For a sequel to a film b🍷uilt around the need for speed, Top Gun: Maverick has been a long time coming. Recent additional delays caused by the pandemic mean that this sequel is finally touching down 36 years aft🉐er the original landed.

That’s a long wait for fans who’ve been clamouring for more since To☂ny Scott’s fighter-pilot drama took their breath away in 1986. But, Maverick, true to his call sign, has never 🔥played by the rules.

, Tom Cruise and the cast and filmmakers of Top Gun: Maverick talk in depth about the years in the making sequel. Below, you can check out three exclusive new images from the issue:

Thꦬe long-anticipated sequel sees Tom Cruise’s titular aviator, Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell, back in the cockpit once more. When we pick up with Mav in Top Gun: Maverick, he’s still taking to the skies as a test pilot, having avoided the promotions that would chain him to a desk.

A highly specialised mission requires him to train a detachment of graduates from Top Gun (the United States Navy’s Fighter Weapons School, to give it its more formal name). So we’re talking the best of the best *of the best* young Naval Aviators. Of course, among their number is Bradley ‘Rooster’ Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of Mav’s fo𒁏rmer Radar Interc♔ept Officer, Nick Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards), better known as Goose. Goose died in the first film during an ejection gone wrong, sending Maverick into a guilt-ridden crisis.

Top Gun: Maverick opens in UK cinemas on May 25, and US cinemas on May 27. Fo🐷r much more from Cruise, Teller, the new cast and the f⛦ilmmaking team of director Joseph Kosinski, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie, check out the new issue of when it hits shelves on Thursday 31 March.

If you’re a fan of Total Film, why not so you nev🀅er mꦜiss an issue? Sign up via and you’ll save money on the cover price, as well getting exclusive subscriber covers like the one you can see above. And with our current subs offer, you can also get a free pair of headphones.