A new update makes Top Gun 3 the opposite of Top Gun: Maverick in one major way, and it’s slightly worrying. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, the long-awaited sequel to the 1986 classic featured the return of Tom Cruise’s тιтular test pilot, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, as he trains a group of young Top Gun graduates for a dangerous mission. Released in 2022, Top Gun: Maverick was a mᴀssive critical and commercial success that made nearly $1.5 billion at the box office and earned six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.
Ever since Top Gun: Maverick became a mᴀssive success, another sequel has seemed inevitable. However, in the years since, Cruise has been busy filming what are believed to be the final two Mission: Impossible movies, ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Reckoning and The Final Reckoning. Top Gun 3 wasn’t officially announced until January 2024, along with the confirmation that Cruise will return alongside Miles Teller as Rooster and Glen Powell as Hangman. Though it hasn’t seemed like the sequel is being rushed, a recent update is slightly concerning.
Figuring Out Top Gun 3’s Story “Wasn’t Hard” According To Christopher McQuarrie
The Co-Writer Revealed In a Recent Interview
Top Gun: Maverick co-writer Christopher McQuarrie shared a Top Gun 3 script update during a recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast hosted by Josh Horowitz. McQuarrie says the story is already figured out and was surprisingly easy to develop. Though he initially expected it to be challenging, the idea came fairly quickly during a conversation with his co-writer Ehren Kruger, who pitched something that clicked immediately. While the framework is in place, it doesn’t seem like the script is actually finished quite yet.
McQuarrie emphasizes that the real challenge is not coming up with the story, but executing it with the right emotional depth and understanding of what does and doesn’t work. He stresses that the most important aspect isn’t the action, intensity, scale, or technical complexity, but the emotional resonance. Read McQuarrie’s full comments below:
It’s already in the bag. Yeah, I already know what it is. It wasn’t hard. I thought it would be, and that’s a good place to go from is you walk into the room going, “Come on, what are we going to do?” and Ehren Kruger pitched something and I went, “Mhm actually,” and we had one conversation about it and the framework is there. So, no, it’s not hard to crack. The truth of the matter is, none of these are hard to crack.
It’s as you start to execute it, and as you start to interrogate it, as you start [to think] why these movies are made the way they are. It’s not the action, it’s not even the level of or intensity of or the scope and scale of the action [or] the engineering around the action, it’s none of those things — it’s the emotion.
Top Gun: Maverick Took So Long Because The Franchise Waited For The Perfect Story
It Came 36 Years After The Original Movie
While McQuarrie says figuring out Top Gun 3’s story happened quickly, Maverick took over 30 years to make because they waited for the perfect story. Though the original movie was a mᴀssive hit, as it was the highest-grossing film of 1986, Cruise refused to make a sequel for decades. A sequel didn’t officially enter development until 2010, though following original director Tony Scott’s death in 2012, its future became uncertain.
Top Gun: Maverick was not only a mᴀssive hit because of its aviation spectacle, but its underlying emotional arc centered around Maverick’s relationship with Rooster.
In the following years, Cruise continued to say no to a sequel out of respect for Scott, that is, until the perfect story came along, co-written by McQuarrie, Kruger, and several other writers who worked on the script. Waiting for the perfect story paid off for everyone involved, as Top Gun: Maverick was not only a mᴀssive hit because of its aviation spectacle, but its underlying emotional arc centered around Maverick’s relationship with Rooster. The story was so good that Top Gun: Maverick even earned an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, a rarity for action movies.
Top Gun 3’s Story Being Easy To Crack Is Slightly Concerning
It’s The Opposite Of Top Gun: Maverick
The fact that Top Gun 3‘s story came together so quickly is slightly concerning, especially when compared to Top Gun: Maverick, which took decades to develop precisely because everyone involved was waiting for the perfect idea. Maverick‘s long gestation actually helped ensure that every story beat was emotionally earned and thematically resonant. If Top Gun 3 is being piloted by the first idea that “clicked,” there’s a risk it could feel too similar, too safe, or too formulaic.
There’s always a possibility that the story idea is really strong, but that kind of immediate confidence can sometimes be a red flag in sequel development. The concern is less about speed and more about the story – are they interrogating what should happen next, or just what could? That said, considering McQuarrie’s incredible track record, not just on Top Gun: Maverick but the Mission: Impossible franchise and other Cruise movies, there’s good reason to trust his instincts when it comes to Top Gun 3‘s story.
While Top Gun 3 is in development, a release date has not yet been announced.
