Top Gun: Maverick’s release date has once again been delayed until November 2021, but unlike earlier delays, this specific release could spell trouble for the long-awaited sequel’s box office prospects. Released in 1986, the original Top Gun was a huge hit upon arriving in cinemas, earning an impressive haul and it also led to an overnight increase in real-life Air Force and Navy enlistment numbers. This classic action movie from director Tony Scott told the tale of Tom Cruise’s Maverick, a feckless antihero who learned to overcome his hubris and act as part of a team instead of being a lone wolf with an insatiable need for speed.

Top Gun made a star of Tom Cruise, then best known for 1983 teen sex comedy Risky Business, and proved a huge hit with audiences thanks to its high-octane action and compelling story. However, while Top Gun has an involving story in Maverick’s gradual character arc, which sees the death of his friend Goose humble the reckless pilot and force him to reconsider his self-centered outlook, there is another element key to its success that the long-awaited upcoming sequel is in danger of missing out on.

Related: Why Tom Cruise Needs Top Gun 2 To Succeed More Than Mission: Impossible 7

Above all else, the original Top Gun is fun, a fast-paced, funny story that doesn’t allow its darker elements to drag down the movie’s upbeat tone. With its iconic beach volleyball sequence, Scott’s influential sunburnt visual style and the grinning charm of Cruise, Top Gun is bright, cheery, and vitally, a quintessentially summery movie. This is concerning for the sequel Top Gun: Maverick, which has had its summer release date delayed once more, this time into the chilly depths of winter.

Top Gun Maverick Miles Teller Volleyball

The original Top Gun has strengths outside of its sun-drenched cinematography and cast, and many of the movie’s darker moments work well. But elements like the unexpected death of Goose are effective because of how bright and fun the movie at large is, and the vistas of sunny beaches and sunset flights present in Maverick’s trailer proves that the sequel is aiming for a similar appeal. Almost all the glimpses of Top Gun: Maverick’s action that viewers have seen thus far are summery and brightly lit, far from the cozy autumnal/wintry vibes audiences are likely to want from a November release.

Admittedly, it is not unheard of for a film’s atmosphere to have little effect on its box office prospects. Perhaps most famously, Joe Dante’s legendary horror-comedy Gremlins was an outsized success despite being released in June and having a plot centered around Christmas. However, with more and more high-profile movies released each year and stiff competition in the form of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the unseasonal sunshine and summery visuals of Top Gun: Maverick could spell a November box office crash for Cruise’s sequel if audiences are put off by the movie's unseasonable visual palette.

More: Top Gun: Maverick Should Steal Mission Impossible’s Franchise Formula

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