Tom Cruise said he was asked to make Top Gun sequels "over and over" before Maverick, but wanted to prove himself elsewhere: "I wanted more challenges"

It is a truth universally acknowledged that, when something works in Hollywood, it will be exploited until its last breath.

After the massive success of Top Gun in the 80s, Paramount Pictures immediately asked Tom Cruise to come back for a sequel, but the actor recently recalled how he consistently rejected their advances. He had more ambitious plans as one of Hollywood's shiniest rising stars of the time.

"They really wanted me to make Top Gun over and over. But I wanted to develop my talent in different areas, and I wanted more challenges", Cruise said during a public event at the British Film Institute (BFI) last weekend, where he talked about his career and legacy (via Deadline).

After avoiding being crushed by the Hollywood studio machine, the actor went on to star in critically-acclaimed movies like A Few Good Men, Interview with the Vampire and Jerry Maguire. Eventually, he did reprise his role as Pete 'Maverick' Mitchel in 2022's Top Gun: Maverick, which quickly became a box-office hit.

During the London event, Cruise explained why, despite turning down the possibility of a Top Gun sequel, he decided to star in Mission: Impossible a decade later. It was Cruise's first credit as a producer too.

"It was about looking at Mission [Impossible] and thinking 'what can we do with action.' It was about how I can evolve action and storytelling and imbue that kind of storytelling with greater amounts of emotion. That's my interest. So I studied stunts and different cameras to develop my abilities and develop the technology," he explained.

Almost 30 years after the first movie, Cruise is coming back to the franchise seemingly one last time with Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, which follows the events of 2023's Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is hitting theaters on May 23, 2025. For more, check out our guide to all the upcoming movies and 2025 movie release dates you need to know about.