Top Gun: Maverick came out 36 years after its predecessor. Given this vast time gap, fans had assumed that the film would serve as a reboot. However, the film is a legacy sequel to the 1986 hit film Top Gun. Maverick sees Tom Cruise reprise his role as Maverick, a rebellious Navy pilot with an impressive aerial skill set.

Given the fact that Cruise recently turned 60 years old, one might also assume that Tom Cruise would show some signs of his age since the original film, but that is also not the case. Cruise is every bit the suave Hollywood hotshot that he was when his career began decades ago. His decades-long heartthrob status, combined with the obvious ability to still fill a movie theater in 2022, means there is really no end to the ways the actor can be utilized for the remainder of his career.

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Top Gun: Maverick was a massive box office success, and it’s possible that Hollywood creative types are already thinking of how to draw from that same vein of nostalgia. After all, how often do studios leave money on the floor? If the formula for Top Gun: Maverick’s success is going to be repeated, which of Tom Cruise’s films could be the basis for a legacy sequel? Here are a few possibilities.

Risky Business: Joel Goodsen as a Father

Released in 1983, Risky Business is an all-time classic party movie and is likely the spiritual successor to countless, more raunchy modern comedies. The film follows a college-aged boy named Joel Goodsen as he sows his wild oats, which entails everything from hiring sex workers to totaling his family vehicle. The film ends on a high note, with Cruise’s character being accepted into his straight-laced father’s alma mater, Princeton.

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This opens up the potential for a legacy sequel to the film where Tom Cruise is a successful professional whose own children decide to go out on rebellious escapades. It would be amusing to see Cruise portrayed as a worried father, given the fact that his characters, historically, have been the ones doing the rebelling. Alternatively, it would be quite fun to have a film that features Tom Cruise where his character is utterly oblivious to the illicit behaviors of his children, as is the case with Cruise’s Risky Business character and his father in the original film.

A Few Good Men: A Flashy Lawyer Returning to His Roots

1992’s A Few Good Men was adapted by screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, The Social Network) from his own play of the same name. It is a courtroom drama that centers around Cruise’s character Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee as he attempts to convict Colonel Nathan R. Jessup, a surly military lifer portrayed by Jack Nicholson, of war crimes.

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Though the events of A Few Good Men are self-contained, there is still a possibility for a sequel. Perhaps Tom Cruise’s character became an incredibly successful attorney after the notoriety he gathered as a lawyer from the well-publicized legal victory he had in the film’s trial. At some point, the character could have lost his way and stepped aside from complex moral cases in favor of flashy, lucrative ones. A particularly jarring case, perhaps military in nature, could draw Cruise’s character back into the fold. Jack Nicholson could even return as a character witness for the defense, who could be a former underling of Nicholson’s character in a potential sequel.

Days of Thunder: A Driver Rebuilding His Legacy

Days of Thunder is likely the closest Tom Cruise film thematically to Top Gun. In the movie, Tom Cruise plays a NASCAR driver named Cole Trickle. Cruise’s Trickle develops an intense rivalry with Michael Rooker’s Rowdy Burns and falls in love with Nicole Kidman’s Dr. Claire Lewicki.

Ideas for a potential sequel to Days of Thunder are rather obvious. Cole Trickle could be a washed-up race car driver, and his relationship with Dr. Clare Lewicki could have failed. His character could decide to reinvent himself and get back out on the track, a timeless basis on which to build a film. One can almost already see the reunion between Trickle and Lewicki (though this could be complicated by Cruise and Kidman’s real-life failed marriage), and one can easily imagine the checkered flag waving on a victorious Cole.

If the success of Top Gun: Maverick is any indication, it’s clear that Tom Cruise isn’t going to leave the A-list anytime soon. Modern movie studios are certainly not shy about turning any film into a franchise. Tom Cruise is more than capable of carrying a franchise, so it would be reasonable for fans to expect more legacy sequels to his past films in the future.