It’s going to be a while before Tom Cruise fans can check out the daring actor’s next potential blockbusters.
Deadline has learned that Paramount is pushing Top Gun: Maverick to May 27, 2022 and Mission: Impossible 7 to Sept. 30, 2022. Top Gun: Maverick was supposed to release on November 19, 2021, a week before the Thanksgiving holiday, while Mission: Impossible 7 was supposed to release on the Memorial Day weekend date that Top Gun: Maverick now occupies.
Paramount made the decision to delay both Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible 7 due to the current conditions of COVID and its Delta variant. Experts seem to believe that theater attendance will return to some semblance of normalcy next year.
While Mission: Impossible 7 should be interesting thanks to the franchise’s tradition for death-defying stunts, Top Gun: Maverick seems to be getting a bit more hype due to the franchise’s decades-long absence. The 1983 classic was directed by Tony Scott, Ridley Scott’s brother, who died 2012. TRON: Legacy and Oblivion director
Joseph Kosinski is behind the new sequel that centers around a new team of younger pilots.
According to a recent interview with Top Gun producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Cruise pushed for the return of Val Kilmer, who played fan-favorite Iceman in the original film. Kelly McGillis was not invited back as Maverick’s love interest, however. That emotional gap will seemingly be filled by Jennifer Connelly, who plays a new character named Penny Benjamin. Top Gun: Maverick will include veteran actor Ed Harris as a Rear Admiral serving as Maverick’s superior.
There was a rumor that Sony was moving Venom: Let There Be Carnage from its most recent Oct. 15 wedge between MGM/UAR’s No Time to Die on Oct. 8, and Warner Bros./HBO Max’s Dune on Oct. 22, to Top Gun: Maverick‘s pre-Thanksgiving spot. Alas, no, as the Culver City studio announced moments after Paramount’s news here that they were dating Ghostbusters: Afterlife on Nov. 19 following the pic’s rave reception at CinemaCon last week.
Source: Deadline