With their proven record of reviving a classic film franchise, the Creed movies can offer some valuable lessons on how Top Gun 3 should unfold. Top Gun: Maverick does an incredible job at upping the ante of its predecessor's aerial dog fights and adding more emotional depth to Capt. Pete Mitchell's overarching storyline. From dizzying, white-knuckling F-14 Tomcat sequences to awe-inspiring moments featuring Tom Cruise racing his Kawasaki across the runway, Top Gun: Maverick offers everything that one can expect from a sequel.
Its monumental box office numbers and positive worldwide reception are enough for it to be followed up with another installment, but the franchise must now tread carefully given that it took Top Gun 2 more than two decades to see the light of day. Like Top Gun 2, the potential sequel Top Gun 3 will have to be technically marvelous with its aerial maneuvers and aviation technologies.
However, more than that, it will also need a concrete reason to continue Maverick's overarching narrative. Considering how the Creed series effectively resumes Rocky's story without tainting his legacy, Top Gun 3 can learn some lessons from it to move forward in the right direction.Like Rocky Balboa marks the end of Sylvester Stallone's titular character's boxing journey, Top Gun 2 brings a well-rounded closure to Tom Cruise's aviation endeavors as Maverick. Like Rocky, Maverick gets to revisit demons from his past, bury them for good, and rekindle his relationship with a former rival turned lifelong wingman, Iceman. Both literally and metaphorically, Rocky and Maverick fly off into the sunset and earn the standing ovation they deserve as their narratives seemingly reach their natural conclusion.
Dragging their storyline beyond these fulfilling endings would not only discredit their legacies but also dilute the overall qualities of their respective franchises. Therefore, it made sense for the Rocky franchise to branch out into a spin-off featuring Adonis Creed as the lead, which makes it logical for Top Gun to tread a similar path by focusing on Rooster in future installments. Creed's success also offers insight into how a young boxer trying to follow in his father's footsteps and legacy makes for a compelling narrative arc. Considering Rooster's history, Top Gun 2 can go down the same route while featuring Tom Cruise's Maverick in a new Rocky-esque role.
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