At a press junket for Terminator: Genysis, Skydance CEO David Ellison confirmed that Top gun 2 is in development. He also dropped a few details about the plot:
“Justin Marks is writing the screenplay right now.He has a phenomenal take to really update that world for what fighter pilots in the Navy has turned into today.It is very much a world we live in today where it’s drone technology and fifth generation fighters … It’s really exploring the end of an era of dogfighting and fighter pilots and what that culture is today.”
I think everyone can agree that this is a bad idea, and one would naturally assume that there would be no way in hell Tom Cruise would sign on for it. Not according to Ellison:
“There is an amazing role for Maverick in the movie, and there is no ‘Top Gun’ without Maverick, and it is going to be Maverick playing Maverick.”
OK, let’s assume the improbable and say Cruise is going to reprise his role (the only feasible reason would be that he’s trying to secure additional funding for a better Scientology movie than Battlefield Earth). Maverick still can’t be the “hot shot” pilot he was in the first one. He would have obviously advanced in rank, which means it would likely be a supporting role for Cruise, something more along the lines of Tom Skerritt’s role in the original. So we would more than likely be looking at a “Top Gun: The Next Generation” film.
The biggest question, though, is if Val Kilmer will return, and if so, will he still be called Iceman, or will he now be more appropriately be called Glacierman?
