Top Gun 3 might seem like a no-brainer for Tom Cruise after Maverick’s success, but Edge of Tomorrow 2 would be a more exciting sequel for the actor.
The blockbuster success of Top Gun: Maverick has resulted in calls for Tom Cruise to get back in the cockpit and make Top Gun 3, but Edge of Tomorrow 2 would be a much more exciting sequel starring the actor. With his tenure in the Mission: Impossible series coming to a close, Cruise will soon be free to revisit his other franchises. After Top Gun: Maverick seemed to single-handedly save the movie industry and proved that old-school blockbusters aren’t quite dead yet, Paramount will undoubtedly want Cruise to return for a threequel. But a different Cruise-starring blockbuster is more deserving of a sequel.
As far back as 2015, Edge of Tomorrow (and Top Gun: Maverick) co-writer Christopher McQuarrie confirmed (via Collider) that a concept for the sequel is “locked and loaded.” In August 2023, Edge of Tomorrow co-star Emily Blunt said that she’s “so ready” to make a sequel and that she’s read a script for it, but she added that Cruise’s busy schedule was preventing the follow-up from going forward. With Cruise’s Mission: Impossible arc coming to an end, there might finally be room in his schedule to squeeze in Edge of Tomorrow 2.
Edge Of Tomorrow 2 Can Tell A More Interesting Tom Cruise Story Than Top Gun 3
As tempting as it might be to revisit the world of Top Gun in a third movie and see a new batch of aerial stunts roaring across the big screen, a threequel isn’t really necessary from a creative standpoint. The story of Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell came to a definitive conclusion in Top Gun: Maverick, as he reconciled his differences with Rooster and became a responsible father figure, and that was a great ending for the character. Top Gun 3 has nowhere left to take the character and would inevitably end up rehashing old storylines.
Unlike Top Gun 3, there’s a lot of narrative potential in Edge of Tomorrow 2. The original Edge of Tomorrow ended on a bittersweet cliffhanger as Tom Cruise’s Bill Cage defeated the alien invaders, then paid a visit to his sidekick, Emily Blunt’s Rita Vrataski, and found that she didn’t recognize him. There’s a lot of potential for Edge of Tomorrow 2 to further explore Cage and Vrataski’s relationship when the aliens return or an even greater extraterrestrial threat arrives, or the timeline gets screwed up even more irreparably than before.
Tom Cruise Could Take Edge Of Tomorrow 2 To Another Level (Like He Did Top Gun 2)
Tom Cruise keeps pushing the boundaries of big-screen spectacle and blockbuster filmmaking further and further with each new movie. His innovations in action cinema have often been collaborations with writer and director Christopher McQuarrie. When they’re done with the Mission: Impossible franchise, the two could bring their unique action movie partnership back to the world of Edge of Tomorrow. As great as the original movie is, there’s room for Edge of Tomorrow 2 to go bigger and bolder, whereas the industry-saving vision of Top Gun: Maverick will be near-impossible to surpass in Top Gun 3.
Source: Collider
