Top Gun 2 delayed one year, sequel moves to June 2020 release date

Tom Cruise’s much anticipated sequel Top Gun: Maverick has had its release date put back one year by Paramount Studios.

The studio announced on Wednesday that the film would now open on June 26, 2020 instead of July 2019. Early production began this spring and was planned to resume in September.

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The extra time will give filmmakers the opportunity to work out the logistics of presenting flight sequences with new technology and planes, according to a Paramount statement.

News of the postponement came just one week after Jon Hamm and Ed Harris were added to the cast in unspecified roles.

Cruise, 56, signalled on May 30 that filming had begun on the sequel to his 1986 Top Gun with a Twitter post featuring the Ray-Bans, the Maverick helmet and a #Day1 “Feel the need” message.

Cruise is due to reprise his role as hotshot pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, now a flight instructor overseeing a diverse cast of pilots, including the first woman pilot (played by Monica Barbaro).

Miles Teller has been cast as one of the new pilots – the son of Maverick’s deceased Radar Intercept Officer Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards).

Maverick will bring a reunion between Mitchell and his nemesis Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, played by Val Kilmer. As late as this weekend, Kilmer was tweeting about his new “Iceman” action figure.

Fans expressed dismay over the delay on Twitter.