The Top Gun: Maverick Trailer Puts Tom Cruise Back In The Cockpit

Usually going into San Diego Comic-Con, there’s a general expectation of the kind of content we can look forward to. But there are also a few surprises sprinkled in, and this year, one of those is Tom Cruise showing up to premiere the first trailer for Top Gun: Maverick. Not to worry, though, folks, because the preview has also been released to the public. Check it out!

Set 34 years after the events of the original Top Gun, Top Gun: Maverick reunites us with Tom Cruise’s Peter “Maverick” Mitchell, who by now, as Ed Harris’ character notes, should be a two-star admiral. Instead, he remains a captain, which Mitchell just looks at as one of life’s mysteries. Sure, we could go with that, but it’s probably more because, like a lot of Cruise’s characters, he refuses to play by the rules.

His lack of promotions aside, the Top Gun: Maverick trailer shows that Mitchell is still a flying ace after all these years. He’d have to be to still be allowed to fly a fighter jet after all these years, so for those of you worried that the character, for whatever reason, might be sidelined, that won’t be an issue. Tom Cruise even got to fly certain aircraft during Maverick’s production, though not the F/A-18 Hornets since those are off-limits to civilians.

The rest of the Top Gun: Maverick trailer is mix of new and familiar. There are shots that harken back to the first Top Gun, like Tom Cruise riding a motorcycle as a jet takes off nearby, while others give us a taste of what’s being brought in, like seeing Jon Hamm and Jennifer Connelly’s characters. If you look closely and don’t blink, you’ll even catch a look at Miles Teller’s Bradley Bradshaw, son of Peter Mitchell’s late wingman, Nick “Goose” Bradshaw.

In the decades since Top Gun came out, unmanned aircraft have taken aerial combat to new heights… pun slightly intended. While director Joseph Kosinski clarified a few years back that Top Gun: Maverick will not be about drone warfare, this trailer indicates it might factor into the plot somewhat, as Ed Harris’ character tells Peter Mitchell that his kind is “heading for extinction.”

Then again, maybe he’s just talking about the mindset and attitude that Mitchell and his generation of pilots have dying off. Either way, Mitchell makes it clear that while that may indeed happen, for now, he’s going to keep flying the way he always has been.

Along with the previously mentioned actors, Top Gun: Maverick’s cast includes Glen Powell (who auditioned to play Goose’s son), Manny Jacinto, Monica Barbaro, Charles Parnell and Jay Ellis, as well as Val Kilmer also retuning to play Thomas “Iceman” Kazansky, who’s a commander now.

Top Gun: Maverick flies into theaters on June 26, 2020, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for continuing coverage. For now, look through our 2019 release schedule to find out what movies are coming out this year.

Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.