Jon Hamm Talks ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and Working With the ‘Amazing’ Tom Cruise

With movie lovers feeling the need … the need for speed, the long-awaited Top Gun sequel — titled Top Gun: Maverick — can’t get here fast enough. Lucky for us, Jon Hamm has an update and can’t help but gush about Maverick himself, Tom Cruise.

The former Mad Men star exclusively revealed to Closer Weekly at the 2019 NHL Awards on Wednesday, June 19, that they “just finished” filming and it will come out “next year — summer 2020.” That means there’ll be a total of 34 years between the two movies.

While that’s extremely exciting, Jon did reveal that there was a slight drawback to signing up for the project: having to say goodbye to his beloved facial hair. “That was the reason I had to shave, unfortunately. I took a lot of heat about that on social media,” he joked. “But admirals in the Navy don’t have beards so I had to know it down for that.”

As for working with Tom? “Amazing. He’s amazing,” the St. Louis Blues diehard fan said about the Mission Impossible star. “It was also great to work with [producer] Jerry Bruckheimer. He’s a big NHL guy. It was great to talk hockey with him and, well, he’s an [L.A.] Kings guy but he got to live vicariously through me during the playoffs.”

Though the late Tony Scott directed the 1986’s Top Gun, the follow-up will be directed by Joseph Kosinski. Also returning alongside Tom will be Val Kilmer — who played Iceman in the original — with folks like Miles Teller joining Jon as a newcomer.

“I think a lot of people are going to be pretty stoked to see it,” Jon — who most recently can be seen starring in Amazon’s Good Omens — teased. “I know I am.”

Top Gun: Maverick is set to fly into theaters on June 26, 2020.