Top Gun 3 has a way to keep Tom Cruise's Pete "Maverick" Mitchell relevant to the franchise without solely relying on him. The wait for Tony Scott's Top Gun follow-up proved to be worth it with Joseph Kosinski's Top Gun: Maverick becoming both a critical and box-office success for Paramount. The sequel focuses on Maverick's professional and personal arc four decades since he was last on the screen in 1986. Top Gun: Maverick ends with the perfect happy ending for the character, but between its financial potential following the sequel's billion-dollar haul and its quality, there's an assumption that it's only a matter of time before Top Gun 3 happens.

https://screenrant.com/top-gun-3-maverick-tom-cruise-perfect-role/