Tom Cruise is on his way back to the forefront soon, hoping to add to a long run of success that has continued into the 2020s. Next up, the legendary action star will take on a wild new role in Alejandro Iñárritu’s Digger, which will give him a new look and a Southern accent that makes him almost unrecognizable compared to his past action movies. Here, he will play an oil baron named Digger Rockwell, whose oil company sets off “an ecological disaster that could also spark a nuclear war.” He teams up with an A-list cast, including John Goodman as the United States President, Riz Ahmed as the President’s assistant, and others like Jesse Plemons and Michael Stuhlbarg in undisclosed roles.
Most of the last decade for Cruise has shown him as Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible franchise, which finally came to an end in 2025 with Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning. However, even with the success of that franchise, only one Cruise film may have outdone that saga in recent years. Now, that movie (and its predecessor) are set to return to the spotlight — flybys and all.
Tom Cruise announced that both 1986’s Top Gun and 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick will be re-released in theaters on May 13 for only one week. This will help celebrate the 40th anniversary of the original Top Gun, which blasted into theaters on May 16, 1986. The first movie became the highest-grossing movie of 1986 upon its release, grossing just under $360 million globally at the box office.
36 years later, Top Gun: Maverick blew those numbers out of the water and grossed over $1.5 billion globally. It became the second-highest-grossing movie of 2022 (only trailing James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water) and still ranks as the 15th-highest-grossing film of all-time.
While Top Gun changed the game for movies upon its initial release, Maverick became one of the most pivotal theatrical releases in recent memory. Outside of Spider-Man: No Way Home, it was regarded as one of the key films to help bring theater-goers back to the big screen in 2022 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, gaining almost universal praise for its story and action. Cruise put forth a masterful performance alongside top-tier new characters played by stars like Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Monica Barbaro, and more. It even brought back the late Val Kilmer to reprise his role as Tom “Iceman” Kazansky during his battle with throat cancer, which turned out to be the final movie role he played before his death.
Now, Cruise is set to continue his tenure as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in a third Top Gun movie, which is in early development for Paramount. Story details have not been revealed yet, nor have any cast members other than Cruise. However, considering how big the first two movies became, expectations are high for Cruise in his return to the danger zone.
Release Date
May 27, 2022
Runtime
130 Minutes