Tom Cruise says filming has finally started on ‘Top Gun 2’

The long-anticipated sequel to Tom Cruise’s iconic 1980s fighter-pilot movie “Top Gun” has started filming.

Star Cruise, 55, posted an image across his social media Thursday showing himself in a full-body shot as his character, Lt. Pete Mitchell, in a Navy flight uniform and holding a red-white-and-blue crash helmet with the nickname “Maverick” emblazoned on it. He looks away from the camera in early-morning light and toward a fighter jet in the background. Superimposed is graphical text reading in capital letters, “Feel the need”—a reference to a catchphrase from the movie, in which Maverick says, “I feel the need … ” and buddy Nick “Goose” Bradshaw responds, “…the need for speed!”

Variety said the sequel had begun shooting in the United States.

A year ago almost to the day, Cruise confirmed a sequel was in active development. “It’s true. … Yeah, it’s true,” Cruise said on the Australian morning show “Sunrise” when asked about persistent rumors. “You know what, we’re—I’m going to start filming it probably in the next year. … It is definitely happening.”

The 1986 action-drama “Top Gun” centered on Cruise’s cocky F-14 Tomcat pilot and his romance with Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood ( Kelly McGillis), his astrophysics instructor at the Navy’s elite Fighter Weapons School. Directed by Tony Scott and also starring Anthony Edwards and Val Kilmer, it grossed $356.8 million worldwide and earned four Oscar nominations, winning for its song “Take My Breath Away.”