Here’s the scoop on new Top Gun

We’ve all got the need for Top Gun: Maverick.

Tom Cruise returns to his role as hotshot pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in one year, screaming into theatres on July 12, 2019. But details about director Joseph Kosinski’s film have been maddeningly difficult to come by, even for Martin Blair, who owns the Kansas City Barbeque restaurant where key scenes from the original were shot.

“We only hear different snippets; they are filming here or there,” Blair says. “There’s so much interest. People have been talking about this for decades and it’s finally happening.”

Here’s what we know so far: Filming has started, stopped and resumes in September

The Department of Defence, no less, confirmed that Top Gun was shooting at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego. After two days of filming away from prying eyes, Cruise jetted off to promote Mission: Impossible — Fallout around the world. Maverick will team up with Goose’s son

Top Gun focused on risk-taking pilot Maverick and his family-oriented wingman, Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards). The bromance ended tragically, with Bradshaw dying after ejecting from their stalled jet.

The new film will feature Maverick, now a flight instructor, mentoring Goose’s grown son. Miles Teller beat out a field that included Glen Powell and Nicholas Hoult for the coveted role. Iceman makes a return

Cruise’s main Top Gun adversary Iceman (Val Kilmer) will be back. Kilmerwas spotted in Top Gun headquarters in San Diego. Maverick is gunning the bike, but it’s a new one

Cruise was spotted by TMZ riding a motorcycle on the airbase Maverick set. So watch out for a homage to this classic scene. Maverick has traded in his Kawasaki GPZ900R for a Ninja H2R. List price: $55,000. As the motorcycle enthusiast site Ride Apart noted, “Maybe Cruise’s character also got a pay raise?”