Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie’s latest collaboration hit theaters everywhere this weekend, but another of their upcoming projects just got an exciting update. McQuarrie has been tapped to write the script for Top Gun 3, the sequel to Cruise’s hit 2022 aviation thriller that grossed over $1.4 billion at the global box office. It took nearly 40 years between the making of the original Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick, but it seems there won’t be quite as much of a delay this time around.
Similar to Top Gun: Maverick, McQuarrie is writing the screenplay with Ehren Kruger. McQuarrie recently sat down for an interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast to promote his latest film, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, and he was asked if cracking the story for Top Gun 3 was “harder” than it was for Top Gun: Maverick, to which he simply responded, “No. It’s already in the bag. I’ve cracked it.” He then spoke about how he “thought it would be” hard to nail down, and went into detail on how it all happened:
“That’s a good place to go from. You walk into the room going, ‘Come on, what are we going to do?’ And Ehren Kruger pitched something, and I went ‘Mmm, actually.’ And then we had one conversation about it. The framework is there, so no, it wasn’t hard to crack.”
Top Gun: Maverick took the world by storm upon its premiere in 2022, and on top of earning Paramount a gob-smacking amount of money, it also helped catapult several cast members to new levels of fame. Few stars benefited more from Top Gun: Maverick than Glen Powell, whose work as Hangman helped him land roles in major action franchises on his way to becoming Hollywood’s next big movie star. Miles Teller was already a star in his own right, but his performance as Rooster in Top Gun: Maverick certainly helped pad his resume. Both are expected to reprise their roles in the threequel.
When Will ‘Top Gun 3’ Come Out?
Paramount has yet to assign Top Gun 3 a slot on the official release schedule, but if Cruise and McQuarrie have figured out what the story is, that information might be coming sooner rather than later. It’s also important to temper expectations — a movie like Top Gun 3 is going to take time to make it to the big screen. If it’s rushed, that sloppiness will undoubtedly come through in the final product. The most likely window for release for Top Gun 3 is sometime in 2027, if not even later.
Top Gun 3 does not have an official release date.
via Collider