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Watch Tom Cruise confirm that ‘Top Gun 2’ is finally happening

Nick Levine

Cruise says he's getting ready to fire up the jets again.

Tom Cruise has confirmed that the long-mooted sequel to Top Gear is definitely happening.

A sequel to the ’80s action classic has been in the works since 2010, but Cruise has finally given fans reason to celebrate.

Asked for a status update on Australian TV show Sunrise, Cruise replied: “It’s true. I’m going to start probably in the next year. I know, it’s happening. It’s definitely happening.”

He then told the show’s evidently shocked presenters: “You’re the first people I’ve said it to – you asked me and so I’m telling you.”

Watch the clip below.

Last year, Top Gun producer Jerry Bruckheimer revealed that he and Cruise had met to discuss the sequel. “Just got back from a weekend in New Orleans to see my old friend @TomCruise and discuss a little Top Gun 2,” Bruckheimer posted on Twitter at the time.

Cruise and Tony Scott, director of the 1986 action classic, met in August 2012 to scout locations for a sequel in Nevada, but after the director committed suicide later that month, plans for Top Gun 2 were apparently put on hold.

However, last June the CEO of the production company behind the long-mooted sequel, Skydance’s David Ellison, revealed that a script for Top Gun 2 was being written with Cruise’s character, Maverick, in mind.

Ellison said at the time: “There is an amazing role for Maverick in the movie and there is no Top Gun without Maverick, and it is going to be Maverick playing Maverick.” While promoting Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation in July, Cruise spoke with cautious optimism about the sequel, saying: “If we can figure it out, it would be fun to do.”

Cruise’s co-star Val Kilmer later appeared to suggest he had accepted a role in the sequel, but then admitted he had “jumped the gun”.