LOS ANGELES: Top Gun 3 is officially in development, with Tom Cruise set to reprise his role as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell for a third time.
Paramount Pictures announced the project during its CinemaCon presentation in Las Vegas. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer will also return for the aviation drama, which first released in 1986 and became an instant hit. The original film was directed by the late Tony Scott.
Paramount later followed up with a sequel, Top Gun: Maverick (2022), directed by Joseph Kosinski. The film proved to be a major success despite the COVID-19 pandemic, grossing around USD 1.5 billion at the global box office, according to Variety.
In the original film, Cruise, 63, played a hotshot pilot struggling with self-doubt, who ultimately overcomes his fears and returns to flight school as an instructor for a new generation of pilots.
The sequel featured Cruise alongside a younger ensemble cast, including Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Monica Barbaro, Danny Ramirez, Jay Ellis, Greg Tarzan Davis and Manny Jacinto, all portraying new pilots.
Supporting roles were played by Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Charles Parnell, Ed Harris and Bashir Salahuddin. The film also featured a special appearance by Cruise’s original Top Gun co-star Val Kilmer, who played Tom “Iceman” Kazansky. Kilmer died in 2025 from throat cancer.
Cruise, who was last seen in the latest Mission: Impossible instalment, attended CinemaCon just two days ago to present Digger, his first non-franchise film in years. The film is directed by Oscar-winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu and features Cruise as an ageing, beer-bellied, cat-loving oil baron who may trigger a nuclear and ecological disaster.
“Today, my dear friend and I had a blast sharing our sneak peek of Digger. We cannot wait to share this film with the world in October and to be part of what is going to be such a special year at the movies!” Cruise said in a recent post.
(With inputs from PTI)