With Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer set to reprise their roles as Maverick and Iceman in Top Gun 2, Paramount is now casting for a crucial new role. A new report claims actors Nicholas Hoult, Glen Powell and Miles Teller are all top contenders to play the son of Goose (Anthony Edwards) in the sequel. Goose's son was just a young boy in the original Top Gun, often seen with his mother, played by Meg Ryan. There is no indication if Meg Ryan will reprise her role as Carole yet.

Insiders claim that the final round of testing for the coveted role took place in Clearwater, Florida, where Tom Cruise lives and is currently preparing to go on a whirlwind press tour for Mission: Impossible Fallout. There is no indication as to when a final decision on the role may be made, and no further details about the character were given. It remains to be seen if Goose's son wound up following in his father's footsteps and becomes a pilot, or if he chose another, more traditional line of work.

Tom Cruise sent out the first photo from the Top Gun 2 set in late May, showcasing the actor back in his flight suit as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell. It was confirmed earlier this month that Val Kilmer will be back as Tom "Iceman" Kazansky, Maverick's former rival at the Top Gun flight school, although no details have been revealed about what his character has been up to in the intervening years between the events in the 1985 classic Top Gun and this sequel. Kilmer had long expressed an interest to return to the Iceman role, but it wasn't confirmed until just a few weeks ago.

Joseph Kosinski (Oblivion) is directing from a script that has been worked on by Peter Craig (The Town), Justin Marks (The Jungle Book) and Eric Warren Singer (Only the Brave). Producers Jerry Bruckheimer, David Ellison and Tom Cruise had reportedly been testing actors for this pivotal role for several weeks, with actors such as Dylan O'Brien (The Maze Runner movies) and Austin Butler (The Shannara Chronicles) once considered for the role in earlier casting stages.

Paramount has set a July 12, 2019 release date for Top Gun 2, which is currently the only movie slated for release on that date, although it comes between two huge competitors. Opening a week earlier on July 5, 2019 is Marvel and Sony's Spider-Man: Far From Home, the sequel to last year's Spider-Man: Homecoming and the first movie in Marvel's Phase 4 lineup. Opening a week after Top Gun 2 on July 19, 2019 is Disney's highly-anticipated live-action remake of The Lion King, which features an all-star cast including Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Beyonce Knowles, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Seth Rogen, to name just a few. Nicholas Hoult will next be seen in The Favourite, in theaters November 23, and in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, in theaters February 14, 2019. Glen Hansen can currently be seen in the Netflix movie Set It Up, which debuted last month, while Miles Teller is coming off Only the Brave and will next be seen in the TV series Too Old to Die Young. The Hollywood Reporter broke the casting news earlier today.