Tom Cruise’s ‘Top Gun’ Sequel Will Pit Old Pilot Against New Tech

The proposed plot of the Top Gun sequel will update the age-old tale of man against machine with Tom Cruise taking the lead as a remnant of old-school fighter pilots facing extinction against the uprising of unmanned drones.

The official word from Skydance’s David Ellison is that Tom Cruise has been confirmed to return to the Top Gun sequel and that Cruise will reprise his former Top Gun role of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell.

“Justin Marks is writing the screenplay right now. He has a phenomenal take to really update that world for what fighter pilots in the Navy has turned into today. There is an amazing role for Maverick in the movie and there is no Top Gun without Maverick, and it is going to be Maverick playing Maverick. It is I don’t think what people are going to expect, and we are very, very hopeful that we get to make the movie very soon. But like all things, it all comes down to the script.”

Ellison added that the Top Gun sequel will most likely be filmed in 3D and Imax formats to give the audience the best experience possible and that there will not be much CGI used in the dog-fighting scenes. As many know, Cruise prefers to shoot his own stunts, and as an avid pilot, Tom would definitely want to shoot those scenes without stunt doubles or computer trickery.

“When you look at the world of dogfighting, what’s interesting about it is that it’s not a world that exists to the same degree when the original movie came out. This world has not been explored. It is very much a world we live in today; where it’s drone technology and fifth generation fighters are really what the United States Navy is calling the last man-made fighter that we’re actually going to produce. So really exploring the end of an era of dog-fighting and fighter pilots, and what that culture is today, are all fun things that we’re gonna get to dive into in this movie.”

Ellison’s sentiments on the Top Gun sequel echo the feelings of the first Top Gun director, who had been looking into a sequel shortly before his passing. Tony Scott, who passed away at 68 in 2012, had begun working on a Top Gun sequel after meeting a young air force pilot who worked with unmanned drones.

“It’s a whole different world now,” Scott said of the possibility of a Top Gun sequel. “These computer geeks – these kids play war games in a trailer in Fallon, Nevada and if we ever went to war or were in the Middle East or the Far East or wherever it is, these guys can actually fly drones. They are unmanned aircraft. They operate them and then they party all night.”

“If we can get over some stumbling blocks it will be fun to do,” Tom Cruise said last year, establishing his interest in a Top Gun sequel.

Tom Cruise can be seen in Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation when it hits theaters on July 31.

[Featured image: Tom Cruise courtesy of Paramount Pictures/Top Gun]