Top Gun sequel release delayed

Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick.
Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick. PHOTO: PARAMOUNT

LOS ANGELES • The release of the much anticipated movie sequel to Top Gun (1986) has been moved to December, Paramount Pictures said on Thursday, the latest disruption in the movie industry caused by the coronavirus epidemic.

Top Gun: Maverick, starring Tom Cruise, was originally scheduled to open in movie theatres worldwide on June 24, more than 30 years after the original movie launched his career as a global action star.

The delay to Dec 23 was the latest in a series of blockbuster movies that have been delayed, including the new James Bond film No Time To Die and Disney's Mulan. The coronavirus pandemic has closed movie theatres in the United States and much of Europe and Asia.

Top Gun: Maverick picks up decades after the 1986 box-office hit and features actor Miles Teller as the son of pilot Nick "Goose" Bradshaw (played by Anthony Edwards), who is killed during a training exercise in the first movie.

Most of the big movies that make up the lucrative summer season in North America have been postponed. But Hollywood studios are hopeful theatres will reopen and crowds will return in late summer.

Paramount said on Thursday the animated The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge On The Run, previously scheduled for a May release, would now open on July 31.

Wonder Woman 1984 from Warner Bros has also been rescheduled from June to Aug 14.

REUTERS

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on April 04, 2020, with the headline Top Gun sequel release delayed. Subscribe