'Top Gun 2' movie sequel news: Tom Cruise to reprise role as Maverick

Tom Cruise as Maverick in Top GunFacebook/ Top Gun

New details about the long-awaited "Top Gun 2" have emerged as Collider reports some new developments about the sequel. 

The website reports that at a recent "Terminator Genisys" press day interview in Berlin, Skydance CEO David Ellison revealed that the overdue sequel to "Top Gun" is in the process of being written and that Tom Cruise will reprise his role as Maverick, nearly three decades since he played the iconic role. 

Ellison said that there will be a time gap between the first film and the upcoming movie, and that Justin Marks is writing the screenplay "right now". 

"He has a phenomenal take to really update that world for what fighter pilots in the Navy [have] turned into today," Ellison said. 

The CEO said that there is an amazing role for Maverick and that there will be no "Top Gun 2" without the beloved character, adding that "it is going to be Maverick playing Maverick." 

As to what the movie will be all about, Ellison said that when one looks at the world of dogfighting (an aerial battle between fighter aircrafts, conducted at close range), it is not a world that exists in the same degree as when the original "Top Gun" came out. A lot has changed since Cruise's character shot some planes out of the sky during the Cold War. Now, unmanned drones have replaced actual pilots for many of the missions that take place in aerial warfare, making Maverick the traditionalist in the upcoming story. 

Ellison added that in a world we live in today where it's all about drone technology and fifth generation fighters, the film will explore the end of an era of dogfighting and fighter pilots, and that the movie will also feature what the culture is today. 

The "Top Gun" sequel has been in development for five years now, and when the project was first revived, Collider reports that Cruise was originally planning to return for a small role, but now, the actor is said to have a starring role in the sequel. The film will be shown in 3D and IMAX when it premieres in theaters.