AceShowbiz -

Tom Cruise is expected to reprise his iconic role as pilot Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in "Top Gun" sequel. In a group interview at the press day for "Terminator Genisys" in Berlin, producer and Skydance CEO David Ellison confirms that a role is being written for Maverick in the upcoming second movie.

"Justin Marks is writing the screenplay right now," he opens up as quoted by Collider. "He has a phenomenal take to really update that world for what fighter pilots in the Navy has turned into today. There is an amazing role for Maverick in the movie and there is no Top Gun without Maverick, and it is going to be Maverick playing Maverick."

The producer adds, "It is I don't think what people are going to expect, and we are very, very hopeful that we get to make the movie very soon. But like all things, it all comes down to the script, and Justin is writing as we speak."

Of the possible storyline, Ellison says, "It is very much a world we live in today where it's drone technology and fifth generation fighters are really what the United States Navy is calling the last man-made fighter that we're actually going to produce so it's really exploring the end of an era of dogfighting and fighter pilots and what that culture is today are all fun things that we're gonna get to dive into in this movie."

The movie has been developed by the original director Tony Scott and producer Jerry Bruckheimer for a long time. It started to come together in the past few years with the story idea of pitting the human pilots against drones. It, however, came to a halt following Scott's shocking suicide in August 2012.

"The concept is, basically, are the pilots obsolete because of drones. Cruise is going to show them that they're not obsolete. They're here to stay," Bruckheimer said last year.