Tom Cruise Brings Surprise Top Gun: Maverick Trailer To SDCC 2019
Tom Cruise has officially buzzed the tower at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, and he brought a sexy new trailer for Top Gun: Maverick with him.
In what's sure to be one of the biggest surprises of SDCC 2019, the Maverick himself turned up for an unannounced appearance at Paramount Pictures' Hall H panel, to the delight of a stunned Comic-Con crowd. Turns out, the megastar was on hand to deliver unto the world the very first trailer for the upcoming sequel to 1987's iconic aviation actioner Top Gun. Addressing the anxious Hall H attendees, the superstar said of the long-awaited Top Gun: Maverick, "For 34 years, you guys have been very patient with me and I felt it was my responsibility for me to deliver for you" (via The Hollywood Reporter).
Just to offer a quick refresher on the original Top Gun — because we're pretty sure some of you were not yet born in 1987 — the film followed Cruise's hot-shot fighter pilot Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, who enlisted in an elite Navy program to train the "best of the best" among naval aviators. Directed with kinetic energy by the late Tony Scott — and featuring an gloriously scene-stealing turn from the great Anthony Edwards as Nick "Goose" Bradshaw — Top Gun is widely credited as the film that turned Cruise into a bona-fide movie star, setting him on track to becoming one of the biggest box-office draws of all time.
That kind of success had people talking about a Top Gun sequel way back in the '80s. Over three decades later, that film is finally taking shape, and is set to fly into theaters next summer. It will do so under the direction of Tron: Legacy helmer Joseph Kosinski — who also worked with Cruise on 2013's underrated Oblivion — and will find Cruise back in the cockpit as the cocksure protagonist Maverick. The seemingly ageless Cruise will be joined on land, at sea, and in the air with a stellar supporting cast including Miles Teller as Goose's son Bradley Bradshaw and the "Iceman" himself, Val Kilmer. Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, and Ed Harris also star.
If the trailer is to be believed, the years separating the original Top Gun and the sequel haven't been entirely kind to Mav. Sure, he's still got the leather jacket, those slick aviator shades, and that rockin' motorbike, but much of the trailer finds Harris' commanding officer character dressing down the hot-shot for his grossly underachieving career, warning the aging flyboy, "The end is inevitable Maverick, your kind is headed for extinction." That ominous statement earns a very Maverick response in, "Maybe so sir, but not today."
Intercut with those words are a trove of breathtaking shots of aerial action, ensuring that the look of the film will harken back to the original, but also push the boundaries of what Scott and co. attempted over 30 years ago. Maverick's groundbreaking look was recently confirmed by Jon Hamm, who told Collider that the film's team was "using some technology ... that is never before seen." The Mad Men alum added, "We're shooting the movie in, I think, 6K. So it's incredibly hi-def. The aerial footage is mind-blowing. And it's mostly practical. There's not a lot of CG."
Of the "mind-blowing" aerial footage and stuntwork on display, Cruise confirmed at SDCC 2019 that "everything you see in this film is very real," adding that the film itself is meant to serve as a love letter to aviation. He reportedly then hammed it up a bit by telling the adoring crowd, "I have that lovin' feeling" — which is a loving throwback to the now-iconic barroom scene from the original Top Gun.
San Diego will certainly be buzzing about Cruise's Comic-Con appearance all weekend, but we've still got a bit of a wait to see if Top Gun: Maverick will live up to the hype. The film is slated to hit theaters on June 26, 2020. Until then, we'll just have to make due with the kickass trailer seen above — and the snazzy poster that came with it, of course.
