Top Gun was the highest grossing movie of 1986. Decades later, Top Gun: Maverick ended 2022 as the highest grossing movie of the year as well. Both movies were massive hits, despite coming out decades apart, so the obvious question becomes: Will there be a Top Gun 3? And if so, how long will we have to wait for it? Franchise producer Jerry Bruckheimer is certainly up for talking trilogy, but that assumes Tom Cruise doesn’t die.
If Top Gun were any other franchise we could be certain a third movie would have been announced by now and given a release date three years in the future. But Top Gun is not just any franchise. Art the end of the day, whether Top Gun 3 happens will come down toTom Cruise, and as Bruckheimer tells The Wrap, there won’t be any discussions until sometime after Cruise is done defying death while making Mission: Impossible movies. The producer said…
A lot of people talk about it. But Tom is off doing two Mission: Impossible movies and he’s out there risking his life as he usually does, unfortunately. But we haven’t had a discussion with him about it yet.
Top Gum: Maverick was a movie completed prior to the pandemic that just saw its release date continuously delayed while waiting for a time to release it theaters. To be sure, that was the right move for Paramount, considering the movie made nearly $1.5 billion at the global box office.
Since the pandemic, Tom Cruise has been hard at work making two Mission: Impossible movies back to back, a task that has taken a lot longer than initially anticipated specifically due to the slower pace of production during the pandemic. Both movies would have been released by now if things had gone as planned, but now we’re waiting for the first one to come out later this year, and part two is still in active production right now.
As such, serious discussions about Top Gun 3 will simply have to wait. However, what Jerry Bruckheimer does seem to make clear is that those conversations will absolutely be happening. He admits that at least considering a third film makes all the sense in the world, and it sounds like if bthe next one has to wait a while like Top Gun: Maverick did, that’s ok with him. Bruckheimer continues…
You always like to make movies that entertain audiences, if we can come up with a way to bring another one back, of course. Why wouldn’t we? Look, it took us 35/36 years to get this one done. You never know.
At this point, even a best case scenario for Top Gun 3 would probably put the movie four or five years away. Of course, that’s a pretty quick turnaround considering how long it took to get Top Gun: Maverick to get made. And if there’s anything fans have shown, it’s that they’re willing to wait.