First Look at ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ as Production Begins

Variety reports that filming has begun on Top Gun: Maverick, the long-awaited sequel to the classic 1986 film, Top Gun. Tom Cruise, who will reprise his role as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in the film, tweeted out the below image of Maverick staring down an F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet.

Plot details are scarce, but it is known that the story will revolve around Maverick’s job as a flight instructor, rather than his role as a hotshot young pilot in the original. If Hollywood has taught me anything, I’d wager that Maverick will find himself struggling to reach a young, hotshot pilot and teach him the error of his ways. The film will also have a focus on drone technology, and it will touch on the fact that dog-fighting (which was so prevalent in the first film) has basically been put out to pasture thanks to advancements in technology.

Joseph Kosinski (Only the Brave, Oblivion), who is directing the sequel, told ComingSoon.net that the use of advanced technology in the film, along with the mindset of the characters, will be “appropriate for the times we live in.”

“The navy is very different now than it was in 1986,” said Kosinski. “It’s just a different world now, so you can’t remake the first movie. It has to adapt, [but] I certainly want to re-create the experience of that movie, which gives you a front seat into the world of naval aviation and what it’s like to be in a fighter jet.”

Eric Warren Singer, who worked with Kosinski on 2017’s Only the Brave, wrote the screenplay, along with Peter Craig (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay) and Justin Marks (The Jungle Book). Paramount Pictures is distributing the film, which is being produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Films and Skydance Media. Cruise also pulls double duty as a producer.