Top Gun producer teases sequel with Tom Cruise photo

By Rick Marshall Updated January 28, 2016

top gun 2 tom cruise jerry bruckheimer

The long-rumored sequel to Top Gun suddenly seems like it’s getting closer to takeoff now that producer Jerry Bruckheimer has posted a photo with Lt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell himself, Tom Cruise.

Bruckheimer, who produced the 1986 film and will serve a similar role on a potential sequel, posted the photo to Twitter after a visit with Cruise in New Orleans. According to Bruckheimer’s caption on the photo, their meeting did indeed include some discussion of Top Gun 2.

“Just got back from a weekend in New Orleans to see my old friend @TomCruise and discuss a little Top Gun 2,” wrote Bruckheimer.

Buzz surrounding a potential sequel to Top Gun has increased in recent months, with Cruise’s co-star in the original film, Val Kilmer, reporting that he was asked back in November 2015 to reprise his role in a follow-up film. While nothing is official at this point, the pieces certainly appear to be falling into place for the sequel.

Just got back from a weekend in New Orleans to see my old friend @TomCruise and discuss a little Top Gun 2. pic.twitter.com/vA2xK7S7JS

— BRUCKHEIMER FILMS/TV (@BRUCKHEIMERJB) January 26, 2016

Late last year, Skydance Productions CEO David Ellison hinted that the Top Gun sequel would likely deal with the changing face of warfare now that drone technology has decreased the need for manned flights. Describing an early draft of the script that was being penned by Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-li screenwriter Justin Marks, Ellison said the film would delve into what the world has turned into for fighter pilots in the Navy today.

“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,” said Ellison. “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 it’s really exploring the end of an era of dogfighting and fighter pilots and what that culture is today.”

As for Cruise reprising his role, Ellison said there’s no question as to whether Maverick would be back.

“There is no Top Gun without Maverick, and it is going to be Maverick playing Maverick,” he said.

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