Tom Cruise

This movie is real and Tom Cruise shared the first picture from the set to prove it.

Some days it seems like a new sequel rumor hits the Internet every day. Whispers of Top Gun 2 have been floating around the stratosphere for a few years, with the movie even getting a screenwriter at one point, Val Kilmer vowing to return, and even a mysterious meeting with Jerry Bruckheimer. Sometimes, because of timing or lack of resources or myriad other reasons, sequels just don’t end up happening even if they’re hyped. But today brings good news for Top Gun 2 hopefuls: it’s definitely happening, and Tom Cruise himself says it’ll start filming within the next twelve months.

At this point in his career, there shouldn’t be much cause for behind-the-scenes drama when it comes to Tom Cruise movies. Cruise wants to star in another Jack Reacher movie? Pay the man. Cruise wants to play a special forces operative fighting a centuries-old mummy? Pay the man. Cruise wants to release a movie where all he does is run for two hours? By all that is holy and good in this world, pay the man!

Val Kilmer has taken to his personal Facebook page to post a Top Gun 2 status update with ramifications on a scale that we can only describe as tectonic.

Rumors of “Top Gun 2″ have swirled since the original touched down in 1986. The movie will explore “the end of an era of dogfighting,” says producer David Ellison.