The makers of Top Gun: Maverick have announced that the third film in the franchise is officially in the works and Tom Cruise will be reprising his role
Tom Cruise. Pic/AFP
Hollywood action star Tom Cruise is finally returning for Top Gun 3, the makers confirmed at CinemaCon.
According to Variety, Paramount announced Tom Cruise's return to the franchise along with producer Jerry Bruckheimer. They also confirmed the film is officially in the works.
A sequel to Joseph Kosinski's 2022 blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick, the third instalment was first revealed to be in development in 2024 with writer Ehren Kruger. 'Maverick' was a blockbuster hit, even during the times when the theatres struggled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It collected USD 1.5 billion at the global box office with a budget of USD 170 million.
Cruise also returned for the second instalment, 36 years after he debuted as Lieutenant Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell in the 1986 original. His character went back to the famous flight school to teach a new batch of pilots for a dangerous mission.
It is then that he crosses paths with Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of his best friend who died in the first film.
Besides Cruise and Teller, the film also featured Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Monica Barbaro, Danny Ramirez, Jay Ellis, Greg Tarzan Davis and Manny Jacinto.
Notably, in May 2025, Christopher McQuarrie, the director of Mission: Impossible -- The Final Reckoning, shared updates on his upcoming collaborations with Tom Cruise, including the highly anticipated Top Gun 3.
As per Deadline, in an interview, McQuarrie revealed that the sequel to Top Gun: Maverick is "already in the bag," with a framework for the story already in place.
"It wasn't hard," McQuarrie said, adding, "I thought it would be, and that's a good place to go from is you walk into the room going, 'Come on, what are we going to do?'"
McQuarrie emphasised that the challenge lies not in developing the story but in executing it and capturing the emotional depth that makes the films resonate.
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