On 12.05.23 I reported that Paramount and Tom Cruise were working on a sequel to 2022’s mega-blockbuster “Top Gun: Maverick.” Puck’s Matt Belloni then confirmed what I was hearing.
‘Maverick co-writer Ehren Kruger is officially at work on the script, which will reunite Cruise with co-stars Miles Teller, and Glen Powell, as well as producers Jerry Bruckheimer and David Ellison. Joseph Kosinski is expected to direct.
Now, when would ‘Top Gun 3’ start production? Cruise is already busy having signed on to Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and, possibly, Quentin Tarantino’s latest films. Bruckheimer now tells ScreenRant he has no idea either.
“Tom is amazing. We spent time with him. We have a story. Joe Kosinski had a wonderful story idea for it, and [Tom] said, ‘I really like that,’ so we’re developing it. 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.”
Cruise is currently filming “Mission: Impossible 8” and Kosinski will be spending most of the year working on his Formula One movie, starring Brad Pitt. Paramount is hoping that Cruise can free up his schedule for ‘Top Gun 3,’ but it won’t be easy. With the already mentioned Inarritu and Tarantino projects, Cruise is also developing a film with Doug Liman and NASA that would be shot in space.
“Top Gun: Maverick” made $1.4B dollars worldwide, and that’s without a China release. It was a wildly popular cultural event that brought audiences back to theaters during the pandemic. There’s almost zero chance the heads at Paramount haven’t been constantly on the phone with Bruckheimer and Cruise about getting the wheels rolling for this third film. They need a hit.
To many, ‘Maverick’ was the perfect sequel and wrap up, and there is no "need" for a third film, but it would have been highly unusual for Paramount not to, at the very least, have a third film in development. However, Cruise is 61 and pulling off the death-defying stunts he’s known for might be a tad more difficult to do as he ages. They’ll have to shoot this one sooner rather than later.