Jennifer Connelly Thinks ‘Top Gun’ Sequel Will Make Fans Happy

Jennifer Connelly expects fans to share in her enthusiasm for next summer’s Top Gun: Maverick, where she stars alongside Tom Cruise.

“I’m so excited about it! I’m making it, and I go to work and I’m like, ‘This is great,’” Connelly told ET of the Top Gun sequel.

“It was wonderful and it was reassuring because I felt like, ‘Oh yeah, this is gonna work, because, the way they’re approaching it, the way they’re talking about it, the way they’re shooting it, it made me happy and I think it’ll make fans happy. It really feels… I really believe in the direction they’re taking it.”

Connelly gushed over working with star and producer Cruise, who returns as Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell in the 33-years-later sequel.

“It’s been really fun. He’s so passionate about what he’s doing,” she said. “He’s so committed. He’s so dedicated. I have so much respect for that. It’s really been a privilege.”

Connelly’s role includes a trip to the Danger Zone on the back of a Cruise-controlled motorcycle, a recreation of a similar scene from the original that saw Maverick and Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Blackwood (Kelly McGillis) take a thrilling spin.

“That was a fast motorcycle,” Connelly said, heaping praise on Cruise, who famously insists on performing his own stunts.

“He’s an excellent driver. I was marveling at it actually, because we had this scene. We were doing that and we raced down the street and we pull up at the house that’s supposed to be my house and, like, not once was it even half of an inch off. Every time it was zoom down the street and then stop perfectly exactly on the mark. He’s got skills! For sure.”

Rejoining Cruise in the Top Gun sequel is Val Kilmer as Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky alongside series newcomers Miles Teller (Fant4stic), Glen Powell (Hidden Figures), Lewis Pullman (Bad Times at the El Royale), Jon Hamm (Baby Driver), and Ed Harris (Westworld).

TRON: Legacy‘s Joseph Kosinski, who previously steered Cruise in 2013 sci-fi Oblivion, directs from a script penned by Peter Craig (The Town), Justin Marks (The Jungle Book) and Eric Warren Singer (Only the Brave). Jerry Bruckheimer produces with Cruise and Skydance’s David Ellison (Jack Reacher, Mission: Impossible — Fallout).

Top Gun: Maverick opens June 26, 2020.