Glen Powell Jokes of His Future in Top Gun Franchise: ‘That Is All Classified’

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Glen Powell at the Sundance Film Festival screening of ‘Hit Man’.
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Rumors are swirling that Paramount Pictures is developing a sequel to Top Gun: Maverick, but Glen Powell is not at liberty to share more information.

During a panel for Powell’s movie Hit Man at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival on Monday, the actor was asked whether he could share any info about his potential future with the series after he memorably costarred with Tom Cruise and Miles Teller in 2022’s box office behemoth.

“That is all classified,” Powell, 35, said.

The actor played Lt. Jake “Hangman” Seresin in Maverick, itself a long-awaited sequel to Cruise’s 1986 blockbuster hit Top Gun. The recent sequel saw Cruise reprise his role as Navy officer Pete “Maverick” Mitchell more than three decades after the first movie’s release; it follows Maverick as he trains a new generation of pilots, including Powell’s character and Teller’s Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, for a top-secret and dangerous mission.

Maverick nearly made nearly $1.5 billion at the global box office upon its May 2022 release after several years’ worth of delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is the fifth-highest grossing movie of all time in the U.S. and the 12th-highest grossing film ever globally; the film even received six Academy Award nominations and won the Oscar for Best Sound in March 2023.

Glen Powell in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’.

Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection


The Hollywood Reporter reported on Jan. 11 that Ehren Kruger, who received a screenwriting credit on Maverick, is working on a third installment in the military aviation series. The outlet reported at that time that Maverick director Joseph Kosinski intends to direct the new film and that it would see Cruise, Powell and Teller — the latter actor’s character is the son of 1986’s Top Gun‘s Nick “Goode” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards) — reunite.

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Both Powell and Teller, 36, suggested in the initial aftermath of Maverick‘s release that a third movie was up for consideration. Teller shared in July 2022 that he and Cruise had “been having some conversations” about the possibility of another movie, though he said at the time, “It’s all up to Tom.”.

“There’s definitely been conversations [but] it’s above my pay grade,” Powell himself told PEOPLE in August 2022, when asked about the potential for another movie.

Danny Ramirez, Glen Powell, Monica Barbaro, Joseph Kosinski and Lewis Pullman on the set of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’.
PARAMOUNT PICTURES, SKYDANCE AND JERRY BRUCKHEIMER FILMS

“It’s really up to Tom. It’s up to [producer Jerry Bruckheimer]. It’s up to all the powers that be, but if they call me back to Miramar, I’ll be there,” he added at the time.

For now, Powell’s Hit Man is scheduled to premiere on Netflix on June 7, with a limited theatrical release expected before its streaming debut. Powell most recently appeared in the romantic comedy Anyone But You, while Cruise, 61, appeared in Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One in 2023. He is currently working on the eighth Mission: Impossible movie, which is set for a May 2025 release.