It very much looks like Top Gun 2 filming has finally begun. A sequel to the 1986 Tony Scott classic has been in the works for a long while, with Scott initially set to return to direct a follow-up starring Tom Cruise before his death in 2012. Cruise didn’t give up, however, and last year set his Oblivion director Joseph Kosinski—who's coming off the firefighter film Only the Brave—to take the helm. We haven’t heard too much about the project since then, other than the fact that it’s definitely happening and that Cruise and Co. would like to keep plot details firmly under wraps. But with Mission: Impossible – Fallout finally complete, Cruise has now turned his attention to the Top Gun sequel, and cameras may have already begun rolling.

Officially titled Top Gun: Maverick, the follow-up will see Cruise reprising his role as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and will reportedly explore the effect of drone warfare on the U.S.’s fleet of Naval pilots. Cruise previously revealed that Maverick will maintain the tone of the first film:

“We’re gonna have the same tone that we had with the first one. Stylistically it’s gonna be the same. We’re gonna have the same score from Harold Faltermeyer. Aviators are back. The need for speed, we’re gonna have big machines. It’s gonna be a competition film like the first one, and it’s gonna be in the same vein, the same tone as the first one but a progression for Maverick.”

This photo looks to be of Cruise back in full Maverick get-up, or it’s possible he’s sharing an image from the first movie—Cruise has aged so little that it’s honestly kind of hard to tell.

Regardless, Paramount Pictures hasn’t announced any supporting cast or anything just yet, so I would wager it’s possible that Top Gun 2 is beginning what are called “pre-shoots,” which is filming that takes place before the start of principal production. That could be likely on a film like this, which no doubt necessitates a lot of extra aerial photography. Or it’s possible Paramount has been able to keep this thing so under wraps that principal photography is actually underway.

Further details will no doubt follow, but for now check out the exciting Twitter post from Cruise below. Top Gun: Maverick is slated to hit theaters on July 13, 2019.

https://twitter.com/TomCruise/status/1002062865971499008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

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