You don’t generate $1.5 billion in global box office receipts, “save” the business of traditional cinema, and set a new standard for practical effects like Joseph Kosinski’s Top Gun: Maverick has without sparking franchise conversations. Hence why Top Gun 3 is now in development over at Paramount, according to Deadline:
“Top Gun: Maverick co-writer Ehren Kruger [is] currently writing a draft… The word is that the project would reunite Tom Cruise with Maverick‘s Miles Teller and Glen Powell as well as producers Jerry Bruckheimer and David Ellison. Joe Kosinski will reportedly either direct or produce.”
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The report came shortly after the news that Tom Cruise — who reprised his iconic role as Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell — had inked a non-exclusive pact with Warner Bros; which may or may not impact the “last real movie star’s” ongoing shooting schedule.
For context, Mr Cruise has already committed to both Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning (Part 2) and the long-rumoured space movie collab with Doug Liman and NASA to be shot on location (yes, really). Then there’s the matter of a potential Tropic Thunder spin-off with Christopher McQuarrie.
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“We definitely wanted to do another after the first one became such a success,” Jerry Bruckheimer assured BH around the time of Maverick’s release.
Elsewhere, the legendary producer noted: “But you never know when it’s going to get made because Tom is so busy. He’s doing Mission: Impossible right now, he’s got a picture after it. Hopefully, we’ll get a screenplay that he loves, and we’ll be back in the air again.”
Here’s everything we know about Top Gun 3 so far.
Jump To:
- Has Top Gun 3 been confirmed?
- What could the third Top Gun movie be about?
- Do we know the Top Gun 3 cast members?
- When is the Top Gun 3 release date? No… but there is a “date”
- Is there a Top Gun 3 trailer?
Has Top Gun 3 been confirmed?
As of January 2024, Top Gun 3 has been greenlit for development by Paramount Pictures with Top Gun: Maverick co-writer Ehren Kruger currently penning a draft of the proposed screenplay.
Not entirely surprising considering Top Gun: Maverick wasn’t just the world’s highest-grossing summer blockbuster of 2022 — it was the world’s highest-grossing film of 2022 period (overtaking Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness). And Paramount’s second-best-performing film of all time behind James Cameron’s Titanic.
In other words, a trilogy was almost inevitable.
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What could the third Top Gun movie be about?
Aside from making the fighter pilot grind resemble every hot-blooded bloke’s dream as per the franchise signature, a third movie could take any number of directions.
The most obvious route has been established in Top Gun: Maverick with Miles Teller’s Rooster (Lieutenant Bradley Mitchell). Now that he’s a more complete fighter pilot who’s overcome all the emotional baggage he carried regarding:
- The death of his father LTJG Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards)
- Cruise’s Maverick and his supposed blame in said death
- Cruise’s Maverick pulling his application from the US Navy, thereby setting his career back several years…
…the torch is ready to be passed on, allowing old Captain Pete Mitchell to retire and start a family with Jennifer Connelly’s Penny Benjamin.
But knowing Tom Cruise, the action flick fixture — who’s still dangling off airborne planes despite being in his 60s — won’t sign on for another Top Gun unless he receives a minimum hour of screentime involving an F/A-18 Hornet’s cockpit. The man just refuses to be benched.
In light of the fact Mr Cruise has been quite buddy-buddy with Hollywood’s latest poster boy and Twisters leading man Glen Powell — to the point where the former enrolled the latter into his own “film school” — there’s every chance Top Gun 3 could be far more Hangman-centric.
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Do we know the Top Gun 3 cast members?
Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, and Glen Powell are essentially the only cast members attached to the project at this stage; reprising their respective roles as Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, as Lieutenant Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, and Lieutenant Jake “Hangman” Seresin.
While everyone from Jennifer Connelly to Monica Barbaro has expressed interest in returning — and we imagine the likes of Jon Hamm, Lewis Pullman, as well as Charles Parnell would also be eager for the gig — not further casting details surrounding Top Gun 3 has been confirmed just yet.
“I’ve been having some conversations with him [Tom Cruise] about it. We’ll see. That would be great, but that’s all up to TC. It’s all up to Tom,” Miles Teller has previously stated.
“For him to share Top Gun with me and a lot of these other young actors, it’s just been such a wild ride, and it’s still going.”
In the same vein, currently, there’s no guarantee director Joseph Kosinski will return to personally helm the film at this stage. Especially given his equally ambitious upcoming projects like Apple’s F1 movie starring Brad Pitt and Damson Idris with real-life seven-time world champion Sir Lewis Hamilton involved (and beyond).
When is the Top Gun 3 release date? No… but there is a “date”
While Top Gun 3 doesn’t have a release date, it does have a start date for production, according to Glen Powell.
During his recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast alongside Twisters co-star Daisy Edgar-Jones, the duo were asked whether it was more likely we’ll see a Normal People continuation or a third Top Gun film — to which the man of the moment replied:
“I mean, I have a date.”
(via Indiewire)
When probed for further details, Powell stopped things short with, “Absolutely not.”
Assuming Top Gun 3 will be tackled immediately after Mission: Impossible 8 — which only resumed resumed production in March 2024 after the Hollywood strikes and is scheduled to premiere on May 23rd, 2025 — and the usual global press tour, the earliest cameras could begin rolling in the skies is early-to-mid 2025.
Meaning the earliest Top Gun 3 could hit theatres would be around early-to-mid 2027… At which point Tom Cruise will be pushing 65. And again: this is all under extremely optimistic circumstances.
Is there a Top Gun 3 trailer?
There definitely isn’t a Top Gun 3 trailer. Revisit both Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick via Netflix in the meantime.
Check out our one-on-one interviews with Miles Teller, Jon Hamm, and Mr Bruckheimer plus our review of Top Gun: Maverick.
