Original Top Gun stars Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer are returning for Top Gun 2, but now a newcomer is joining the cast.

It’s being reported that Whiplash star Miles Teller has signed on for the sequel, which is officially titled Top Gun: Maverick. But while he wasn’t in the original—in fact, he hadn’t even been born when the original was released—he is playing a character very much tied to the original. Teller will be playing the protege of Cruise’s Maverick, and the son of Maverick’s co-pilot in the original, Goose, who was played by Anthony Edwards.

The sequel, which went into production at the end of May, will be set in a world where fighter pilots have taken a back seat to the rise of unmanned drone technology.

Directing the movie is Joseph Kosinski, who previously worked with Cruise on Oblivion, and most recently worked with Teller on last year’s Only the Brave. Justin Marks (The Jungle Book, Counterpart), Eric Warren Singer (American Hustle, The International), and Peter Craig (The Hunger Games, The Town) wrote the screenplay.

Top Gun: Maverick is currently scheduled to be released in theaters just about one year from now, on July 12, 2019.

[Source: Variety]

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