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Credit: Scott Garfield. © 2019 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All rights reserved.(LOS ANGELES) -- For fans eager to feel the need for speed with Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick, you're going to have to wait a little longer.  ...

‘Top Gun: Maverick’ flying to new release date amid COVID-19 pandemic

Credit: Scott Garfield. © 2019 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All rights reserved.(LOS ANGELES) — For fans eager to feel the need for speed with Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick, you’re going to have to wait a little longer. 

The long-awaited sequel to the 1986 hit had already been bumped a year to June 23, 2020, to accommodate the movie’s flying sequences.  It’s now been grounded again by the coronavirus.

It will now open December 23, 2020.

Paramount’s first COVID-19-related delay was writer/director John Krasinski’s sequel A Quiet Place Part II, which was pulled from last month’s scheduled date and now will hit theaters Sept. 4, 2020, Variety reports. 

Other Paramount movies that have been bumped include The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, moved from May 22 to July 31, 2020. 

Another movie, The Tomorrow War, was pulled from Paramount’s December 25th slot altogether.  No rescheduled date was given. 

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