Tom Cruise and Joe Kosinski Talk TOP GUN: MAVERICK, Waiting for the Right Moment, and Bringing Val Kilmer Back
Fans have been incredibly excited about Top Gun: Maverick, which is a great looking movie that at one point we never thought we’d see. It’s been 36 years since the original movie was released, and there was a long road to actually getting a sequel made.
In fact, Tom Cruise wasn’t even initially interested in doing a sequel, but over time, that obviously changed. In a recent interview with Total Film magazine, Cruise opened up about making the sequel and how he was waiting for the right moment to do it. Cruise said:
"Originally, I wasn’t interested in doing a sequel. All over the whole world, people were asking for it, and asking for it. [Producers Don] Simpson and [Jerry] Bruckheimer – I remember back in ’87, they had an idea. It was the germ of the idea, actually, that ended up with the concept of [Top Gun: Maverick].”
That concept involved the relationship between Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, the son of Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards). Cruise explained that "Just through time, the story was never right. I don’t do things just to do it."
Cruise also explains that he was waiting for the technology to reach a certain point to allow him and his filmmaking team to bring the audience into the cockpit of F/A-18. Cruise went on to say that when the right moment presented itself, it was now or never:
“I had lots of discussions for years with Tony, with Jerry, with McQ [Christopher McQuarrie] about it, and when I was doing Oblivion, talking to Joe [Kosinski, director]. I just had to wait for that right moment. And I realized it was either going to be now or never. And basically, I liked the concept of the idea. And I was like, ‘Alright...’”
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer added, "We certainly played around with it. But we never solved the problem of how to make another film. Joe had an idea for the movie and Tom loved the idea. And we loved it. So that’s where it all started."
Joe Kosinski went on to discuss Val Kilmer and bringing him back for the film to reprise his role as Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky. He said:
"That was a huge, huge get – having Val come back to play Iceman. To get to work with an actor of that caliber, to see the chemistry, the camaraderie between him and Tom, and to have those two characters reunite in this film, was a really special moment, and one of my favorite parts of the film."
It’ll be fun to see these two characters together on the bog screen again in the Top Gun sequel! It’ll be interesting to see how that incorporate Iceman into the story.
After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. When he finds himself training a detachment of Top Gun graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose.”
Facing an uncertain future and confronting the ghosts of his past, Maverick is drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who will be chosen to fly it.
Top Gun: Maverick also stars Miles Teller as Goose's son, Glen Powell, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Ed Harris, Val Kilmer, and Lewis Pullman.
The movie will fly into theaters on May 27th, 2022. This movie is going to be badass!