Rumors are once again swirling around plans to create a sequel to Top Gun, 1986’s most fondly remembered parable about the benefits of slow-motion volleyball in stemming the spread of Communism. This time, word on the potential sequel—which will still be about drones, and which is still promised to include an appearance from Tom Cruise—comes from Star Trek and Terminator: Genisys producer David Ellison, who talked to Collider about it during a press day for the release of the latter film.
After briefly laying out his own love of aeronautics, Ellison plunged directly into the Danger Zone, insisting that he’ll be starting on the film—last seen in the hands of Jerry Bruckheimer, who was still working out what to do with it in the wake of Tony Scott’s death—as soon as the script is finished. Said manuscript will issue forth from the pen of Justin Marks, the man who wrote Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun-Li, a film which managed to beat out some stiff competition for its title of “Worst Street Fighter Movie Ever Made.”
Ellison also insisted, in a weirdly oblique fashion, that Cruise was definitely willing to appear in Top Gun 2, saying, “There is an amazing role for Maverick in the movie, and there is no Top Gun without Maverick, and it is going to be Maverick playing Maverick.” And while that sounds like the setup for the most Kenny Loggins-infused SAT question ever written, Ellison later clarified that yes, he meant that Cruise will appear in the film.
It’s impossible to know, at this point, where the dreams end and the reality begins with Top Gun 2, which has spent more than five years on the edge of losing that “existing” feeling once and for all. In any case, it’s comforting to know that, when the sun goes out, and the Earth is plunged into darkness, we’ll still be able to track the passage of time by listening for the periodic mating calls of optimistic producers, shouting into the darkness that they have Tom Cruise’s private phone number, they swear, the one that he doesn’t screen.