34 years later, Tom Cruise hopes to make a Top Gun: Maverick-style sequel to another of his classic action movies

Tom Cruise in Days of Thunder
(Image credit: Paramount Pictures)

Tom Cruise is hoping to make a sequel to another of his classic action movies, 34 years after it was released. 

The film, Days of Thunder, was released in 1990 and is about NASCAR racing. Cruise played Cole Trickle, a race car driver seeking to establish himself in NASCAR. The rest of the cast includes Nicole Kidman, Randy Quaid, Robert Duvall, Michael Rooker, John C. Reilly, and Cary Elwes. 

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cruise "believes he can work similar magic" to the follow-up to Top Gun, Top Gun: Maverick, which debuted to rave reviews and grossed over $1 billion at the box office. 

Per the report, crucial factors are the script, with the studio currently seeking writers, and Cruise's busy schedule. He's set to start filming Alejandro G. Iñárritu's next movie soon, then he's working on the Maverick sequel, too, as well as the Doug Liman space movie (in real life space, that is). Mission: Impossible 8 is also due out soon. 

"We had preliminary stuff," Top Gun producer Jerry Bruckheimer recently told us of the Top Gun threequel. "We're not there yet. [There's] ways to go." 

Top Gun 3 would see Cruise return as Maverick, with Miles Teller and Glen Powell also returning, along with director Joseph Kosinski. 

"I mean, I have a date," Powell recently teased of the threequel, though he refused to reveal anything else. Per THR, Cruise and Paramount think of Top Gun 3 as a "top priority," so hopefully we'll be seeing it sooner rather than later. 

While you wait for Top Gun 3, check out our guide to all the upcoming major movie release dates of 2024 to fill out your watchlist. 

Molly Edwards
Senior Entertainment Writer

I'm a Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English. 

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