Jennifer Connelly In Talks For Top Gun: Maverick

Jennifer Connelly is about to take flight.

Per Deadline, the minds behind Top Gun: Maverick have tapped Connelly as the film's female lead. 

No additional details on her character were given at the time of the announcement, but the actress said to still be in early negotiations to officially board the sequel pic.

For the film, Connelly will join Tom Cruise as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, Val Kilmer as Tom "Iceman" Kazansky, and Miles Teller as the son of Nick "Goose" Bradshaw, Mitchell's best friend, co-pilot, and wingman who tragically died in the 1986 original. 

Top Gun: Maverick will center around Maverick leveling up to become a flight instructor at the Top Gun Naval Flying School, while Teller's still-unnamed character enrolls in the elite institution as a pilot. It's assumed that Maverick will take Teller's character under his literal and proverbial wing as he shows him what it takes to be badass and brave in the air, on the tarmac, and out and about in life. 

As of the time of writing, there has been no word regarding whether another important face from the original Top Gun will be back for Maverick. The woman in question is, of course, Kelly McGillis, who portrayed Charlotte "Charlie" Blackwood, an astrophysicist, civilian Top Gun instructor, and Maverick's love interest. 

If McGillis does sign on for Maverick and reprise her role as Charle, it's a safe bet that whomever Connelly plays won't be cuddling up with Cruise's Maverick — unless the sequel depicts Maverick and Charlie as a divorced couple, the pair trying to avoid any awkwardness at work as Maverick kindles the tender flame of a new romance. Stranger things have happened in sequels, we can assure you that. 

Connelly previously worked with both Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski and star Cruise on the 2017 biographical drama Only the Brave, so she seems the perfect fit for the film. 

Top Gun: Maverick is slated for release on July 12, 2019.