Top Gun 2 started filming: What happened to Kelly McGillis? LOOK at her now at 60

It seems hard to believe that it is 32 years since everyone felt the need for speed, aviators and beach volleyball. Mention McGillis and you immediately think of motorbikes and that song, even after all those years.

The sequel has been a long time coming and Cruise’s announcement today has caught everyone by surprise.

The star posted a teaser image on social media and details have already been revealed about the plot and release date.

Everyone knows how enthusiastic (desperate?) Val Kilmer is to return, but what about McGillis? Is she returning, too?

Cruise told fans: “Stylistically it’s going to be same. Aviators are back. The need for speed. We’re going to have big, fast machines. It’s going to be a competition film, like the first one… but a progression for Maverick.”

The energetic star has never stopped making action-packed movies since the 1980’s but McGillis has taken a quieter route. After major roles in Witness and The Accused, she has stepped away from blockbusters and takes occasional smaller roles on the big and small screen. One of her last TV roles was in 2014’s Z Nation, where she appeared as feisty as always.

The last time the actress hit headlines was in 2016, after a shocking attack in her North Carolina home.

She was left with scratches and bruises and posted an upsetting image of her at home with an oxygen tube on social media.

MGillis was pictured this week on Instagram, looking very happy on set for a new web series, Stages.

Still a beautiful woman, she has aged gracefully, but it is hard to see how Cruise will be paired with a love interest in her sixties.

Cruise is 55, but his wife in 2017’s American Made was played by 35-year-old Sarah Wright. In this year’s Mission Impossible Fallout, Cruise stars alongside Rebecca Ferguson, 24, and Michel Monaghan, 42.

Fans are still hoping for some more simmering sexual tension between Maverick and his bossy astrophysicist instructor, but the laws of physics and Hollywood probably dictate it is very unlikely.

Let’s hope Val Kilmer’s social media campaign to return as iceman has more luck…

So far, no other casting has been announced for the movie, but the plot outline reveals it will take place in the modern day  and address the new fears over drone warfare.

Top Gun 2: Maverick hits UK cinemas on July 12, 2019.