Top Gun 2 will definitely star Maverick

Top Gun

Tom Cruise could yet show up in Top Gun 2 , if the team behind the sequel have anything to do with it.

Previous unconfirmed rumours had it that the star would briefly reprise his role of Maverick - the daredevil pilot who was the star of the 1986 Top Gun - in the upcoming sequel.

Now, screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie - most famous for penning twisty mystery The Usual Suspects - has confirmed to Vulture that “there is no Top Gun 2 in which Maverick is not the starring role”.

Which either means McQuarrie and returning director Tony Scott need to find a way to woo back Cruise (can it really be that hard considering the man just made the pap-happy Knight & Day ?), or find a lookey-likey big name to replace him (we hear Ben Stiller’s available…)

With the plot of the sequel, according to Scott, surrounding a group of Airforce computer nerds who control fighter planes by remote, it's hard to figure out just where Maverick would fit in. A Maverick piloting a remote control plane is not a Maverick we want to see.

Really, this could go either way. Cruise remains convinced he’s America’s hero, which could either destroy Gun 2 , or give it a vital edge. We’re hoping for the latter…

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.