Top Gun Maverick stars explain why Top Gun 3 shouldn’t be rushed

You’d have to be a fool to think Top Gun 3 wasn’t being discussed – but according to the stars of Top Gun: Maverick, they don’t think fans should want another sequel so soon.

Top Gun: Maverick will serve as a case study of the perfect blockbuster. It’s one of the highest-grossing movies of all time, raking in $1.48 billion, and better than that, it’s an amazing film.

Naturally, people are hungry for more death-defying aerobatic action and Tom Cruise. But it’s worth remembering this: the original movie came out in 1986, so it took more than 35 years for the sequel to reach our eyes, never mind whatever’s happening with a third movie.

Conversations will be happening – money begets sequels, it’s simple – but should Top Gun 3 be rushed out to meet demand? Maverick’s stars don’t think so.

Top Gun 3 shouldn’t be rushed to make money, Top Gun Maverick stars say

In an interview with Dexerto, Monica Barbaro and Lewis Pullman – who play co-pilots Phoenix and Bob, respectively – spoke about the demand for Top Gun 3 and whether they’d be keen to return.

Paramount Pictures

Barbaro said: “Tom waited at least 30 years to even start having the conversation about making another one. And they waited for technology to be in a place where they could achieve something that had not been done before, and they waited for the right story.

“So, as much as I would love to be like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it again!’, I really respect that no one’s making moves just in the name of making more money. You know, they’re really, really deeply interested in finding the right story; the right… new ambitious feat.

“We put so much trust in in everyone who made this movie, and I just trust them wholeheartedly in whatever decision they make for the future. I wouldn’t wanna rush something just to make money.”

Kevin Larosa, one of the stuntmen on Top Gun: Maverick, stressed how committed Cruise was to authenticity, striving for practical effects and immersion over plumping for CGI.

The movie had to be “epic… that’s the word he gives us, and that’s the word we use every time we go up there. This has to be real.”

“We have to show aviation in a way, using the technology that wasn’t available back then on Top Gun. Now on Top Gun Maverick, we have to show the world what this is about. It can’t be fake, people know when CGI is in there,” he continued.

“For the most part, every single thing we’re doing is in there; we’re in the canyons at 350 knots, we’re chasing F-18s, we’re dogfighting with them, we’re doing everything for real.”

Top Gun 3 would be hitting a bullet with a bullet all over again

At the time of writing, Top Gun 3 hasn’t been confirmed, with producer Jerry Bruckheimer expressing doubt to GQ over whether it’d happen at all. “No, nobody’s said anything to me. They might’ve talked to Tom, but nobody’s said a word to me,” he said.

In our interview, Pullman cited Cruise’s comment that pulling off Top Gun: Maverick was like “hitting a bullet with a bullet… the success and the precision of it is as rare as hitting a bullet head on with a bullet.

“I think everyone realized that we kind of got away clean, and it was a big risk. And, you know, we didn’t wanna stomp on sacred grounds – we wanted to respect where we were, you know, the original.

“So, I’m sure everyone’s pretty trepidatious regarding the idea of going into doing a third one.”

Barbaro then added: “We’d never say no… but again, that’d be a big, big, massive responsibility.”

Top Gun: Maverick is available on DVD, Blu-ray™& 4K Ultra-HD™ October 31.