Top Gun: Maverick star Glen Powell shared a sweet moment with Tom Cruise that convinced him to join the cast. The sequel is a years-later follow-up to the 1986 Tony Scott megahit Top Gun, which followed a crew of hotshot fighter pilots competing for the top honors in their class. In the new film, Tom Cruise will be reprising his role as Maverick, now the older mentor to a new crop of graduates, including Rooster Bradshaw, the son of Top Gun character Goose (Anthony Edwards). Val Kilmer will also appear in the film, reprising his role as Lieutenant Tom "Iceman" Kazansky. Although Top Gun: Maverick was delayed for nearly two years by the pandemic, it is finally set to release on May 27, 2022.
One of the new recruits to appear in the film is Lieutenant Hangman, played by Glen Powell. Powell has his share of experience in playing characters from the air and space domain, having previously played real-life astronaut John Glenn in the Oscar-nominated biopic Hidden Figures as well as providing a voice for Netflix's new Richard Linklater animated film Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood. Although not much is known about the character as of yet, the official Top Gun: Maverick trailer reveals that he will be participating in a scene that is a throwback to the original Top Gun's iconic volleyball sequence.
While speaking with People about Top Gun: Maverick, Powell spoke about the unlikely events that led him to agree to board the film. He initially auditioned to play Rooster, the role that eventually went to Miles Teller. Powell was offered another part but wasn't sure that it "connected." However, Tom Cruise approached Powell to chat about his career and gave him advice on how to choose movies and develop a role, making the young actor realize that he "could have a little bit of creative license" and really make something out of his character. Read the full quote below:
I auditioned for Miles Teller's role. [Teller] is absolutely perfectly cast and I loved working with him. But yeah, it was an interesting thing. When I didn't get that role, I was offered a different role. And when I read the script, it just didn't really seem like a role that connected, one that I felt super excited to play.
And then Tom [Cruise] invited me to come sit down with him. And we sat down for a couple hours and talked about his life and his career and how he chooses movies, and how he develops roles and those sort of things. And it was really a series of those conversations that convinced me that this could be a role that could actually be exciting, that I could have a little bit of creative license. I could make it my own and make something that could be really special. And I have to give Tom credit, a lot of times people just try to get you on the hook to get you in a movie and none of the promises are fulfilled. But he fulfilled every single one of those promises. And I'm really proud of the movie and I'm proud of my role in it.
It's certainly gratifying to hear how invested Tom Cruise was in getting Top Gun: Maverick off the ground. Any sequel that comes nearly 40 years later needs to justify its existence to fans who don't want the original film to be tampered with. The filmmakers couldn't have made that happen without the involvement of Tom Cruise. However, he could have merely accepted the part and phoned in a performance.
Instead of merely taking a paycheck, the superstar opted to actively fight for the right people to be cast around him. This is certainly in keeping with the worldview of the man who is constantly putting his body on the line for the over-the-top stunts in his franchise Mission: Impossible. If Top Gun: Maverick is a success in winning over those fans, it will owe a lot of that to Cruise making sure it was a worthy successor to one of his first big hits.
Source: People
