Tom Cruise says there was no chance he’d let ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ go to streaming

The streaming era has seen virtually every major star and/or filmmaker in the industry take their talents to the small screen, with those who haven’t now in the minority. The promise of increased creative freedom, long-form storytelling, and huge amounts of cash is a pretty significant lure in and of itself, but it’s looking likely that you’ll never catch a Tom Cruise original on Netflix.

The actor has been single-handedly trying to revive the theatrical industry, whether he’s ensuring the cast and crew of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning can keep working throughout the worst of the COVID crisis to continue putting food on the table for their families, or resisting any overtures to send Top Gun: Maverick to streaming.

It was reported not too long ago that Cruise threatened to lawyer up when he heard his seventh outing as Ethan Hunt was in line for a Paramount Plus debut after only 45 days in theaters, while his home studio also flatly refused to sell the rights to his Top Gun return to either Netflix or Apple, even though there were potentially hundreds of millions of dollars at stake.

Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival (via Deadline), the A-list megastar didn’t mess around when asked if he had any inklings of having Maverick skip multiplexes in favor of on-demand.

“You hope you make a movie that going to entertain and engage an audience down the line. I want this experience not just for myself, but for others who want the experience. No, that’s not going to happen ever. That was never going to happen.”

Cruise is out there fighting the good fight for the cinematic experience, and he won’t be swayed by the deep pockets of the various combatants in the streaming wars.