Jay Ellis Says He Would Sign On for ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Sequel

*Jay Ellis was recently asked about a sequel to “Top Gun: Maverick”, and said he would love to reprise the role of Lt. Reuben “Payback” Fitch.

The actor spoke about the film at the Academy Museum Gala in Los Angeles on Saturday night and told PEOPLE that he’s not sure if there will be a follow-up to the 2022 box office smash. 

“I haven’t heard about it, so if you know something, tell me,” Ellis said. “No, I don’t think there will be. What do I know? Maybe there will be. Maybe there will.”

He added, “I mean, we would all love to work together. We’d love to do it again. We’d love to be with Tom [Cruise] again. We’d love to be in the back F18s again,” he added. “So if we’re lucky enough to do it again, I’m sure every single one of us would be there.”

READ MORE: ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Director, Producer & Cast | EURexclusiveWATCH

Earlier this year, EUR sat down with director Joe Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer to chat about the making of “Top Gun: Maverick.” 

“Well I definitely felt the pressure of taking on something so iconic, the movie and for Tom bringing back Maverick,” Kosinski said. “I think we all felt that every single day. Tom described this film as hitting a bullet with a bullet, so every single day, every member of the crew was really pushing to make sure we delivered on that.”

Kosinski went on to talk about the number of hours of footage he filmed. When asked, if indeed he had recorded 800 hours he said: “That’s what I was told by one of our editorial assistants and the reason for that is when you are filming aerial sequences and you have six cameras in the cockpit and cameras mounted on the outside of the airplane, it’s not a traditional filming process where you can pick which camera you’re going to roll or stop and start.”

Kosinski added, “The actors would go up with their aviators and once they were in the right spot with the right light and the right terrain and ready to film, they would turn the cameras on and roll.”

In order to shoot scenes set inside the cockpits, Kosinski and the filmmaking team had to teach the actors how to use the equipment themselves since the space on an F-18 could not fit a traditional filming crew.

“We had to teach the actors about lighting, about cinematography, about editing,” Tom Cruise is credited as saying. “I had to teach them how to turn the cameras on and off, and about camera angles and lenses. We didn’t have unlimited time in these jets. If they were going up for 20-30 minutes, I had to make sure that we got what we needed.”

Bruckheimer added: “It was very difficult for them (the actors) because first of all they are taking five, six, seven Gs while they are trying to act and turn on the camera and turn off the camera. So, it was really grueling on our actors.”

“Fortunately, Tom designed a program where we spent about three months training in the different types of airplanes so by the time they got in the F-18s they were more accustomed to the Gs,” he said.

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