Kenny Loggins’ ‘Danger Zone’ Will Appear in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’
When fans watch Top Gun: Maverick -- the long-awaited sequel to 1986’s Top Gun -- a familiar song will greet them. The Kenny Loggins classic “Danger Zone” is featured in the film.
“I finally met Tom Cruise on Fallon about, slightly before 2020 started,” Loggins recalled during an appearance on the podcast Literally! With Rob Lowe. “I stopped him before we went on and I said, ‘So, yes or no. Is ‘Danger Zone’ in the new movie?’ He said, ‘We can’t do Top Gun without ‘Danger Zone.’”
“For the last year I was not allowed to tell anyone that ‘Danger Zone’ was in the movie, because [Cruise] loved it so much he wanted it to be the surprise element,” Loggins continued. “So that when it came on people would go, ‘Oh my God!’”
Whether “Danger Zone” would be included in the sequel has been a topic of debate since the film was announced. Back in 2018, Loggins revealed that he was interested in recording a new version of the song for the project, “maybe as a duet, with a young act.”
Top Gun: Maverick recently screened for film industry members at CinemaCon in Las Vegas and received rave reviews. While reports confirmed that “Danger Zone” was featured in the flick, there have been no indications that any other artists are included on the track.
The original tune was a massive hit for Loggins, though he was not the initial choice to sing it. Songwriters Georgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock approached Bryan Adams, Corey Hart, REO Speedwagon and Toto, before eventually turning to Loggins when none of those options panned out.
“There was definitely some other act or bands ahead of me, and it fell out,” the rocker later recalled. “I just happened to be in the studio, and they needed a singer right away. I dropped what I was doing and went in.”
“Danger Zone” peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and helped the Top Gun soundtrack sell more than 9 million copies in the U.S. alone.