Summary
- Top Gun 3’s release date is uncertain due to limited information, but it’s expected to happen in the near future given the success of Top Gun: Maverick and the ongoing hype surrounding the franchise.
- Keeping the franchise on hold is a smart move to ensure that Top Gun 3 lives up to its predecessor. Rushing the production could result in an incomplete and disappointing film compared to the high standards set by Top Gun: Maverick.
- Cruise’s involvement in other projects, including the Mission: Impossible series and a space-themed film with SpaceX and NASA, may complicate the Top Gun 3 development process.
The seemingly inevitable Top Gun 3 has already taken precautions after the overwhelming success of 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick. The long-awaited sequel to 1986’s Top Gun has remained one of the most profitable movies ever made and is credited as one of the major reasons why Hollywood theatrical releases made a comeback after the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns. Top Gun 3 has yet to be officially confirmed. However, it seems like a safe bet given the immense success of Maverick.
Top Gun 3’s release date will hopefully be sometime in the near future, but with so little information out there about the highly-anticipated film, it’s impossible to say when. The hype and popularity surrounding Top Gun: Maverick still feel somewhat present despite 2023 being a very busy and saturated year for the Hollywood blockbuster at large. There are many different avenues in which Top Gun 3 can emerge, the seemingly most guaranteed route being the return of Cruise’s ambitious protagonist Pete “Maverick” Mitchell.
Top Gun 3 Taking Its Time Is Smart After Top Gun: Maverick
Despite the apparent eagerness of most fans for another Top Gun movie to release sooner rather than later, it’s actually a much smarter play to keep the franchise on ice for the time being. It would have been very easy, tempting, and even typical for Paramount to have greenlit a rapid and somewhat forced Top Gun 3 shortly after Top Gun: Maverick’s incredible success. This would have likely resulted in a product that felt incomplete, especially compared to the massive scale and scope of its predecessor.
Top Gun: Maverick worked so well in part because it had ample time and privacy to get everything, from the story and characters to the cinematography and locations, as exceptional as it could be. If Top Gun 3 should actually happen, it would be a colossal disappointment, and a detriment to the entire franchise, for a half-baked cash grab to be churned out simply because it would be a safe box office bet. In this light, Cruise and company should take as long as necessary in the Top Gun 3 development process to avoid derailing the rare achievement that they’ve started.
Top Gun 3 Will Probably Happen… But When?
Top Gun 3 will be even more tricky to pull off than Maverick, especially because of how difficult it will be to outdo. What should be paramount is the return of Cruise and Miles Teller as Rooster, since they’re dynamic is the most central part of Maverick’s story. The return of supporting cast members Glen Powell, John Hamm, and Jennifer Connelly would likely be welcome, but would not be as critical if left out of Top Gun 3.
Figuring out scheduling and availability will be a big preliminary challenge before Top Gun 3 even happens, especially with the slate of projects that Cruise has on the horizon. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two was originally set to conclude production in 2023 and will not be released until 2025 as a result of the SAG and WGA strikes. Cruise is also attached to a groundbreaking project with SpaceX and NASA that would make him the first actor ever to star in a movie shot in outer space. Top Gun 3 feels inevitable, but Cruise’s other projects might make it more difficult than it seems.
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Top Gun: Maverick
- Release Date:
- 2022-05-27
- Director:
- Joseph Kosinski
- Cast:
- Jennifer Connelly, Jake Picking, Raymond Lee, Tom Cruise, Lewis Pullman, Monica Barbaro, Miles Teller, Danny Ramirez, Val Kilmer, Manny Jacinto, Ed Harris, Glen Powell, Jon Hamm
- Rating:
- PG-13
- Runtime:
- 130 minutes
- Main Genre:
- Action
- Genres:
- Action
- Writers:
- Ashley Miller, Justin Marks, Peter Craig, Zack Stentz
- Summary:
- Top Gun: Maverick is the long anticipated sequel to the original Top Gun, setting Tom Cruise back into the pilot suit of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. Having served for thirty years as one of the top aviators in the Navy, Maverick continues his calling as a test pilot and dodges the attempted efforts of the higher-ups to promote him to a less active role. Soon he finds himself training a group of TOP GUN graduates for a unique mission – one of those recruits is a young man named Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller), who happens to be the son of his late friend Nick Bradshaw, aka Goose. Now Maverick and his new trainees will face off with ghosts from his own past as they embark on the most dangerous mission they’ve ever flown.
- Website:
- https://www.topgunmovie.com/home/
- Franchise:
- Top Gun
- Cinematographer:
- Claudio Miranda
- Producer:
- Jerry Bruckheimer, David Ellison, Don Granger, Dana Goldberg, Tom Cruise
- Production Company:
- Skydance Media, Tencent Pictures, TC Productions, Jerry Bruckheimer Films
- Main Characters :
- Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, Penelope “Penny” Benjamin, Beau “Cyclone” Simpson, Jake “Hangman” Seresin, Robert “Bob” Floyd, Chester “Hammer” Cain
- Sfx Supervisor:
- Scott R. Fisher
- Distributor :
- Paramount Pictures
- Assistant Director :
- Scott Robertson
- prequel(s):
- Top Gun
- Franchise(s):
- Top Gun
