‘Top Gun 2’: Tom Cruise Surprises San Diego Comic-Con 2019, and Fans Are Freaking Out

Top Gun 2 star Tom Cruise just surprised attendees of San Diego Comic-Con 2019 by turning up during a panel, and fans are freaking out. Cruise, who gave a star-making performance in the original Top Gun, has returned for the new film, which just dropped its first trailer. Cruise’s appearance at San Diego Comic-Con was set so that he could reveal the trailer to attendees first, and then to the rest of the world.

Entertainment Weekly’s James Hibberd was one of the first to reveal Cruise’s surprise appearance, with the journalist sharing a photo of the star smiling as he took the stage.

One follower jokingly asked if Cruise “jumped on the table” when greeting the fans.

One fan who was in attendance tweeted out, “HOLYS— [Conan O’Brien] JUST CAME ON STAGE AFTER TERMINATOR AND BROUGHT TOM CRUISE TO SHOW THE NEW TOP GUN TRAILER HOLYS—TTTTTTT.”

Another post revealed that Crusie took the stage to the sound of a “screaming crowd.”

Top Gun: Maverick sees Cruise reprising his role as Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell from the first film. Decades have past, and now Maverick is training Bradley Bradshaw (played by Miles Teller) who is a pilot trainee, and also the adult son of Maverick’s late partner Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (who was played by Anthony Edwards in the original 1986 film).

In addition to Cruise and Teller, the film also co-stars Jon Hamm, Jennifer Connelly, Glen Powell and Ed Harris, with original co-film star, Val Kilmer also returning as Commander Thomas “Iceman” Kazansky.

Hamm recently spoke out about filming of the new movie, revealing, “They’re using some technology on this that is never before seen. We’re shooting the movie in, I think, 6K. So it’s incredibly hi-def. The aerial footage is mind-blowing. And it’s mostly practical. There’s not a lot of CG. Those guys are really up in planes and getting thrown around in multiple Gs.”

“I think it’s gonna be, for the people who love the first movie I think it’s gonna’ be very interesting to watch,” he added. “It very much takes the story in a different direction. But I think for the new fans it’s gonna be something very cool, too. I’ve seen some of the footage, it is out of this world.”

Top Gun: Maverick was originally slated to release this year, but it’s premiere date was pushed back to June 26, 2020.