Top Gun and Mission: Impossible films delayed due to US Covid spike

Tom Cruise's films Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible 7 have been delayed due to a surge in US Covid-19 cases caused by the Delta variant.

Movie studios are concerned that the highly contagious variant will deter cinemagoers.

Paramount has pushed the Top Gun sequel back six months to May next year, while Mission: Impossible 7 has been moved from May 2022 to September that year.

The studio has also delayed the release of comedy Jackass Forever.

The shock comedy franchise starring Johnny Knoxville is now scheduled to be released next February, a delay of four months.

Top Gun: Maverick is a sequel to the hugely successful 1986 action original, with Cruise starring again as US Navy pilot Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, joined by Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly and Miles Teller.

The seventh instalment of the Mission: Impossible franchise, directed by Christopher McQuarrie, will see Cruise starring as special agent Ethan Hunt, along with co-stars Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg and Vanessa Kirby.

Both films have been repeatedly delayed because of the pandemic, and production on Mission: Impossible 7 in the UK was halted for two weeks in June due to positive Covid tests within the crew.

Cruise is also a producer on the action spy series, and last year a recording emerged of him apparently shouting at workers on the set, threatening to fire them if they broke guidelines.

The daily case average of Covid in the US earlier this week was 160,041, according to official figures.

Many other blockbusters have been delayed or moved to streaming because of the pandemic, but some - such as Black Widow, Fast & Furious 9 and Suicide Squad - have finally hit cinemas in recent months.

There had been uncertainty about whether the next James Bond film would be postponed for a fourth time, but its studio has committed to releasing it in cinemas from 30 September.