Top Gun sequel lands seven additional cast members
Despite getting pushed back by over a year, Top Gun: Maverick continues to fill out its cast in rather quick fashion. Deadline reports that Kara Wang (Good Trouble), Jack Schumacher (Empire), Greg Tarzan Davis (Chicago P.D.), Jake Picking (Blockers), Raymond Lee (Amazon’s Mozart in the Jungle), Jean Louisa Kelly (Ant-Man), and Lyliana Wray (Strange Angel) will join Tom Cruise on his latest trek to the danger zone.
Those seven new additions will join an ensemble that also includes Jennifer Connelly, Val Kilmer, Ed Harries, Jon Hamm, and Miles Teller.
None of the actors’ roles has been revealed, aside from a vague tease that Wang’s character will play one of two female pilots, with the other being the already announced Monica Barbara.
Top Gun: Maverick is said to be set in a world of drone technology and fifth generation fighters along with exploring the end of the era of dogfighting.
Joseph Kosinski, who previously directed Cruise in Oblivion, will helm the sequel, with Peter Craig, Justin Marks and Eric Warren Singer penning the script. Although the title Top Gun: Maverick floated around briefly, the film is currently without an official title.
A follow-up to Tony Scott’s 1986 hit has been in the works for quite some time, with Tom Cruise interested in reprising his role as United States Naval Aviator Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer previously outlined that the film will deal with the rise of unmanned drones and pilots becoming a thing of the past.
The original Top Gun was directed by Tony Scott and also starred Kelly McGillis, Anthony Edwards and Tom Skerritt. The film won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Take My Breath Away” performed by Berlin. In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
Paramount Pictures has set a Top Gun sequel release date for June 26, 2020.
