Not many blockbusters manage to live up to the pre-release hype, but Top Gun: Maverick has only gone and exceeded expectations at every turn, and on all fronts.
36 years after first taking to the skies in Tony Scott’s classic original, Tom Cruise’s titular pilot returned with a new generation of recruits in tow, and delivered one of 2022’s best movies so far. In fact, it wouldn’t be hyperbolic to say that Maverick will remain near the head of the class by December 31, regardless of what’s coming to theaters between now and then.
A 97 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, 99 percent user rating, and over $250 million at the global box office (including a record-breaking Memorial Day opening weekend) in less than seven days is typically the type of results that have studio heads scrambling to plunge a sequel into active development as fast as humanly possible.
As you can see from the reactions below, though, some fans are seriously hoping that Paramount and Cruise resist any and all urges to make Top Gun 3 a reality, although others remain firmly on board.
If they want to wait a further 36 years, then maybe we’d be on board with an 95 year-old Cruise strapping himself into the cockpit and engaging in some more perilous aerial shenanigans, but that would be based more on sheer curiosity above all else.
The actor and producer already has Mission: Impossible to fall back on, with Top Gun: Maverick marking only the third role he’s ever reprised in his entire career, but the franchise is probably best left alone.
