“Top Gun” fans will have to wait a year longer than anticipated to have their breath taken away by Maverick and crew’s high-flying theatrics.
Paramount’s long-awaited sequel to the 1986 classic is now set for a June 2020 release date, according to Deadline. The film was originally scheduled for a July 2019 release.
The extended time is evidently needed to sort out some of the film’s more complex flight sequences, with stunning aerial visuals aided by special effects that have advanced exponentially since the original, a film that pulled in almost $400 million on a budget of just $15 million.
The first two days of filming were wrapped up at Naval Air Station North Island on Coronado back in May.
Tom Cruise teased the start of filming when he tweeted an image featuring an older Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell standing in front of an F/A-18F Super Hornet, a photo that squashed rumors that Maverick would potentially be flying the newer F-35C on his way to the danger zone.
Directed by Joseph Kosinski, who teamed with Cruise on the sci-fi thriller “Oblivion,” the sequel is expected to star Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Ed Harris and Val Kilmer, who will reprise his role as the playing-with-the-boys, volleyball-enthusiast Iceman.
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Teller will star as the son of Goose, Maverick’s former partner who met his tragic end in the original. The more seasoned Maverick is expected to take Teller under his wing as an instructor at the Top Gun school.
Whether the duo tackles the ongoing issue of physiological episodes plaguing pilots remains to be seen.
J.D. Simkins is the executive editor of Military Times and Defense News, and a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War.
