Miles Teller has stated that playing Goose’s kid in the upcoming Top Gun: Maverick was very emotional. Teller is known for memorable roles such as a psychologically abused drummer in Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash and the hit coming-of-age drama The Spectacular Now. Goose, played by Anthony Edwards in 1986’s Top Gun, died during a training exercise when he and Tom Cruise’s Maverick eject from their aircraft only for Goose’s head to be slammed against the jet’s canopy, instantly killing him. Teller will be starring opposite of Cruise, who could have a $1 billion movie in 2021, with Teller playing a pilot trainee nicknamed “Rooster.”

Teller has recently talked about the film’s complicated aerial stunts and flight sequences, stating that the original and sequel do not have any green screen scenes. With the time and difficulty it takes to pull something like that off, the film took around a year to complete shooting, initially delaying its release. The movie was originally supposed to be released in July 2019, but due to scheduling conflicts and then the COVID-19 pandemic, Top Gun 2 has been moved to the new tentative release date of July 2, 2021.

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When speaking with Men's Journal, Teller had a lot to say about the upcoming release of Top Gun: Maverick, stating that there’s an emotional through-line from the first film that will pay off in the sequel:

“Playing Goose’s kid and getting to continue that storyline that was established in such a powerful way all those years ago, there is a lot of history there. I think when audiences realize the character I play is that tiny kid they saw in the original, it is going to hit. I was able to see it a couple of weeks ago. The movie just blew me away, and my wife said, ‘That might be the best film I have ever seen.’ She was crying multiple times.”

Top Gun 2 cast members fly real fighter jets in video

Top Gun was originally met with mixed reviews but lauded for its technical prowess, especially when it came to the film’s action-packed aerial stunts and the use of practical effects. The death of Goose, however, is cinematic memory that is talked about quite often, becoming a lot of people’s first on-screen death of a loving, caring character that the audience came to like but lost soon after. Teller playing the role of his son, a character audiences briefly saw as a child in the first film, might lead to well-deserved closure, even if it has been over thirty years in the making.

Teller is a powerhouse actor who is great at displaying fits of rage and pain that seem like he’s keeping at bay, bubbling under his cool and collected exterior. Placing him in a position where he attends the same flight school as his deceased father and having to work with Maverick, who Goose used to fly with, will be an interesting story filled with clouded judgments and emotional choices. It might be the true ending for Goose that audiences have dreamed of.

Next: Top Gun 2 Needs To Lean Into Maverick’s Tragedy (Not His Legend)

Source: Men's Journal

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