Top Gun: Maverick's first trailer has Tom Cruise, aerial acrobatics, and a funeral

Do you feel the need? The need for speed? Well, you're about to Lieutenant, because Tom Cruise just surprised SDCC with a trailer for Top Gun: Maverick, the follow up to the 1986 blockbuster. It's got it all, aerial acrobatics, Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, and just enough of the original Top Gun score to give you goosebumps. "It's a love letter to aviation," Cruise told the crowd at SDCC.

"I was always asked ‘When are you going to do another one?’ Well, you’ve been very patient with me. I felt like it was my responsibility to really deliver for you."

The first thing to notice about the trailer is how at home Cruise looks back in his flight jacket. Say what you will about Scientology, but the aliens have granted them the secret of incredible skincare.

The next is that Maverick might not have changed his authority-challenging ways, at least if his career trajectory is anything to go by. "You should be at least by two-star admiral by now," says Ed Harris in the trailer, "yet here you are, a captain."

More ominously, we see what looks like a funeral. I still haven't recovered from Goose's death in the original.

Top Gun: Maverick will be directed by Joseph Kosinski, and alongside Cruise and Harris will star Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Val Kilmer, and Miles Teller. It will be released in 2020.

San Diego Comic Con is here, so keep an eye on our San Diego Comic Con 2019 schedule for all the unmissable moments.

Rachel Weber is the former US Managing Editor of GamesRadar+ and lives in Brooklyn, New York. She joined GamesRadar+ in 2017, revitalizing the news coverage and building new processes and strategies for the US team.