Fans have waited 35 years for Tom Cruise to hit the skies as Pete Mitchell again, patient for the release of Top Gun: Maverick. The bad news is, they’ll have to wait even longer after Paramount pushed Joseph Kosinski’s sequel six months to May 2022.
If spending three decades in development hell wasn’t enough, Maverick will now arrive three years later still. The airborne spectacular was first announced to arrive on July 12th, 2019; the latest setback is the seventh different release date to have been bestowed upon the blockbuster as the effects of the pandemic continue to ravage the industry.
Also, Mission: Impossible 7 was moved to September 2022, implying that Cruise’s schedule may be a factor. The A-lister was initially set to shoot his seventh and eighth outings as Ethan Hunt back-to-back, but COVID-19 put paid to that. He was also due to wrap Mission 7 and then hit the promotional trail for Top Gun: Maverick, before getting back to work on Christopher McQuarrie’s next globetrotting epic, but that won’t be happening either.
The fact production is still ongoing on number seven has altered Cruise’s upcoming slate dramatically, so his availability to promote his long-awaited return to his breakout role from Tony Scott’s 1986 original could well be a significant factor in why Top Gun: Maverick has been moved.
After all, Cruise is arguably Paramount’s biggest draw, and they’ll need that megawatt grin firing on all cylinders when it’s time to hit the press circuit. Good news for fans; they’ll be getting two major movies starring the action icon in the space of four months, even if it’s not happening until next year.
