After giving Terminator: Dark Fate a full panel and presentation in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con — more on that to come! — superstar Tom Cruise came out to surprise the crowd with the very first trailer and poster for his long-awaited 2020 sequel Top Gun: Maverick.

Top Gun
Paramount Pictures

If you’re of a certain age, the 1986 Top Gun directed by the late Tony Scott was a summer action movie classic, as it helped pave the way for Cruise to become the A-list blockbuster box office draw that he is to this day. It grossed $179 million at a time when that was still considered a LOT of money. It also helped launch the careers of the likes of Val KilmerKelly McGillisAnthony EdwardsTim RobbinsTom Skerritt and many more. It also won an Oscar for the Berlin song “Take My Breath Away,” written by Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock.

I will not reveal my age in that year, but for whatever reason, while I was going to the movies a lot that year, I didn’t end up seeing Top Gun, maybe because it looked too much like An Officer and a Gentleman, which came out a few years earlier.  What’s weird is that I have so many friends where it’s their absolute favorite movie, and I’m sure they’re way more excited about this sequel than I ever will be.

And yet, the teaser trailer actually looked… great? Who knows? Maybe this one will win some of the Oscars the original movie was only nominated for (like sound and editing).

Regardless, Cruise is finally returning to the character of “Maverick” and Val Kilmer’s “Iceman” is right there with him, joined by Jennifer Connelly, who was 16 when the first movie came out, Miles Teller (born a year later), Jon Hamm and Ed Harris. Cruise’s Oblivion director Joseph Kominski is also on board with the sequel.

One big difference this time is that — knowing Cruise’s desire to do his own stunts in the Mission: Impossible movies — he probably flew a lot of jet planes himself for the film’s action sequences.

Check out the trailer below and you can click on the image to the upper left to see a full size version of the poster. Top Gun: Maverick is scheduled to hit theaters on June 26, which is almost a year away!

1 COMMENT

  1. I’m old enough to have seen TOP GUN in ’86, and I have not spent 33 years longing for a sequel. It’s a pretty silly film, with scenes cut like music videos, and the Reagan-era jingoism doesn’t hold up. In fact, I didn’t like the gung-ho militarism at the time.

    Wonder if the sequel will play up the homoerotic factor of the original, which Quentin Tarantino has memorably riffled on.

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