The danger zone is calling — again. It’s been announced that “Top Gun 3” is officially in the works.
Paramount broke the good news at CinemaCon in Las Vegas this week, confirming that Tom Cruise will be back in a leading role. Jerry Bruckheimer is also on board as producer.
Josh Greenstein, co-head of Paramount Pictures, said it’s “officially in development with a script underway.”
Cruise did not appear live at the industry event, but footage aired in the convention hall showed the actor standing on tip of the water tower on the Paramount lot in Los Angeles.
“The future looks pretty great from here,” Cruise can be heard saying in the clip.
This comes as no surprise after the massive success of “Top Gun: Maverick” in 2022. Despite a gap of 36 years between the first “Top Gun” (1986) and the sequel, it became an absolute box office smash and the most lucrative film of actor Tom Cruise’s long and successful career.
“Maverick” earned a whopping $1.49 billion at the global box office. It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won Best Sound.
It was also named the Best Film of 2022 by the movie review site Rotten Tomatoes. “Maverick” was rated 96% certified fresh from critics out of nearly 500 reviews and achieved a near-perfect 99% fresh audience score.
It’s believed that one reason the “Top Gun” sequel performed so well is that it was free from radical progressive messaging and virtue signaling. The action film recalled a simpler time in Hollywood, when movies were made to inspire and entertain rather than to push an agenda.
The Federalist called the “Top Gun” sequel “unabashedly patriotic” and “free of token left-wing social and political propaganda.” Reviewer Elle Reynolds wrote, “The only agenda being pushed is that America is the best country in the world and the men and women who risk their lives to defend her are heroes worthy of our respect.”
Another surprising detail about the sequel is how it appealed to a range of audiences, both young and old.
