Tom Cruise says ‘Top Gun 2’ is ‘definitely happening’ and coming sooner than you think

Paramount Pictures

“Top Gun.”

After years of rumors about a potential sequel to the 1986 blockbuster, Tom Cruise has confirmed that there will be a “Top Gun 2.” And it sounds like you won’t even have to wait all that long.

While on the Australian morning show “Sunrise” to promote his latest movie, “The Mummy” (out June 9), Cruise was asked about the rumors of a sequel.

“It’s true,” Cruise said. “I’m going to start filming it probably in the next year. It’s definitely happening.”

For the last few years, more talk about a “Top Gun” sequel has bounced around the internet as reports surfaced that it was in development.

In 2015, Skydance CEO David Ellison said a script was being written and that the story would take place in the contemporary times and feature drone fighters.

“It’s really exploring the end of an era of dogfighting and fighter pilots and what that culture is today,” Ellison said at the time.

Later that year, fellow “Top Gun” star Val Kilmer confirmed that he would be in the sequel.

The original “Top Gun,” which starred Cruise as a hotshot pilot who’s training at the elite Navy Fighter Weapons School, was one of the biggest hits of the late 1980s, earning over $350 million worldwide on a $15 million budget. The movie didn’t just attract the male audience that wanted to see intense aerial action scenes, but women also flocked to the theaters thanks in part to Cruise’s sex-symbol status and the music that ranged from Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” to Berlin’s Oscar-winning ballad “Take My Breath Away” (used as background music to Cruise’s romance with Kelly McGillis in the film).

Here’s Cruise making the official announcement:

WORLDWIDE EXCLUSIVE: @TomCruise just confirmed that Top Gun 2 is happening! “I’m gonna start filming it probably in the next year”. #sun7 http://pic.twitter.com/X17xvxz4Q4

— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) May 23, 2017