Considering there was a time when Top Gun: Maverick to be released in summer 2019, it’s been a long wait for the Tom Cruise-led sequel to arrive. Well, Maverick is finally on track to be released later this month as part of the 2022 movie releases slate, and it’s already enjoying outstanding critical reception following a special screening last week at CinemaCon. Lady Gaga also recently revealed that she recorded a song for Maverick, and now we have photos of her and Cruise exchanging kisses when the latter attended the former’s concert.
When you see Top Gun: Maverick in theaters towards the end of May and/or listen to the soundtrack on its own, the musical lineup will include Lady Gaga’s “Hold My Hand.” Last week, the award-winning songstress thanked Tom Cruise, as well as director Joseph Kosinski and co-composer Hans Zimmer, for the opportunity to contribute to Maverick, and since then Gaga has shared a few looks on Instagram of her and Cruise sharing some affection at her concert.
Clearly Lady Gaga and Tom Cruise are fond of one another, and when Cruise decided to stop by Gaga’s concert, they spent some time together backstage and commemorated the meet-up with some photos. Top Gun: Maverick marks Cruise and Gaga’s first professional collaboration together, although given how well “Hold My Hand” worked out, I wouldn’t be surprised if Gaga lends her musical talents to another one of Cruise’s movies someday. You know what, let’s take this a step further: with Gaga having shown off her acting talents in A Star is Born and House of Gucci (among other projects), maybe there will come a day when she and Cruise star in a movie together.
For now though, “Hold My Hand” is serving as Top Gun: Maverick’s theme song, with Lady Gaga saying she’d been “perfecting” the song for years and wanted it to serve as a way where "we share our deep need to both be understood and try to understand each other—a longing to be close when we feel so far away and an ability to celebrate life’s heroes.” This will be the first time we’ve heard original music from Gaga in a movie since 2018’s A Star is Born, which featured hits like the Oscar-winning duet “Shallow,” “Always Remember Us This Way” and “I’ll Never Love Again.” You can listen to “Hold My Hand” for yourself below and figure out if it evokes the same kind of feelings that Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away” did in the original Top Gun.
Taking place three decades after the events of Top Gun, Top Gun: Maverick reunites audiences with Tom Cruise’s Pete Mitchell, who’s been dodging rank promotion and has now been put in charge of a group of Top Gun graduates for a special assignment. Along with Val Kilmer reprising his role as Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (who’s now the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet), Maverick’s cast includes Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Ed Harris, Glenn Powell and Monica Barbaro, to name a few. As previously mentioned, Tron: Legacy’s Joseph Kosinski sat in the director’s chair, and Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie all worked on the script.
Top Gun: Maverick lands in theaters on May 27, but keep an eye out on CinemaBlend for our official review of the sequel ahead of its release. If you’re interested in streaming the original Top Gun beforehand, you can do so with either a Netflix subscription or Paramount+ subscription.
