It’s been nearly three years since footage from the long-anticipated Top Gun sequel first premiered at the San Diego Comic-Con, but the film is now finally coming out and getting a major pre-release. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Top Gun: Maverick, which comes from Paramount and Skydance, will play at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The French festival runs May 17^th-28^th, and the film’s North American release is slated for May 27^th, which is the Friday of Memorial Day Weekend.

Showing Top Gun: Maverick at Cannes makes sense since other major movies have played out of competition at the festival in the past. Though the French screening is not expected to be its world premiere – San Diego, the setting of the first film, is more likely – it still offers an excellent opportunity for people to be talking about the film, especially given that its original release date was slated for July 12^th, 2019 before being delayed ahead of the pandemic and then continually pushed back both because of the pandemic and issues with Tom Cruise’s schedule.

The original Top Gun was one of Cruise’s first film roles more than thirty-five years ago, following earlier parts in films like Taps and Risky Business. Cruise would go on to receive three Oscar nominations for his performances in Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire, and Magnolia. Another action film he later starred in, 1996’s Mission: Impossible, has led to five released sequels and two more on the way. Cruise last had a film at Cannes in 1992, Far and Away.

Top Gun: Maverick reunites Cruise with his original costar Val Kilmer, returning to play Iceman. The ensemble cast also includes Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Danny Ramirez, Monica Barbaro, and Ed Harris.

The original film’s director Tony Scott died in 2012, so Joseph Kosinski, who previously worked with Cruise on Oblivion, has directing duties for the sequel.