Filming has not been halted in order for the actor to learn how to fly an F/A-18, but because the filmmakers need the extra time to get up to date with all of the current military weapons to get some realism included in the project
Paramount has confirmed that Tom Cruise will fly “certain aircraft” but not F/A-18 fighter jets in Top Gun: Maverick. Additionally, the studio also revealed that filming has not been halted in order for the actor to learn how to fly a fighter jet, but because the filmmakers need the extra time to get up to date with all of the current military weapons to get some realism included in the project.
Last week it was reported that Tom Cruise had put the filming of Top Gun Sequel on hold in order to learn to fly an F/A-18 fighter jest. However according to sources at Paramount, the sequel will continue to film through the spring of 2019. As for the flying of fighter jets, that isn’t true. But, Cruise will be flying some other types of aircraft that have yet to be revealed at this time. The actor already has his pilot’s license, so that will more than likely end up being utilized at some point in the sequel.
As it turns out, civilians are not allowed to pilot government-owned fighter jets. Top Gun 2 isn’t going to break U.S. military laws, which is kind of a bummer, but it has been confirmed that Tom Cruise’s Maverick will really take on some of the flying duties for Top Gun 2. It’s going to be interesting to see which of these “certain aircraft” that the actor will be featured in when the movie arrives in theaters.
As we have already explained the movie was assigned a theatrical release date of Jul. 12, 2019 last year, but on September Paramount announced that had delayed the sequel nearly an entire year, assigning it a new release date of Jun. 26, 2020.
Noteworthy as already reported Maverick’s rides for Top Gun sequel will be a cool special painted F/A-18F Super Hornet (which experienced a mid-air issue while it was flying with Tom Cruise on board in September) and a new motorcycle that Tom Cruise already drove around airfield (as he did on a Kawasaki Ninja in the 1986 original) as shown in first pictures from Top Gun: Maverick set.
Top Gun: Maverick will likely feature the Navy’s new Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters alongside older Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets.
In August in fact, a film crew from Paramount Pictures was aboard aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) the same time the Navy began launching F-35C jets off the ship interchangeably with F/A-18E/F Super Hornets as an integrated air wing.
Tom Cruise teased the start of filming on the long-awaited Top Gun sequel on May 31, 2018with a tweet featuring an image of an older Capt. Pete Mitchell standing in a flight suit with his famous HGU-33 helmet (that wore to fly his F-14A Tomcat) in hand.
Top Gun: Maverick will also see Kenny Loggins re-recording ‘Danger Zone’ for the movie as well as Harold Faltermeyer and Hans Zimmer joining forces on the score for the movie.
Entertainment Weekly was the first to announce that Tom Cruise will fly in Top Gun 2, but not in the fighter jets.
Photo credit: Revenge Of The Fans
Artwork courtesy of AircraftProfilePrints.com
