Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski may have helmed a disappointing sequel to a 1980’s favorite with Tron: Legacy, but his upcoming follow-up to Tom Cruise’s star-making role can steer clear of that movie’s mistakes. Released in 1986, the original Top Gun was a career-defining role for Cruise, a huge hit at the box office for director/action cinema legend Tony Scott, and an ideal recruitment tool for the real-life Air Force and Navy.

The belated sequel Top Gun: Maverick is arriving in cinemas in 2021 and promises to be even more action-packed and darker than the original. However, Top Gun: Maverick isn’t Joseph Kosinski’s first attempt to follow up a beloved ‘80s property – and his first try met with mixed results. There’s no denying that, between the underrated Cruise-starring sci-fi Oblivion and 2017’s unfairly forgotten drama Only The Brave, Joseph Kosinski has since proven a more-than-capable blockbuster helmer.

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But his first big movie was 2010’s Tron: Legacy, which may have done solid business at the box office but met with lukewarm reviews. Like Top Gun: Maverick, Tron: Legacy attempted to revisit another cheesy 80s classic, the arcade-game influenced Tron. However, by turning the original hero into a villain and rendering the first film’s cartoony aesthetic too coldly realistic, Tron: Legacy missed the mark as a sequel.

However, viewers need not be concerned when it comes to Kosinski’s second attempt to make a sequel to a beloved ‘80s favorite. Top Gun: Maverick comes with the star power of Cruise where Tron: Legacy featured a new lead character. Meanwhile, the intervening decade has seen resurgent public interest in 1980s nostalgia strengthened by everything from Stranger Things to Wonder Woman 1984, whereas Legacy was attempting to capitalize on a trend that wasn’t even in fashion yet by 2010. Furthermore, Maverick’s far more impressive supporting cast proves that the Top Gun series, unlike Tron, doesn’t center around only one performance.

Where the sparse settings of Tron required Jeff Bridges to be at his most charming, the fuller cast of the original Top Gun gave Cruise’s reckless antihero room to brood and butt heads with Iceman, Viper, and company before learning his lesson. With Maverick’s new cast including the likes of Whiplash star Miles Teller and Jon Hamm, there is no end of new egos for Cruise’s pilot to bounce off, meaning the sequel is less likely to struggle with creating and maintaining a meaningful emotional impact that Tron: Legacy lacked. All told, the stellar supporting cast and bigger interest in all things 1980s ensure that Top Gun: Maverick is all but guaranteed a better shot with both critics and the box office.

Key Release Dates
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  • Top Gun: Maverick/Top Gun 2 (2022)Release date: May 27, 2022
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Cathal Gunning
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Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies and TV online since 2020. His obsessions include The Simpsons, Stephen King, the Scream series, and the horror genre in general. He has spent more time thinking about Stranger Things than the writers of Stranger Things, and he has never seen a Star War.

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