‘Top Gun: Maverick’ director explains why major characters didn’t return for sequel

Top Gun: Maverick has brought in a huge box office haul on its opening weekend.The sequel to 1986’s Top Gun, which sees Tom Cruise return as Captain Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell, has already taken $248million (£196million) worldwide since its release on Friday (May 27).Of those takings, $151million (£119million) were in the US, with the film screening at a record-breaking 4,732 cinemas, the most for any film on its first weekend.This makes Maverick the highest-grossing opening for a non-superhero film since the COVID-19 pandemic began, as well as the first Cruise film to go over the $100million (£79million) mark on opening weekend.It sits behind last year’s Spider-Man: No Way Home ($206million/£162million), Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness ($148million/£116million) and The Batman ($106million/£83million).While Cruise returns for the blockbuster, original stars Kelly McGillis (Charlie Blackwood) and Meg Ryan (Carole Bradshaw) are both absent from the film.Explaining the decision not to include the characters, director Joseph Kosinski told Insider: “Those weren’t stories that we were throwing around.“I didn’t want every storyline to always be looking backwards.

"Top Gun" star Tom Skerritt is sharing his thoughts on the movie's sequel and reflecting on the original 1986 film.  Skerritt, who starred as Commander Mike "Viper" Metcalf in the original, opened up about what made "Top Gun" iconic during a recent interview with Fox News Digital. "The music had a lot to do with it by the way," he said. "But the screenplay itself, which I've always honored as being the whole reason for a good show, and you just write the work … and do the job you have good material for the rest of us to work with.

“Top Gun: Maverick” is finally out, fulfilling a long-promised dream from Tom Cruise who was determined to reprise the character that catapulted him to superstardom. The late Tony Scott sadly is not in the director’s chair this time around, but Cruise is working with some familiar faces – his “Oblivion” filmmaker Joseph Kosinski directs, while his “Mission: Impossible” and “Jack Reacher” cohort Christopher McQuarrie is co-writer and producer.The sequel is racking up some incredibly positive reviews and is on track for a massive box office weekend, but what exactly are the viewing options? Here’s how to watch “Top Gun: Maverick”“Top Gun: Maverick” was released exclusively in theaters – including Imax theaters – on May 27.

Some fans might be sad to see that Kelly McGillis, who played Charlie in the original Top Gun movie, is not in the sequel.

Tom Cruise and the creative team behind, there were many factors to consider when it came to developing the long-awaited sequel to the beloved 1986 action flick. From a storyline that brought Cruise's character, Pete «Maverick» Mitchell, back on board with a cast of talented young recruits, to the logistics of filming in real-life fighter jets, the producers and stars pulled out all the stops to create a jaw-dropping follow-up to the high-flying original.Of course, that also meant answering some questions about Maverick's closest relationships from the original film.

Top Gun: Maverick (★★★☆☆).The folks in the high-flying sequel might as well be throwing their barbs at Maverick star Tom Cruise, who proved himself a box office draw 36 years ago with the phenomenal success of Top Gun, the film that cemented his brash onscreen persona.The courageous, grinning, gunning Little Engine that will always out-hustle his competition no longer radiates that same insatiable hunger. But Cruise — and Maverick — still move like men with something left to prove.Introduced living in an old Navy air hangar somewhere in the Mojave, Pete Mitchell is still a maverick after all these years, still forgoing a helmet while speeding around on his motorcycle, still ranked captain despite decades in service, and still risking his life for Navy and country as a test pilot for a Mach 9 program.

Alexa, play “Take My Breath Away.” While the nostalgia is overwhelming for Top Gun fans in the sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, not everything is the same for the title character 30 years after the original film.

NEW YORK -- In 1983, producer Jerry Bruckheimer was flipping through the May issue of California magazine when he was struck by a story. “Top Guns” read the headline, with a large photograph from inside the cockpit of an F-14 fighter jet. The story opened: “At Mach 2 and 40,000 feet over California, it’s always high noon.”“I saw that cover and I said, ‘We gotta do this.

Given how busy an actors schedule can get, it’s not that rare if they have multiple projects premiering over a short period of time but directors almost never have multiple projects bowing within a month of each other. Joseph Kosinski now falls under that category has he not only has the highly-anticipated Top Gun: Maverick opening worldwide on Memorial Day weekend, he also has his Netflix thriller Spiderhead premiering on the platform on June 18.

Wilson Chapman editorLess than a month after the highly anticipated “Top Gun: Maverick” flies into theaters, director Joseph Kosinski is reuniting with star Miles Teller for the Netflix sci-fi thriller “Spiderhead.”Based on the George Saunders short story “Escape From Spiderhead,” which was originally published in The New Yorker, “Spiderhead” stars Teller as a prisoner at the titular state-of-the-art penitentiary, designed by inventor Steve Abnesti (Chris Hemsworth). Located on a gorgeous island, the island offers its prisoners reduced prison sentences and good accommodations at a price; every inmate wears a surgically attached experimental device that administers mind-altering drugs in their brain.Although Abnesti is convinced that his work will save lives, the experiments he carries out on his patients begins to test the boundaries of free will.

Tom Cruise as Pete «Maverick» Mitchell and features a special return from Val Kilmer as now-Admiral Tom «Iceman» Kazansky -- doesn't feature any appearances from the female stars of the 1986 original: Kelly McGillis and Meg Ryan.Ryan's character, Carole, the wife of Maverick's late wingman and best friend Nick «Goose» Bradshaw (played by Anthony Edwards) and mother to Miles Teller's Bradley «Rooster» Bradshaw, is referenced in the sequel and seen in flashback scenes. However, there isn't even a mention of McGillis' Charlie Blackwood, a Top Gun instructor and Maverick's love interested in the original.«Those weren't stories that we were throwing around,» Maverick director Joseph Kosinski told Insider of the actresses' absences.

“Top Gun: Maverick” are in, and it sure sounds like the sequel to Tom Cruise’s iconic, macho-driven 1986 film is destined to be one of the most acclaimed blockbusters of the year.The follow-up finds Cruise reprising his role as Maverick to lead a new group of young pilots, which includes Goose’s son, “Rooster,” played by Miles Teller. Cruise’s “Oblivion” director Joseph Kosinski is behind the camera and his “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie is onboard as a co-writer and producer, and together it appears this team has actually made a sequel that’s better than the original.In his review at IndieWire, David Ehrlich hailed the film as a kind of thesis statement for Cruise’s movie stardom: “If ‘Top Gun’ was a fun film because it invented Tom Cruise, ‘Maverick’ is a great film because it immortalizes him.

Now, that’s how you do an 1980s film sequel.Walking into “Top Gun: Maverick,” starring Tom Cruise, viewers violently shake with nervousness that they might witness a nightmarish repeat of “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” — all their favorite ‘80s stars and characters reunited after decades, wasted, embarrassed and chasing after aliens.Then the movie starts. All it takes is the opening scene of Cruise as Maverick pushing a plane’s limits to a daunting Mach 10 while “Highway to the Danger Zone” plays to realize that this is a worthy, often exemplary followup to the 1986 classic.

There are plenty of reasons to dislike Tom Cruise if you’re allergic to the idea of the relentless alpha male. Scientology seems like a non-starter for one, the ubermensch American exceptionalism thing feels like it borders on the intolerance for anyone not giving 110% during every breakfast, and while his commitment to filmmaking seems nonpareil, his reputation for the rigorous demands he places on crew members can seem cold-hearted (see the way he lost faith with the director of “The Mummy” and impatiently tried to take over, or how he recently just fired Twenty One Pilots from the soundtrack of his new movie for just recent examples).

"Top Gun: Maverick" director Joseph Kosinski shared that bringing back the female characters played by Meg Ryan and Kelly McGillis was never considered for the 2022 sequel.  During an interview with Insider, Kosinski said, "Those weren't stories that we were throwing around." Ryan, 60, played the character of Goose’s wife Carole Bradshaw in the 1986 movie, and McGillis, 64, played Top Gun instructor Charlotte "Charlie" Blackwood.  Meg Ryan and Kelly McGillis were never asked to return in the 2022 sequel "Top Gun: Maverick." (Getty Images) According to Kosinski, the filmmakers wanted to take "Top Gun: Maverick" in a different direction. "I didn't want every storyline to always be looking backwards," Kosinski shared.