Tom Cruise shares Top Gun dream along with new images

Top Gun: Maverick Tom Cruise
(Image credit: Paramount)

We know Tom Cruise feels the need for speed, but with Top Gun: Maverick the actor told What to Watch’s sister publication Total Film that he wants audiences to get that feeling too after they see the movie when it premieres on May 27.

In a pair of tweets promoting its latest issue that will be released on Thursday, March 31, Total Film shares two new looks at Tom Cruise in the long-awaited sequel to the 1986 favorite Top Gun, along with a pair of quotes.

In one, Cruise says, "I want audiences to walk away saying, 'aw, yeah! I want to fly an F/A-18,'" speaking of the planes that Cruise and his character Maverick fly in Top Gun: Maverick.

Cruise also talked about the timing of the sequel, saying, "It was going to be now or never." He added that his top goal is for audiences "to have a blast."

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Top Gun: Maverick sees Cruise reprise his role as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell. Taking place 30 years after the events of the first movie, Maverick now works as a test pilot, actively trying to dodge the advancement in rank that would force him to stop flying. However, his career ends up taking him back to Top Gun, where he must confront his past as he is charged with training a new squadron of fighter pilots.

That past primarily comes in the form of Miles Teller’s new character, Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw, the son of Maverick’s old co-pilot Goose.

Other members of the Top Gun: Maverick cast include Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Manny Jacinto, Monica Barbaro, Jean Louis Kelly, Raymond Lee, Jay Ellis, Charles Parnell and one more familiar face, as Val Kilmer’s Iceman from the original movie is also slated to appear. Joseph Kosinski, who previously worked with Cruise on Oblivion, is directing.

Top Gun: Maverick is one of the biggest blockbusters of 2022, as it finally will be hitting the big screen after multiple release date shifts because of the pandemic. 

Before general audiences get to see it, Top Gun: Maverick will get its world premiere as part of the Cannes Film Festival, taking place in France from May 17-28.

Check out all the other big movies you can expect this year with What to Watch’s 2022 new movie guide.

Michael Balderston

Michael Balderston is a DC-based entertainment and assistant managing editor for What to Watch, who has previously written about the TV and movies with TV Technology, Awards Circuit and regional publications. Spending most of his time watching new movies at the theater or classics on TCM, some of Michael's favorite movies include Casablanca, Moulin Rouge!, Silence of the Lambs, Children of Men, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Star Wars. On the TV side he enjoys Only Murders in the Building, Yellowstone, The Boys, Game of Thrones and is always up for a Seinfeld rerun. Follow on Letterboxd.