Top Gun: Maverick star Glen Powell reveals that he snuck an original movie Easter egg into Joseph Kosinski's acclaimed sequel. Released last year to rave reviews from both audiences and critics, Top Gun: Maverick continues the story of hotshot pilot Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (Tom Cruise) who returns to the titular Navy pilot training program to train a new batch of recruits for a dangerous mission. The film serves as a sequel to 1986's Top Gun, which is directed by the late Tony Scott. Cruise and Val Kilmer reprise their roles from the original film, but the sequel introduces a host of new characters played by Powell, Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller, Monica Barbaro, and Lewis Pullman, among others.
Top Gun: Maverick features a number of callbacks to Scott's original film, but Powell reveals in a recent interview with ET that he actually snuck in one more that Kosinski didn't discover until post-production. Powell shares that, during one of the film's earlier scenes at the Hard Deck bar, he keys "86" into the jukebox in honor of the first film's release date. Check out Powell's comment about the subtle Easter egg below:
"I don't think anybody realized I did that until post-production, like, Joe [Kosinski] hit me up, and he's like, 'Hey did you press 86? I was like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah.' I just did that."
Will Top Gun 3 Happen?
Top Gun: Maverick may have been a critical and commercial smash hit, but a sequel is still not yet a sure thing. Various cast members, including Teller, have expressed interest in returning for a third film, but Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer have stated that Top Gun 3 is largely up to Cruise. Cruise, as a producer, was instrumental not only in getting Kosinski's sequel made, but getting it made to such a high standard. While Kosinski's role in crafting the film certainly can't be understated, Cruise, as shown through his work on the Mission: Impossible franchise, pushes to film as much as possible using practical methods, which includes Top Gun: Maverick's intense aerial combat scenes.
While Cruise hasn't spoken publicly about whether he's interested in returning for Top Gun 3, the actor's busy schedule could prevent him from reprising his role as Maverick anytime soon. Cruise is currently busy filming the eighth and seemingly final Mission: Impossible film and is next slated to star in the first-ever Hollywood production to film in outer space with director Doug Liman. With the next few years seemingly booked solid, it doesn't seem like Cruise will have time for Top Gun 3 in the near future. Of course, that being said, it's always possible that a third film could move forward without Maverick or with Cruise's character playing a much more minor role.
With Cruise now 60 years old, it might actually be for the best that Top Gun 3 moves forward with him purely in a producer role. After all, if he wouldn't be able to film the Top Gun: Maverick sequel until he's in his mid-60s, it may start to test the limits of believability in terms of his role as an elite naval aviator. It's unclear if a third movie in the franchise will move forward, but there's evidently a desire from fans to see more of Maverick and the new batch of characters.
Source: ET