Paramount has officially announced that “Top Gun 3” is in the works.
“Top Gun 3,” according to The Hollywood Reporter, is currently being written by “Top Gun: Maverick” writer Ehren Kruger and rumored to be directed by Joe Kosinski, director of the previous film. However, Kosinski is also reported to potentially only be a producer for the upcoming film, per Deadline.
According to Variety, this project, which has been quietly worked on since last year, would help to reunite legendary actor Tom Cruise with his counterparts Miles Teller and Glen Powell, who played Rooster and Hangman in “Top Gun: Maverick.”
How the ‘Top Gun’ franchise has performed on the big screen
The commercially successful series started hot in 1986, as the original film instantly soared and became a blockbuster hit for Paramount Pictures, per MovieWeb.
“Top Gun: Maverick” — released 36 years after the first movie — resulted in a gross of over $1 billion, becoming the highest-grossing film of 2022, despite the initial release of it getting delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The financial success of these movies, alone, present a demand for the franchise — and Paramount is now preparing to make the awaited third installment happen.
Tom Cruise’s big deal with Warner Bros.
Meanwhile, the 61-year-old A-list actor struck a deal earlier this month with Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav and the Motion Picture Group’s CEOs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy to “develop and produce original and franchise theatrical titles which he’ll star in,” per Deadline.
Cruise, having starred in eight films for the movie studio, said in a Warner Bros. statement, “I look forward to making great movies together!”
De Luca and Abdy said, “We couldn’t be more excited to welcome Tom back to Warner Bros. and look forward to bringing more of his genius to life on screen in the years ahead.”
Will this halt the production of ‘Top Gun 3’?
Although Cruise is not excluded from working outside of Warner Bros., according to Forbes, he has “ongoing projects” currently filling his schedule.
This includes the next “Mission: Impossible” film for Paramount and an “Edge of Tomorrow” sequel for Universal Pictures — the latter of which Cruise hopes to perform a spacewalk for on the International Space Station.
Because of these films, production for “Top Gun 3” may take some time before becoming a reality. But the hype and profit from the film series could make it happen sooner rather than later.