Glen Powell Almost Didn’t Join Top Gun: Maverick’s Cast, But Tom Cruise…

Glen Powell Almost Didn’t Join Top Gun: Maverick’s Cast, But Tom Cruise Convinced Him

Top Gun: Maverick, one of the most popular movies this year, brought in approximately $1.24 billion worldwide. The movie even defeated numerous other box office heavyweights that were launched in opposition to it.

Maverick, the follow-up to the 1986 blockbuster Top Gun, continues the narrative of Tom Cruise’s hotshot jet pilot Maverick.

Tom Cruise returned to the role of Maverick in the sequel, where he would train a brand-new cadre of pilots for a very risky mission.

Miles Teller, Glen Powell, and Jay Ellis make up the new cast. In the movie, Glen Powell portrayed a character named Hangman.

Hangman initially went on the film’s audition list for the part of Rooster, a far more significant character than Hangman, but Miles Teller ended up getting the part, and Powell ended up with Hangman’s script.

Powell considered playing Hangman to be a consolation prize and planned to decline the part since he didn’t want a small part in the movie. However, after speaking with Tom Cruise, Powell decided to reconsider.

The complete exchange between Tom Cruise and Glen Powell was just released by Christopher McQuarrie, who will be helming Tom Cruise’s next Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Parts 1 and 2. He said the following to describe it:

Glen, what type of job do you want? Tom asked, and Powell was being up front with him about not wanting to be in the movie. Glen then remarked, “I want your career.”

And Tom enquired, “Well, how do you suppose I get here, Glen?” Glen then remarked, “You selected fantastic characters.” Tom responded, “No Glen, I picked terrific movies.”

This piece of advice from Tom Cruise convinced Glen to join the cast of Top Gun: Maverick, and it turns out Tom was right—Top Gun: Maverick went on to become not only the highest-grossing film of the year but also one of the all-time best-sellers, giving Glen Powell’s career a welcome boost—as his portrayal of Hangman became one of the movie’s most enduring moments.