Oscars 2023: Why 'Top Gun: Maverick' Star Tom Cruise is Missing

Tom Cruise was everywhere during the awards season as Hollywood celebrated the incredible box office susccess of Top Gun: Maverick. Unforutnately, he will not be at Hollywood's biggest night Sunday as he will miss the 95th Academy Awards. Cruise flew back to the U.K. to continue working on the next Mission: Impossible films, reports Deadline.

Cruise missed out on a Best Actor nomination for Maverick, but he is up for Best Picture as a producer. If Maverick pulled off a shocking upset and won, producers Jerry Bruckheimer and David Ellison would go to the Dolby Theatre stage to accept the award. Mission: Impossible director Christopher McQuarrie was also nominated as a producer on Maverick. Cruise could do a video introduction for Lady Gaga's performance of the Maverick song "Hold My Hand." Maverick is also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound, Best Film Editing, and Best Visual Effects.

There was speculation that Cruise would be considered for presenting the Best Actress category, but that idea was dismissed. That role is empty since last year's Best Actor winner, Will Smith, was banned from Oscars events for 10 years after slapping Chris Rock. Typically, the previous year's acting winners present the opposite gender awards at the ceremony. This year, Jessica Chastain, Ariana DeBose, and Troy Kotsur will present Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress, respectively.

During the awards season, Cruise was celebrated for helping to bring audiences back to the movie theaters with Top Gun: Maverick. The actor famoulsy refused to release it to streaming during the early days of the pandemic, and the gamble paid off. Maverick grossed over $1.4 billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film of Cruise's career. Steven Spielberg even told Cruise he "saved Hollyood's ass" at the Academy luncheon in February.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One will hit theaters on July 14. Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt, alongside Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, and Vanessa Kirby. Paramount will release Dead Reckoning Part Two on June 28, 2024. Part Two is planned to be Cruise's final Mission: Impossible movie.

The 95th Academy Awards start at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on ABC, live from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Jimmy Kimmel is hosting for the third time. Aside from Maverick, the nominees for Best Picture are All Quiet on the Western Front, Avatar: The Way of Water, The Banshees of Inisherin, Elvis, Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Fabelmans, Tar, Triangle of Sadness, and Women Talking.