By Mallory Mattingly
Tom Cruise returns to the cockpit for TOP GUN 3.
Paramount announced the third installment in the high-flying franchise at CinemaCon last week. It follows up the story told in TOP GUN: MAVERICK, which starred Miles Teller and Glen Powell alongside Cruise.
“TOP GUN 3 officially in development with a script well underway, reuniting Tom Cruise and Jerry Bruckheimer,” Paramount film co-head Josh Greenstein said. No director was named, nor were any cast members aside from Cruise announced.
Movieguide® praised 2022’s MAVERICK for its patriotic, redemptive themes, nominating it for two Movieguide® Awards in 2023. Part of Movieguide®’s review reads:
TOP GUN: MAVERICK is a terrific, powerful, exciting movie. It’s full of high drama and heart-pounding action scenes. This role was made for Tom Cruise. He gets great support from Miles Teller as Goose’s son and Jennifer Connelly as Maverick’s romantic interest. TOP GUN: MAVERICK has a strong moral, Pro-American, patriotic worldview. It also tells a strong redemptive story leading to sacrifice, forgiveness and reconciliation. However, TOP GUN: MAVERICK is marred by many obscenities and three strong profanities. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises strong or extreme caution.
TOP GUN 3 has been in the works at Paramount since early 2024. In 2025, Paramount co-chair Dana Goldberg called the movie “a priority for us,” which isn’t a surprise, considering it pulled $1.5 billion worldwide.
Related: Glen Powell Reveals Tom Cruise Had to Convince Him to Take TOP GUN: MAVERICK Role
Christopher McQuarrie, who cowrote MAVERICK with Ehren Kruger and Eric Warren Singer, confirmed they had a story in place.
“It’s already in the bag,” he said. “I already know what it is. It wasn’t hard. I thought it would be. And that’s a good place to go from. You walk into the room going, ‘Come on. What are we going to do?’ And Ehren Kruger pitched something, and I went, ‘Mmm, actually…’ And we had one conversation about it. The framework is there.”
Cruise has another movie on the way. Alongside his friend his friend Alejandro G. Iñárritu, he announced DIGGER at CinemaCon.
“The most powerful man in the world embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity’s savior before the disaster he’s unleashed destroys everything,” a synopsis of the film reads, per IMDB.
“I had a lot of fun at CinemaCon seeing so many friends. The year has already gotten off to a great start for cinema, and I’m looking forward to all the films still to come in the year ahead from countless hardworking and talented artists!” Cruise wrote in a post on Instagram.
“Today, my dear friend Alejandro G. Iñárritu and I had a blast sharing our sneak peek of DIGGER. We cannot wait to share this film with the world in October and to be part of what is going to be such a special year at the movies!” he added.
DIGGER arrives in theaters Oct. 2, 2026.
A release date for TOP GUN 3 has not been announced yet.
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