One of the most prestigious films debuting at this year’s Cannes Film Festival has just dropped a trailer. That’d be Top Gun: Maverick, of course, another movie that has pushed its release date for three years as the pandemic continues to affect theatrical viewings. Finally, though, Tom Cruise’s sequel will take flight in May at one of the biggest film festivals in the world. (Action films: the new festival darlings!)
Pete “Maverick” Mitchell is harnessed and helmeted up again in the trailer, but he’s no longer in school—as a student, at least. Gone are his days in the sky with Iceman, though Val Kilmer does make a cameo in the trailer, as Maverick coasts the clouds with a new batch of scrappy youngsters. That’s right: The student has become the teacher in Top Gun: Maverick.
“Everyone here is the best there is,” says young pilot Natasha Trace (Monica Barbaro). “Who the hell are they gonna get to teach us?”
It’s a question that answers itself (in the most on-the-nose way), as the next words uttered in the trailer are literally, “Captain Pete Maverick Mitchell.” But the noted rebel isn’t ready to take on this big leadership role quite yet, reminding Vice Admiral Cyclone (what a name for Jon Hamm) that he’s “not a teacher.” Not yet, at least.
With his flyboy antics, Maverick teaches youngsters like Miles Teller (who plays Goose’s son), Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Barbaro, and Manny Jacinto how to sail the sky. Cruise is also joined by Kilmer, Hamm, Ed Harris, and Jennifer Connelly, who replaces Kelly McGillis as Maverick’s love interest.
This Top Gun sequel has been in the works since 2010 at Paramount. Originally slated for a summer 2019 release, Top Gun: Maverick was postponed to “allow the production to work out all the complex flight sequences.” Then, after COVID struck, it was pushed off indefinitely.
The film is now locked in for a May 18 premiere at the Cannes Film Festival as an Official Selection Screening. Joseph Kosinski (Tron: Legacy, Oblivion) directed the film, with a screenplay by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie. Cruise, McQuarrie, Jerry Bruckheimer, and David Ellison produced the flick.
Top Gun: Maverick will barrel-roll into theaters on May 27.
