Top Gun 3: Jerry Bruckheimer says there’s a “wonderful story idea” in place

For over thirty years, I would have said that director Tony Scott’s 1986 classic Top Gun should be left as a standalone movie… but then the sequel Top Gun: Maverick came along in 2022 and turned out to be surprisingly awesome, proving that the story of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (played by Tom Cruise in both films) was worth returning to after all. Continuing his story also paid off at the box office, with the film pulling in almost $1.5 billion at the box office. So it’s no surprise to hear that Cruise, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski, and Paramount Pictures are already moving forward with a Top Gun 3. While talking to Screen Rant about the upcoming release of his spy action comedy The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Bruckheimer gave a small update on the sequel, saying there’s a “wonderful story idea” in place.

Bruckheimer said, “It will be Tom Cruise (back in the lead). Tom is amazing. We spent time with him. We have a story. Joe Kosinski had a wonderful story idea for it, and he (Tom Cruise) said I really like that, so we’re developing it. But you never know when it’s going to get made because Tom is so busy. He’s doing Mission: Impossible right now, he’s got a picture after it. Hopefully, we’ll get a screenplay that he loves, and we’ll be back in the air again.“

Puck previously reported that Top Gun: Maverick co-writer Ehren Kruger is writing the screenplay, and the story is said to reunite Cruise’s Maverick with Lt. Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller) and Lt. Jake “Hangman” Seresin (Glen Powell). Kosinski is expected to return to the helm as well.

A couple months ago, Glen Powell told Variety, “There is going to be some fun stuff being announced soon… but it was confidential to me. I talk to [Joseph] Kosinski, Cruise and Jerry [Bruckheimer] all the time. There is stuff happening and it sounds very exciting. I don’t know when I’ll be going back…I’m sure there is a jet waiting for me sometime in the future.“

Are you looking forward to Top Gun 3? Where do you think the story of Maverick should go next? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Guy Ritchie, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is set to reach theatres in the United States on April 19th.