Top Gun 3 Officially Confirmed With Script in Development

We’ve known for a couple of years that Top Gun 3 was going to happen, but Paramount just confirmed the script was officially in progress during its CinemaCon presentation. Tom Cruise will return as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and Jerry Bruckheimer will be back as producer, but there’s no word on the return of any other Top Gun or Top Gun: Maverick cast.

Back in June last year, Maverick director Joseph Kosinski gave GQ an update on Top Gun 3 and specifically on how he saw the story evolving. “I think we’ve found a way to do it, not only in the scale of what we’re proposing, but the idea itself of the story we’re telling,” he said.

“We’re thinking much bigger than… It’s a really existential crisis that Maverick has in this, and it’s much bigger than himself. It actually… I’m trying to describe it without giving anything away. [Laughs.] It’s an existential question that Maverick has to deal with, that would make Maverick feel small, I think, as a movie, compared to what we’re talking about.”

We have had hints that we can expect to see some cast members return. Back in 2022, Miles Teller, who plays Lt. Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, said he would be up for reprising his role and mentioned he had been in talks with Cruise about it. In 2024, Glen Powell, AKA Jake “Hangman” Seresin, also let slip that he had “a date” for Top Gun 3.

The success of Top Gun: Maverick meant a sequel was always on the way, but this is the first official confirmation that production has started. Maverick actually premiered at 2022’s CinemaCon and went on to become the second-highest-grossing film of 2022 and the highest-grossing film of Cruise’s career.

Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She’s been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.