He waited 36 years to make Maverick. He’s not waiting that long for the threequel. The script is in, the cast is assembling, and the sky belongs to him again.
Nobody needed Top Gun: Maverick in 2022. The original had been out for 36 years, nobody was asking for it, and then it made $1.5 billion worldwide and Steven Spielberg literally told Tom Cruise he saved the film industry. At which point the question stopped being “should they make Top Gun 3” and became “when is Tom Cruise getting back in that cockpit.“
The answer: soon. Paramount confirmed Top Gun 3 is a top priority at CinemaCon this week, with film co-heads Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg announcing the script is officially underway. Christopher McQuarrie, who co-wrote Maverick and has been Cruise’s go-to collaborator through multiple Mission: Impossible films confirmed in May 2025 he was writing the script.
Glen Powell (Hangman) and Miles Teller (Rooster) are both expected to return. Powell has confirmed he’s been in regular communication with Cruise, director Joseph Kosinski, and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, saying simply that “there is stuff happening, and it sounds very exciting.”
Cruise himself has been coy but not exactly secretive about it. “Yeah, we’re thinking and talking about many different stories and what could we do,” he told Australia’s Today. “It took me 35 years to figure out Top Gun: Maverick.” At this rate, Top Gun 3 should be in theaters by 2026 or 2027, assuming production begins this year — which, per Jay Ellis (Payback), is the plan.
What’s the story? Still under wraps. What’s the vibe? Per Ellis: “They’re wanting to get it right. Not done just to make a movie, but because these characters are going to make people lean in.” Romantic. Tom is a stickler. We respect it.
- Val Kilmer who played Iceman and appeared in Maverick in what became his final role passed away in 2025. That’s going to hang over this film.
- Jennifer Connelly (Penny) is unconfirmed but expected. Ed Harris has doubts about returning.
- Hugh Grant as Phoenix Buchanan apparently teased a return in a Maverick mid-credits scene. Sure, why not.
The whole thing feels inevitable in the way only Tom Cruise movies do. He doesn’t make sequels because the studio wants them. He makes them when he has something to prove. Right now, at 63, with Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning also hitting this year, the man is simply not interested in stopping. And we’re not complaining.
