‘Top Gun 2’ Will Feature Tom Cruise’s Maverick, Modern Fighter Pilots and Drone Warfare

Top Gun 2 has been in development for years and years and years (and…you get it), but it finally prepared for take-off last year as Justin Marks began working on a script for the sequel — although not much else is known about the project, other than a hope that Tom Cruise will return to reprise the role of Maverick. According to the CEO of Skydance, that’s happening.

Per Collider, Skydance CEO David Ellison appeared at a junket in Berlin to promote Terminator Genisys, where he also opened up about the long-gestating Top Gun 2. A few years ago, it was reported that Tom Cruise would film the sequel before Mission: Impossible 5, but here we are in 2015 with the fifth Mission: Impossible film hitting theaters in just a few weeks — and no Top Gun 2 in sight.

Ellison revealed that Justin Marks, the screenwriter behind Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book, is writing the script right now, adding that Marks has a “phenomenal take” to “update that world.” The sequel will focus on contemporary Navy fighter pilots, and according to Ellison, it will explore their place in the military as drone warfare has become more prolific:

“t is very much a world we live in today where it’s drone technology and fifth generation fighters … It’s really exploring the end of an era of dogfighting and fighter pilots and what that culture is today.

When asked if Cruise would return to reprise the role of Maverick, Ellison was very enthusiastic about the potential:

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.

So there you go. If Tom Cruise says no, there will be no Top Gun sequel. So I guess there’s only one question he needs to answer, but you already know what that is.