Top Gun 2 release delayed again amid coronavirus outbreak

Paramount has made a crushing announcement as fans eagerly await the sequel to the Tom Cruise blockbuster.

The highly anticipated Top Gun sequel has been more than 35 years in the making – but thanks to coronavirus, fans will have to wait a bit longer before it hits our screens.

Paramount has announced it’s delaying several releases – including Tom Cruise’s Top Gun 2: Maverick and Mission Impossible: 7 – amid uncertainty over the Delta strain’s impact on box office sales.

Top Gun: Maverick will be released next year.

Top Gun 2 was initially slated for a November release, but will now open in May 2022, while Mission Impossible 7 has been pushed back to September, 2022.

The studio has also postponed Jackass Forever from next month to February 2022.

The original Top Gun was released in 1986. Picture: Paramount

It comes just one day after the release date for the latest Bond outing was once again moved back.

No Time To Die is now due to hit cinemas on November 11 (Covid-willing) – more than 18 months after its original release date.

The final Bond movie to star Daniel Craig as the super spy was initially scheduled for release in April 2020, but became the first blockbuster movie to be postponed as coronavirus began to sweep the globe.

The first reschedule was to November 2020 before it was moved again to April 2021. Prior to yesterday’s announcement, it had been slated for an October release.

No Time To Die has once again been postponed. Picture: Universal

Despite the huge scheduling shifts this week, there are still several major films currently set for release in the coming months.

Disney’s latest MCU offering, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, premieres today (outside of lockdown areas), followed by The Eternals on October 28.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage has been given a new release date of October 14, 2021, although there are rumours Sony is considering another delay.

Ghostbuster: Afterlife is due out on December 2 this year, followed by Spider-Man: No Way Home on December 17.

Scarlett Johansson in Black Widow. Picture: Marvel

Earlier this year, Disney released some of its slate on Disney+ as a result of the pandemic, uploading big releases like Black Widow, Cruella and Jungle Cruise to their Disney+ Premier Access tier, which comes with an extra price tag.

Warner Bros. followed a similar path in the US, releasing its entire slate of 2021 movies straight to US streaming service HBO Max for free and streaming them for 31 days on the platform.