‘Top Gun 2' Is Happening: Will Tom Cruise Reprise His Role?

It appears Tom Cruise's character Maverick's need for speed will be fulfilled once again in "Top Gun 2."

Murmurings of a sequel to the hit 1986 film, which featured the actor is his breakout role as a handsome, badass fighter pilot, began around 2010. Cruise was attached to the project but the extent of his participation was not made clear. In 2012, he and "Top Gun" director Tony Scott scouted locations for the sequel. In August of that year, Scott died at age 68.

Co-producer and Skydance CEO David Ellison, who is also a pilot, talked about the movie again at a press event for his latest movie, "Terminator Genisys," Collider reported on Friday.

"Justin Marks is writing the screenplay right now," Ellison was quoted as saying. "He has a phenomenal take to really update that world for what fighter pilots in the Navy has turned into today."

"There is an amazing role for Maverick in the movie and there is no 'Top Gun' without Maverick, and it is going to be Maverick playing Maverick," he continued. "It is I don't think what people are going to expect, and we are very, very hopeful that we get to make the movie very soon. But like all things, it all comes down to the script, and Justin is writing as we speak."

PHOTOS: Tony Scott's collection of films

Cruise has not commented about "Top Gun 2." It is unclear if fellow past co-stars such as Val Kilmer or Kelly McGillis, who played Cruise's love interest, will reprise their roles.

In 2014, co-producer Jerry Bruckheimer talked about the movie and how it will incorporate more advanced military aircraft.

"The concept is, basically, are the pilots obsolete because of drones," he told HuffPost Live. "Cruise is going to show them that they're not obsolete. They're here to stay."

"Technology has changed obviously since we made the first one," Bruckheimer told Bloomberg. "So, I think we're going to take advantage of what the world is like today, you know with the drones really kind of taking over in a lot of our wars...Is the pilot obsolete? No, I don't think so...we're going to hopefully highlight both worlds."

He added that Scott was the one who came up with the idea. He also said it's "a lot of fun" working with Cruise.

Collider quoted Ellison as saying that the actor is "100 percent going to want to be in those airplanes shooting it practically."

"When you look at the world of dogfighting, what's interesting about it is that it's not a world that exists to the same degree when the original movie came out. This world has not been explored," he said.

"It is very much a world we live in today where it's drone technology and fifth generation fighters are really what the United States Navy is calling the last man-made fighter that we're actually going to produce," he said. "So it's really exploring the end of an era of dogfighting and fighter pilots and what that culture is today are all fun things that we're gonna get to dive into in this movie."

PHOTOS: Tom Cruise's best roles

Copyright E! Online
Contact Us