Although Top Gun: Maverick provided a pretty perfect ending for the story of the franchise’s hero, there are still some characters who must return to Top Gun 3 for the sequel to work. Top Gun: Maverick exceeded expectations upon release.
Even though thirty-six years was a long time to wait for a sequel, the follow-up to the late, great Tony Scott’s original cult classic Top Gun still managed to impress critics and audiences alike. As intense and kinetic as the original Top Gun, Top Gun: Maverick was also darker and more slyly elegiac than its bombastic predecessor. The sequel made Maverick a more complicated sort of hero.
While Top Gun: Maverick didn’t kill Tom Cruise’s Maverick, the sequel did deepen the feckless antihero’s character. In Scott’s original movie, Maverick was a charismatic but dangerous young recruit with little depth. In Top Gun: Maverick, the aging eponymous protagonist is a tragic figure. Beaten down by life and left behind by the Navy, Maverick became a man whose need for speed has finally caught up with him. Despite how heavy this summary sounds, Top Gun: Maverick managed the impressive feat of making Maverick’s comeback feel both triumphant and well-earned. This leaves Top Gun 3 in a tricky position, but some returning characters could help with this issue.
7 Viper
Top Gun 2 Viper Maverick
Ironically, despite all of the high-flying stunt work of the sequel’s set-pieces, the most moving scene in Top Gun: Maverick saw a dying Iceman talk to his old friend Maverick about Goose’s son Rooster and an upcoming mission. Iceman’s final lines in Top Gun: Maverick were a perfect sendoff for Val Kilmer’s iconic character. However, his subsequent death means Top Gun 3 can’t repeat this unless the sequel brings back another franchise figure. Top Gun's Viper must return for a similarly sweet goodbye in the sequel.
Luckily, Viper is as important as Iceman even though Top Gun: Maverick inexplicably forgot about him. As such, he can fill Iceman's role in Top Gun 3. Tom Skerritt’s Top Gun supporting character was not mentioned in Top Gun: Maverick despite the fact that Skerritt is still alive and available. While the sequel snubbed him, Skerritt could appear in Top Gun 3 and impart some wisdom to Maverick as he did in the original movie. This would be an ideal return since Viper was Maverick’s original mentor, and it seems unlikely that Maverick would have lost touch with such a vital figure from his past.
6 Phoenix
Phoenix in Top Gun Maverick
While Monica Barbaro’s Phoenix got a handful of killer lines in Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel never got to flesh out her potential relationship with Rooster. While Viper’s Top Gun 3 return would help to make Maverick’s plot more compelling, Phoenix’s attempts to connect with the closed-off Rooster could deepen the audience’s understanding of Rooster. Not only that, but Phoenix turned out to be an interesting character in her own right. The lone woman in the testosterone-heavy environs of TOPGUN, she had a compelling story that Top Gun 3 should highlight.
5 Bob
Bob in his cockpit in Top Gun Maverick
While Lewis Pullman’s BOB might have been the quietest of Top Gun: Maverick’s young recruits, this is ironically what makes the character so memorable. The mild-mannered wingman proved an unlikely fan favorite upon Top Gun: Maverick’s release, with viewers finding his lack of bravado hilarious among the over-the-top posturing of TOPGUN’s heroes. As such, Top Gun 3 should find some screen time for Bob’s continuing adventures. Like Phoenix, he proved to be a highly skilled pilot, but viewers barely got to see him in action during the action-packed sequel’s tense runtime. Thus, Bob should play a bigger part in Top Gun 3.
4 Hangman
Glen Powell smiling as Hangman in Top Gun Maverick
Glen Powell’s scene-stealing Hangman deserves a subplot of his own in Top Gun 3, maybe more so than any of the other secondary characters introduced in Top Gun's sequel. While Powell came close to winning the role of Top Gun: Maverick’s Rooster over Teller, his charisma meant that the screenwriters created the character of Hangman specifically for him. While Hangman did have a satisfying role to play in Top Gun: Maverick's ending, there's no question that the character deserves more screen time next time around. Powell’s ability to make a potentially one-dimensional bully charming means Top Gun 3 needs more from him.
3 Penny
Penny and Maverick standing close together in Top Gun 2
The introduction of Top Gun: Maverick’s Jennifer Connelly’s Penny Benjamin was a surprise. After all, Maverick was happy with his love interest Charlie at the end of Top Gun. However, Charlie’s unexplained absence fit his character’s journey. In contrast, Maverick can’t afford to lose another love interest between movies. Losing Charlie proved that Maverick wasn’t finished learning after Top Gun, but losing Penny would just show that Maverick has no remaining shot at happiness. Thus, Connelly’s character must play a role in Top Gun 3 to keep this romantic subplot alive.
2 Rooster
Top Gun 3 break a franchise pilot trend rooster
Miles Teller’s Top Gun: Maverick hero needs to take over the franchise as Maverick retires in Top Gun 3. The Netflix flop Spiderhead already reunited Top Gun: Maverick’s director with the movie's younger star, but Top Gun 3 must bring Teller back to end Maverick’s story properly. While Rooster and Maverick did bury their beef in Top Gun: Maverick's ending, Rooster’s one moment of heroism was not enough to prove that he could replace Maverick. Top Gun 3 could focus on his attempts to do so and allow Maverick to become more of a mentor in the process.
1 Maverick
Tom Cruise as Maverick in Top Gun 2 in a bar wearing a jacket with military patches and smiling happily
More than anything, Top Gun 3 needs Tom Cruise to return as Maverick once more. Maverick must hand over the reins to Rooster for the franchise’s future to work. The only way this can happen is if Rooster learns everything Maverick knows and Maverick accepts that the time has come for him to retire. It will take a lot of work to convince Maverick that his time is coming to an end and just as much effort for Maverick to show Rooster how to fly like a true maverick. Thus, Top Gun 3 will have no shortage of conflict once the stars of Top Gun: Maverick are onscreen together again.
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