Cue “Danger Zone.”
A sequel to the hit action film Top Gun: Maverick is officially in development, with Tom Cruise set to reprise his iconic role as Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell.
Paramount, the studio behind the original 1986 Top Gun and its 2022 sequel, revealed the highly anticipated update during its CinemaCon 2026 presentation on Thursday, according to Variety.
The studio also confirmed that a script is currently in progress, with Jerry Bruckheimer returning as producer for the upcoming threequel.
Tom Cruise, pictured at CinemaCon 2026, is set to reprise his role as Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in the officially announced sequel to Top Gun: Maverick
Paramount announced the highly anticipated sequel and Tom Cruise’s return during its CinemaCon 2026 panel on Thursday.
Top Gun: Maverick marked Cruise’s first return as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell since the original film debuted 36 years earlier.
The sequel followed Maverick as he trained a new generation of TOPGUN pilots, including Miles Teller’s Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, Glen Powell’s Jake “Hangman” Seresin, and Lewis Pullman’s Robert “Bob” Floyd. It also featured the emotional return of the late Val Kilmer as Tom “Iceman” Kazansky.
Kelly McGillis did not reprise her role as Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood in the long-awaited follow-up.
The 63-year-old Mission: Impossible star previously teased the future of the Top Gun franchise in May 2025, while discussing his plans for the next chapter of his action-heavy film career.
“Maverick” marked Tom Cruise’s first return to the role of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, pictured here, since the original film hit theaters in 1986.
Cruise, seen here in Maverick, teased the future of the Top Gun franchise in May 2025.
“Yeah, we’re thinking and talking about many different stories and what could we do and what’s possible,” he told Australia’s Today show at the time.
Cruise added, “It took me 35 years to figure out Top Gun: Maverick, so all of these things we’re working on, we’re discussing Days of Thunder and Top Gun: Maverick.”
Christopher McQuarrie, Cruise’s longtime collaborator who co-wrote and co-produced Maverick, has also suggested that another Top Gun sequel could be flying back to the big screen sooner than expected.
“It took me 35 years to figure out Top Gun: Maverick, so all of these things we’re working on,” the action star, pictured here in the original Top Gun, said last year when discussing a possible sequel.
Kelly McGillis, seen here with Tom Cruise in the original Top Gun, did not return as Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood in the sequel.
“I already know what it is. It wasn’t hard,” the filmmaker told the Happy Sad Confused podcast last May. “I thought it would be, and that’s a good place to walk from.”
“You walk into the room going, ‘Come on, what are we going to do?’ And [co-writer] Ehren Kruger pitched something, and we had one conversation about it,” he added. “The framework is there, so it’s not hard to crack.”
Beyond grossing a stunning $1.49 billion at the box office, Top Gun: Maverick also won the Oscar for Best Sound at the 2023 Academy Awards.
“Thank you to everyone who saw Top Gun: Maverick and helped make it a historic opening weekend,” Cruise wrote in a social media post following the film’s release.
“Thank you to everyone who saw Top Gun: Maverick and helped make it a historic opening weekend,” Cruise, seen here in the sequel, wrote on social media.
But Top Gun isn’t the only franchise leaving fans wondering about what’s next for the Jerry Maguire star.
When the eighth and latest installment in the Mission: Impossible series, The Final Reckoning, was released last year, Cruise also teased that it may have marked a conclusion to the nearly 30-year spy saga.
“It’s the final!” he told reporters during the film’s New York City premiere. “It’s not called ‘final’ for nothing.”
