Tom Cruise's Top Gun 2 to hit screens in 2019

Tom Cruise on the set of the 1986 film Top Gun, directed by Tony Scott. Photo / Getty

A release date has been set for the sequel to Top Gun.

Top Gun: Maverick will arrive on July 12, 2019 - a full 33 years after the original film came out.

Tom Cruise will return to the film in the role of Maverick, who is now a flight instructor teaching younger pilots. Val Kilmer has also said he is interested in reprising his role as Iceman.

The sequel is being directed by Joseph Kosinski, known for his debut film Tron: Legacy and the Tom Cruise-led Oblivion.

A sequel to the 1986 classic has been in the works since 2010, and in 2015 producer David Ellison told Slashfilm in 2015: "There is an amazing role for Maverick in the movie and there is no Top Gun without Maverick. It is going to be Maverick playing Maverick."

Tom Cruise told Access Hollywood last month: "Aviators are back, the need for speed. We're going to have big, fast machines.

"It's going to be a competition film, like the first one... but a progression for Maverick."

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