Pandemic moviegoing has seen some pretty huge highs over the past couple of years, and 2022’s champion of the summer box office was, without question, Top Gun: Maverick. Expanding upon the story of Tom Cruise’s daredevil aviator in stunning fashion, Maverick got to team up with some really impressive young aviators this time out. Some of those members reunited on the SAG-AFTRA picket line, and seeing them all together again just makes me want a sequel now more than ever.
Actor Monica Barbaro posted some photos from a recent day in the actors strike, and present with her were fellow members of the Maverick cast Glen Powell, Danny Ramirez, Lewis Pullman, and Greg “Tarzan” Davis. Shown below through Barbaro’s social media presence, the urge to jump into the metaphorical cockpit and soar above the clouds with this lot is pretty strong:
This is true teamwork right here. Considering that these actors learned to openly vomit together on the Top Gun Maverick set, teaming up to march a picket line is a much simpler feat to accomplish. Inviting other friends and a dog to join the fight, I wouldn’t be surprised if Tom Cruise is feeling a sense of pride at the moment. Clearly he’s trained his fellow franchise actors well as aviators and as comrades.
I get that part of what made director Joseph Kosinski’s legacy-quel work was the decades that it took to get up in the air. At the same time, seeing things like Monica Barbaro and Lewis Pullman become high flying friends is part of what makes me want this hypothetical follow up to happen all the sooner. With plenty of Top Gun 3 chatter, but nothing officially on the books, that possibility is far from certain.
On a more hopeful note, you’d think that these hot shot aviators are still talking about this scenario amongst themselves. Since there’s a Top Gun: Maverick group chat in existence, you can practically imagine Danny Ramirez or Glen Powell pitching where they’d think their characters would be in a new chapter. And at the same time, Greg “Tarzan” Davis can continue to keep his Mission: Impossible 8 secrets, while sharing his own dreams of the same sort.
Perhaps having most of the gang back together in person will only embolden such talks to go further. Maybe once the WGA and SAG-AFTRA’s strike actions are concluded, Top Gun: Maverick’s cast will have even more of a drive to get back into the sky.
We won’t know until successful negotiations are reached, but it feels like this is just one more reason to hope that a fair resolution for all involved happens sooner than later. While we might not be seeing a Top Gun 3 on the tarmac any time soon, fans can still enjoy both of Maverick’s previous adventures with a Paramount+ subscription.
