Top Gun Back in Theaters for 40th Anniversary

The original Top Gun and its recent sequel Top Gun: Maverick are both soaring back into theaters for the franchise’s 40th anniversary.

Tom Cruise announced their return today via Instagram, in which he shared a video full of clips from the classic movie and its well-received sequel. “If you feel the need…” Cruise wrote. “Two films. One big screen.”

Both movies will be available to watch again on the big screen from May 13, for just one week only.

The limited-time dual re-release comes amid plans to make a third entry in the franchise, which Paramount itself confirmed last week at Cinemacon. Prior to that, a Deadline report had spilled word of the threequel’s existence, with Maverick scribe Ehren Kruger back writing its script. Both Miles Teller, who plays Lt. Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, and Glen Powell, AKA Jake “Hangman” Seresin, are also expected to return.
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.”

A third film is no surprise considering the huge success of Maverick, which made almost $1.5 billion at the box office and landed to positive reviews. IGN described it as “good ol’ cheesy as hell, silly-heroic entertainment with mile-high enthusiasm,” in our Top Gun: Maverick review, scoring it a 7/10 and dubbing it “a welcome throwback to simpler cinematic times.”

So, do you feel the need?

Image credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social