To say we’ve been waiting a long time for Top Gun: Maverick would be an understatement. There was a point where Tom Cruise’s return to the role of Pete Mitchell, who he first played back in 1986, was supposed to come out in summer 2019. Instead, the Top Gun sequel has been repeatedly pushed back for various reasons, but one of Cruise’s Maverick costars is assuring fans that this movie is well worth the wait.
As things currently stand, Top Gun: Maverick is slated to hit theaters on May 27, a little under three full years after its first assigned release date. Whether it will stick to that slot or circumstances will force it to move again remains to be seen, but here’s what Manny Jacinto, who was announced to be playing Fritz in the sequel back in September 2018, had to say about his work on Maverick while speaking with Variety:
It was so fun. I mean, man, we shot that three years ago. Before that, 30 years was the first one. 33 years people have been waiting... I can't wait. I mean, Tom does not disappoint. It was incredibly fun to shoot it, if I can remember it. It was the best experience and I'm so, so excited for people to check it out.
I can only imagine how Manny Jacinto feels about having shot Top Gun: Maverick so long ago and still not having seen the final product. It’s one thing to talk about a movie after having finished shooting it just a few months prior or even a year ago, but Maverick’s principal photography lasted for basically a full year across the latter half of 2018 and into the first half of 2019. Jacinto is clearly itching for not just the public to finally see Maverick, but being able to share more about his experience working with Tom Cruise and the other costars.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic started shutting down movie theaters in early 2020, Paramount Pictures planned for Top Gun: Maverick to come out on July 24, 2020. By April of that year, the studio shifted the sequel to the following December, and the release date has changed three more times since then (the IMAX CEO tried to stop the shift to May 27, 2022). In the time since he shot Maverick, in addition to finishing his run as Jason Mendoza on The Good Place, Manny Jacinto has also appeared in shows like Brand New Cherry Flavor and Nine Perfect Strangers, and he also stars with Charlie Day and Jenny Slate in the romantic comedy I Want You Back.
Along with Tom Cruise back in the cockpit, Top Gun: Maverick sees the return of Val Kilmer as Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, who’s now a four-star admiral and the Chief of Naval Operations. The other newcomers alongside Manny Jacinto include Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Ed Harris, Glenn Powell, Lewis Pullman, Monica Barbaro, Charles Parnell and Danny Ramirez. Tron: Legacy’s Jospeh Kosinski directed the feature film (and encountered some challenges along the way), and Cruise’s Mission: Impossible franchise collaborate Christopher McQuarrie worked on the script with Ehren Kruger and Eric Warren Singer.
If Top Gun: Maverick ends up being delayed yet again, we’ll let you know. For now though, expect it to still arrive in late May as one of the many 2022 movie releases.
