Glen Powell has just confirmed the major requirement Tom Cruise has before he’ll agree to get Top Gun 3 off the ground. Although 36 years passed between the releases of Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick, work quickly began on a third installment after the sequel became a massive success. Even though Top Gun 3 was confirmed to be in development in January 2024, updates on its progress have been sparse since then. That changed when Powell revealed the hurdle the planned movie must clear before it can go into production.

Recently, Esquire published a profile of Glen Powell after interviewing the actor about his life and career. In the interview, Powell initially said he is in the dark about efforts to bring Top Gun 3 to life. However, he added that the project won’t move forward unless Cruise is confident it could be better than Top Gun: Maverick. Check out Powell’s comments below:
I probably know as much as you do. I know general brushstrokes of a story. I haven’t read anything. Tom’s not going to do it unless he thinks it can beat Maverick. Hopefully I’m not the age of Maverick in Maverick by the time I make it.
Powell’s statement comes after Cruise briefly addressed Top Gun 3 while promoting Digger on The Jennifer Hudson Show. “Maverick’s going to be in it. There’s going to be fighter jets. It’s going to be cool. There’s going to be cool music. That’s about all I can say.” Before that, Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski spoke confidently about Top Gun 3. In February 2026, the filmmaker said there were still more stories to tell about Cruise’s beloved character, while confirming the movie wouldn’t happen without a script worthy of the franchise.
“Yeah, there’s still more story to tell for him. There’s one last ride. So we’re working on it now. Ehren Kruger, who wrote F1, is writing the script. Like all things, it takes a while to work things out, and we’ll only do it if we feel like we’ve got a strong enough story.”
However, since that update, Kosinski’s return is uncertain. Following Apple TV’s smash hit F1 The Movie, the director has a very busy schedule, which includes the upcoming Miami Vice reboot starring Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler. Meanwhile, there is no release date yet for the third installment. Any attempt to make the next Top Gun movie better than what came before will be difficult. Top Gun: Maverick’s reviews were overwhelmingly positive, and it brought in more than $1.4 billion on an estimated $177 million budget.

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Still, if Cruise’s best movies have revealed anything, it is that the actor should never be underestimated. After all, Top Gun: Maverick outdid the franchise’s original 1986 movie in virtually every way. That is especially noteworthy since it would have been reasonable to doubt it could even live up to the first film during its pre-production.

Cruise has also spent the last several years of his career mostly proving he can make sequels that raise the bar on what came before. Since 2015, he has starred in six sequels, many of which have created more tension and featured more dangerous stunts than their prequels. Most notably, he has headlined several Mission: Impossible movies that earned critical and commercial success. Given his track record, there are many reasons to believe Top Gun 3 could be the biggest film in that franchise yet.

Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick stream on Paramount+.

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