Top Gun: Maverick took everyone by surprise when it arrived more than three decades after the original. More than being a satisfying legasequel pairing star Tom Cruise with a new class of rising stars, including Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Monica Barbaro, and Lewis Pullman, it was also a top-notch action flick. All the acclaim managed to revive the franchise, with Paramount announcing a sequel in early 2024. But with sequel confirmation coming two years after Maverick’s release, and not a peep out of Cruise in the meantime, the timeline for Top Gun 3 is starting to look concerning. Will we have to wait another 36 years?
Monica Barbaro, who played one of the leading Top Gun students taught by Cruise to pull off an impossible, top-secret mission, gave Inverse a promising update. Barbaro reveals the cast has been talking about doing a sequel since they shot Maverick, and that they’re all on board whenever the movie’s script is completed.
“We’ve all been talking about the possibility of this from the moment we started filming our movie,” Barbaro tells Inverse. “We’re all in communication. We’re all friends. I don’t have any news to report, but we’re all just spirited about it. We’re all really proud of the film and we’re all in touch with Tom and each other. Of course, that would be a very exciting prospect.”
Monica Barbaro had to learn to play guitar and sing for her roal as Joan Baez in A Complete Unknown.
Searchlight Pictures
Barbaro’s statement corroborates what co-star Miles Teller teased to Collider about the highly anticipated sequel, suggesting they’re all just waiting on word from Cruise, Kosinski, and co-writer Ehren Kruger. (Glen Powell has essentially confirmed that he’s on board, and even has a production start date.)
Though Teller and Powell seem to be the most likely next-gen Top Gun pilots to return in the threequel, it would be great to see Barbaro back as well. As the lone woman with a speaking part in the class, she was a breath of fresh air. Besides, it seems a shame to waste the fighter-jet training that Cruise put the whole cast through. It’s a skill that Barbaro still values, and even rates as less terrifying than learning to sing and play guitar for her upcoming role in A Complete Unknown.
“I actually really love flying,” Barbaro says. “As strange as it may sound, I was more terrified to sing in a room full of people than I was to fly in fighter jets.”
A Complete Unknown arrives in theaters on December 25.
