Tom Cruise at 'Top Gun: Maverick' Conference

Will Tom Cruise Return for ‘Top Gun’ 3? Producer Gives Major Update

Tom Cruise scored the biggest success of his career after his dynamic Top Gun sequel Top Gun: Maverick made its debut over Memorial Day weekend last year. As the film continues to enjoy monumental success on the streaming platform Paramount Plus, the film’s producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, spoke out about whether we can expect to see Tom Cruise return for Top Gun 3.

Reflecting on the iconic actor’s work on Top Gun: Maverick, Bruckheimer effused, “nobody works harder than Tom Cruise … We’re very fortunate that he came back to do another Top Gun in Maverick and made it the worldwide success it’s become.” 

But will the 60-year-old Hollywood legend return to make a third installment of the movie? Unfortunately, Bruckheimer had little to say. 

“We’ll have to wait and see,” he teased. 

Given that it took Tom Cruise nearly four decades to commit to putting out Top Gun‘s sequel Top Gun: Maverick, it’s highly unlikely the Pete Mitchell actor will begin work on a threequel any time soon. Nevertheless, fans remain hopeful. Top Gun: Maverick actor Glen Powell also offered minimum insight about another Top Gun installment while attending the Golden Globes earlier this month. Again, his answers were less than helpful.

“[That’s] above my paygrade,” he joked. More seriously, he continued, “It feels like it’s less vague than it was at one point, so we’ll see.” 

In the meantime, Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick continues to earn critical acclaim. It most recently won honors at the Critics Choice Awards for Best Cinematography. 

The Daily Mail reports Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick raked in a massive $1.489 billion at the box office last summer alone. 

Tom Cruise Never Actually Wanted to Make ‘Top Gun: Maverick’

Despite massive global success, Top Gun: Maverick insiders previously revealed that Tom Cruise never actually wanted to make a sequel to the original 1986 Top Gun film. In fact, writers and producers from the original film spent decades trying to get the stalwart actor back into his role as Pete Mitchell. Following Top Gun‘s initial success, Tom Cruise was approached multiple times about returning to his role. However, each time, he felt the pitches he received were tacky and inferior to the dynamism of the film’s original plot. Finally, though, director Joseph Kosinski approached him with a plausible storyline, and so was born Top Gun: Maverick

Recalling the sequel’s origins, Kosinski said, “I pitched the idea [to Tom Cruise] of this story being a reconciliation between him and Rooster set against this mission that would take Rooster into this very dangerous situation, that they’d end up together across enemy lines, having to resolve their differences and work together to get back home.” 

At that, Cruise became interested. The Top Gun director continued, “As soon as I pitched that idea, I could see just the wheels in Tom’s head start to turn. And all of a sudden, he had a very emotional reason, a hook back into this character, and a reason to come back.”