The highly anticipated sequel to 1986’s classic/action drama starring Tom Cruise as a U.S. Naval Aviator has been delayed a year to summer 2020.

Top Gun composer Harold Faltermeyer and Hans Zimmer are joining forces on the score for Top Gun: Maverick. According to Screen Rant, Cruise’s Oblivion director Joseph Kosinski is calling the shots on the film, which is also bringing Val Kilmer back as Iceman and features Miles Teller (the star of Kosinski’s firefighter drama Only the Brave) as the son of Maverick’s late copilot, Goose.

The newest recruit to be cast is Manny Jacinto, who will be playing a pilot named Fritz in the sequel. Jacinto will join the Top Gun ensemble cast also including Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell and Monica Barbaro.

Per Cruise’s video message at this weekend’s Hollywood in Vienna concert, Zimmer will be collaborating with Faltermeyer on the score for Top Gun: Maverick. The composer’s official website has confirmed the news.

In order to match the movie’s ambitious high-flying action and aerial sequences, it’s safe to assume that Zimmer will aim for something fittingly epic in scale and sound with his Top Gun: Maverick score. Kosinski’s previous films have all used music to great cinematic effect, starting with Daft Punk’s score for TRON: Legacy and continuing on through the director’s collaborations with Joseph Trapanese on Oblivion and Only the Brave. Zimmer’s involvement likewise assures that the Top Gun sequel will impress in the music department, however well (or not) the rest of the movie stacks up by comparison.

Noteworthy as already reported Maverick’s rides for Top Gun sequel will be a cool special painted F/A-18F Super Hornet (which experienced a mid-air issue while it was flying with Tom Cruise on board in September) and a new motorcycle that Tom Cruise already drove around airfield (as he did on a Kawasaki Ninja in the 1986 original) as shown in first pictures from Top Gun: Maverick set.

The highly anticipated sequel to 1986’s classic/action drama starring Tom Cruise as a U.S. Naval Aviator has been delayed a year to summer 2020.

The movie was assigned a theatrical release date of Jul. 12, 2019 last year, but unfortunately for eager fans, they’ll have to wait quite a while longer to see Cruise’s titular character take to the skies once again. Paramount in fact has delayed the sequel nearly an entire year, assigning it a new release date of Jun. 26, 2020.

The added production time will enable the filmmakers to properly coordinate and design the many breathtaking aerial sequences planned to be part of the sequel. Considering how well-remembered Top Gun’s flight scenes are today, it’s no surprise that those involved with Maverick intend for the sequel to up the ante in terms of aerial artistry, especially with how much special effects have advanced since 1986.

Top Gun: Maverick will likely feature the Navy’s new Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters alongside older Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets.

In August in fact, a film crew from Paramount Pictures was aboard aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) the same time the Navy began launching F-35C jets off the ship interchangeably with F/A-18E/F Super Hornets as an integrated air wing.

Tom Cruise teased the start of filming on the long-awaited Top Gun sequel on May 31, 2018with a tweet featuring an image of an older Capt. Pete Mitchell standing in a flight suit with his famous HGU-33 helmet (that wore to fly his F-14A Tomcat) in hand.

Top Gun: Maverick will also see Kenny Loggins re-recording ‘Danger Zone’ for the movie.

This article by Dario Leone originally appeared on The Aviation Geek Club in 2018.

Image: Top Gun.