announced that it had signed a non-exclusive deal with the screen legend to “jointly develop and produce original and franchise theatrical films”. This doesn’t relate to the Top Gun intellectual property, which is firmly in the hands of Paramount, but rather speaks to a commitment that future Cruise films are on the way.
Importantly, a Top Gun 3 release would still be some time away. Late last year, the second instalment in Cruise’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning series was delayed, pushing the release date back to summer 2025. With this new sequel still in the early development stages and no director attached to lead the project, it could well be several years before we see Maverick take to the skies once more.
