Get ready to jump back into the Danger Zone. Here’s what we know about Top Gun 3.
Top Gun 3, starring Tom Cruise, will soon take off on the big screen in the near future. The third instalment in the Top Gun franchise will reportedly fly around the characters seen in Top Gun: Maverick, the blockbuster that shattered records in 2022.
American new media company Puck was the first to report on the development, revealing that Top Gun: Maverick co-writer Ehren Kruger is writing the script for the third film.
Cruise, who is 61 years old, continues to be one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood, turning big-budget, action-packed movies into some of the highest-grossers at the worldwide box office.
Top Gun is a franchise of Paramount Pictures, with whom Cruise has been collaborating since 2011’s Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.
The news about Top Gun 3 comes just days after Cruise signed a non-exclusive deal with Warner Bros. Discovery to star and produce movies for the studio.
Everything to know about Top Gun 3:
Who will be part of the cast of Top Gun 3?
Reports suggest that Top Gun 3 will see the return to at least two younger cast members from Top Gun: Maverick alongside Cruise. They are Miles Teller and Glen Powell, who were the principal supporting actors on the second instalment.
There is no word on whether the other main cast members from Maverick, namely Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Ed Harris, Charles Parnell, Monica Barbaro and Lewis Pullman, will be part of the third film.
Among the actors who would most likely not be part of Top Gun 3 is Val Kilmer, who played Admiral Tom “Iceman” Kazansky in Maverick. Kilmer was the main supporting actor in 1986’s Top Gun, the first film in the franchise. His character dies in the second instalment. So, unless there is some flashback sequence, there is little possibility of Kilmer reprising his iconic role.
Maverick’s producers Jerry Bruckheimer and David Ellison will also likely back the third instalment. Joe Kosinski, who directed Maverick, will either helm Top Gun 3 or produce it. Cruise, too, was one of the producers of the second film, which means that there is a possibility of him doing the same for the third.
Top Gun 3 release date
Tom Cruise is reportedly shooting Mission: Impossible 8 for Paramount. The film is the next instalment in the long-running Mission: Impossible franchise and is a direct sequel to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, which hit the screens in 2023.
Mission: Impossible 8 is expected to release in May 2025. Therefore, according to Puck, shooting for Top Gun 3 won’t start till at least Cruise is done with his work on Mission: Impossible 8.
But that is not all. Cruise is also working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on a film set in outer space.
Doug Liman is directing the untitled film, which reportedly has a budget of around USD 200 million and will come from the stables of Universal Pictures.
In an interview with BBC in 2022, Donna Langley, the head of Universal Pictures, dropped a hint that Cruise might even do a spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) to become the first civilian to do so.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if Cruise actually performs a spacewalk. He is, after all, renowned for pulling off some of the most insane stunts on his own, including those seen in Maverick and Dead Reckoning Part One.
What to expect in Top Gun 3?
Nothing about the plot of Top Gun 3 is known. However, like the previous two films, the third instalment will certainly revolve around US Navy fighter pilots who are part of the United States Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor programme, also known as Top Gun.
Maverick showed Tom Cruise’s character, Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, training and leading a group of young pilots on a deadly mission in enemy territory, while also dealing with the ghosts from the past.
Top Gun 3 will likely centre around a new mission.
How much did Top Gun: Maverick earn in the box office?
Top Gun: Maverick earned USD 1.49 billion at the worldwide box office, becoming the second-highest-grosser in the world in 2022 behind Avatar: The Way of Water.
It is the highest-grossing movie of Tom Cruise’s career. The film received six nominations at the 95th Academy Awards in 2023, including Best Picture. It was eventually awarded the Oscar for Best Sound.
The film came at a crucial time when the theatrical business was still trying to recover from the effects of the pandemic. The phenomenal success of Top Gun: Maverick led Steven Spielberg to publicly thank Tom Cruise for “saving Hollywood.”
Cruise earned USD 100 million from the film, through his salary and shares in ticket sales and home rentals.
Films starring Tom Cruise after Top Gun: Maverick
Tom Cruise’s only release since Top Gun: Maverick is Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. The seventh film in the Mission: Impossible franchise, which started in 1996, the film earned over USD 567 million worldwide and was critically lauded.
Though it is the 10th highest-grossing film of 2023, its box office success was hampered by the simultaneous releases of Barbie and Oppenheimer just over a week after its release.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One will be followed by the eighth film. Since the story of the eighth film directly follows the seventh, most of the actors, including Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, and Hayley Atwell, will be seen alongside Cruise in Mission: Impossible 8.
(Hero and Featured images: Paramount Pictures/Paramount Pictures – © 2019 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All rights reserved./IMDb; Scott Garfield/Scott Garfield – © 2022 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All rights reserved./IMDb)
Frequently Asked Questions:
– Is there going to be a Top Gun 3?
Yes, Top Gun 3 is reportedly in the works with Tom Cruise.
– How much did Tom Cruise make for Top Gun 2?
Tom Cruise earned around USD 100 million for Top Gun 2, as part of his salary and shares in ticket sales and rentals.
– How many Top Gun movies are out?
Two Top Gun movies have been released so far: Top Gun (1986) and Top Gun: Maverick (2022).
Manas Sen Gupta writes at the intersection of tech, entertainment and history. His works have appeared in publications such as The Statesman, Myanmar Matters, Hindustan Times and News18/ETV. In his spare time, Manas loves studying interactive charts and topographic maps. When not doing either, he prefers reading detective fiction. Spring is his favourite season and he can happily eat a bowl of noodles any time of the day.
