Top Gun: Maverick Star Comments on Their Future With the Franchise

Glen Powell's performance in Top Gun: Maverick was star-making for the 35-year-old actor. Powell has since gone on to star in Anyone But You with Sydney Sweeney which has passed $100 million at the worldwide box office; Twisters, a reboot of the 1996 film; and Hit Man as a professor who moonlights as a, well, hit man, for his city police department. The film releases later this year on Netflix.

Powell plays fan-favorite character Lieutenant Jake "Hangman" Seresin in Maverick, a naval aviator that is an elite graduate of TOPGUN who is brought in to work on a secret mission to destroy a Rogue Nation uranium enrichment facility before it can become operational. Earlier this month, reports surfaced that suggested a third movie could soon be in the works for the franchise that would reunite film stars Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, and Powell. The news came shortly after Cruise signed a developmental deal with Warner Bros. Discovery to develop both original and franchise feature films. 

Powell recently teased some announcements that are imminent and while he didn't reveal any details, he does appear eager to step back into Hangman's shoes. "There is going to be some fun stuff being announced soon ... but it was confidential to me," Powell teased in an interview with Variety. "I talk to [Joseph] Kosinski, Cruise and Jerry [Bruckheimer] all the time. There is stuff happening and it sounds very exciting. I don't know when I'll be going back … I'm sure there is a jet waiting for me sometime in the future."

While Powell seemingly confirms his involvement with the film, Jay Ellis who plays Lt. Reuben "Payback" Fitch, isn't as certain about his involvement in the franchise going forward. "I don't know if I'm back for Top Gun 3, but I hope that I am," Ellis told Deadline in a recent Sundance interview. "I'll be happy to suit up. Payback's ready if they need me, but I haven't had any conversations about it. You know more than I do at this point, so if you find out anything please let me know about it."

Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel to 1986's Top Gun, debuted in 2022 to critical acclaim, earning over $1 billion in the worldwide box office. The film marked Cruise's first-ever billion dollar project in his over four decades long career. Aside from reaching impressive figures at the box-office, Maverick become one of Paramount's highest-grossing films in its entire history, second only to Titanic. Maverick boasts an impressive score on Rotten Tomatoes with critics and audiences alike. It's rated a 96% among critics with a 99% audience rating.