Paramount Pictures made several changes to its release calendar on Friday, including new release dates for two upcoming Tom Cruise blockbusters, Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible 7. This is the latest change for the highly anticipated Top Gun sequel, which was most recently scheduled for July. Now, the fans will have to wait even longer to see what Maverick has been up to since the original Top Gun hit theaters in 1986.
Top Gun: Maverick is now scheduled for Nov. 19, 2021, reports The Hollywood Reporter. This is four months after its previous date, July 2. The movie was originally set to hit theaters in July 2019, but it was pushed back to June 2020 long before the coronavirus pandemic. Once it became clear that the pandemic would seriously impact the movie business in March 2020, Paramount moved it to December 2020. In July 2020, Paramount delayed it again to July 2021.
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The new movie was directed by Joseph Kosinski, who previously worked with Cruise on Oblivion, and co-produced by the original Top Gun producer, Jerry Bruckheimer. Cruise returned as Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and Val Kilmer as Admiral Tom “Iceman” Kazansky. Miles Teller stars as Lt. Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, the son of Nick “Goose” Bradshaw from the original Top Gun. Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Ed Harris, and Lewis Pullman also star.
Paramount also delayed Mission: Impossible 7 until May 22, 2022, leaving its previous date, Nov. 19, to Maverick. Mission: Impossible 8 will not hit theaters on July 7, 2023. Christopher McQuarrie, who directed the last two Mission: Impossible movies, directed the seventh film and plans to direct M: I 8 as well. McQuarrie, who has become one of Cruise’s most frequent collaborators in recent years, is also a co-writer and co-producer on Maverick.
The news was not all bad, especially those excited about the G.I. Joe spinoff Snake Eyes. The movie was surprisingly moved up from Oct. 22 to July 23, 2021. Jackass 4 was delayed a month and will hit theaters on Oct. 22 now. A film about the Bee Gees was scheduled for Nov. 4, 2022, and The Shrinking of Treehorn was scheduled for Nov. 10, 2023. An untitled movie starring Ryan Reynolds and John Krasinski will hit theaters on Nov. 17, 2023, giving Paramount plenty of time to give it a title.
Lastly, an untitled Star Trek movie has been scheduled for June 9, 2023. This will be the first movie in the franchise since Star Trek Beyond opened in 2016. Kalinda Vazquez, who worked on Paramount+’s Star Trek: Discovery, wrote the script for the new movie, which J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot is producing.