Joseph Kosinski Says Top Gun: Maverick Will Be Finished On Schedule

Audiences have to wait a frustratingly long eight months to see Top Gun: Maverick, which was originally scheduled to open in June but was pushed back for… well, you know why. That doesn’t mean director Joseph Kosinski and his crew have rested on their laurels. In fact, Kosinski himself explained to ComicBook.com that while the release date has been delayed, his team has worked hard to ensure the production finished as originally scheduled.

“We are sticking to our schedule and finishing the movie just as if it were coming out on its original release date,” said Kosinski. “Luckily, I’m in the home stretch of post-production where, despite all the restrictions on how you can work now, I’m able to continue doing my job and finish the movie. Which is pretty amazing. If I were in any other phase of the project, it would be hard to do that. But because I’m in the tail end of post, I’m able to do everything I need to, to finish it. So we’re sticking to it and sticking to our schedule and finishing the movie and then just holding it for six months. Which is such an interesting thing to do, but it’s the right decision because this is a movie that people need to see on the big screen. And if there’s no big screen, then you don’t want to release this movie. We want this to be a shared experience on the biggest screen possible.“

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Top Gun: Maverick is set in a world of drone technology and fifth-generation fighters along with exploring the end of the era of dogfighting. Maverick (once again played by Tom Cruise) is now a flight instructor, who takes Bradley Bradshaw (played by Miles Teller), the son of Maverick’s late partner Nick “Goose” Bradshaw, under his wing. The film also stars Jon Hamm, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, Glen Powell and Ed Harris.

Joseph Kosinski, who previously directed Cruise in Oblivion, will helm the sequel, with Peter Craig, Justin Marks and Eric Warren Singer penning the script.

A follow-up to Tony Scott’s 1986 hit has been in the works for quite some time, with Tom Cruise interested in reprising his role as United States Naval Aviator Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer previously outlined that the film will deal with the rise of unmanned drones and pilots becoming a thing of the past.

The original Top Gun was directed by Tony Scott and also starred Kelly McGillis, Anthony Edwards and Tom Skerritt. The film won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Take My Breath Away” performed by Berlin. In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

Top Gun: Maverick is currently slated to hit the theaters on December 23.