Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski defends Meg Ryan not being brought back as Carole Bradshaw for the 2022 sequel. Hitting theaters 36 years after the original film, Top Gun: Maverick sees Tom Cruise return as hotshot pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell to train a new batch of recruits for a dangerous mission. The film brings back Val Kilmer’s Iceman from the original film, but there are a number of notable original character absences in the sequel.
During a recent appearance on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused watch-along series, Kosinski explains why the decision was made to not include Ryan as part of the Top Gun: Maverick cast.
According to the director, Carole’s absence was all about doing what was best for the story that they were attempting to tell between Maverick and Rooster. Check out Kosinski’s full comment below:
“As much as I would have loved to have worked with her, narratively there’s a reason why Carole can’t be in this world, both for Rooster and for Maverick. As we learn later, one of her wishes to him is to make sure Rooster doesn’t fly again, and if she were still around I think it would complicate that. It was one of those hard choices you have to make when telling a story like this.”
Kosinski Is Right About Carole’s Top Gun: Maverick Absence
While it certainly would have been interesting to see the return of Goose’s wife, Carole, Top Gun: Maverick had the difficult line to walk between honoring the past and making the franchise accessible to a new generation. As Kosinski reveals earlier in his conversation with Horowitz, the audience split between those who had seen the original Top Gun and those who hadn’t was about 50/50, meaning the sequel being more selective about which original characters it brought back was evidently the right choice.
One of the big reasons why Top Gun: Maverick became a box office hit is due to its jaw-dropping aerial sequences, but the emotional story at the core of the film is just as important. This story rests primarily on Cruise’s Maverick and Miles Teller’s Rooster, with the two characters not seeing eye to eye for much of the film. Carole’s death years earlier and her dying wish to Maverick to not let Rooster take after his late father gives Cruise’s character a challenging obstacle to overcome.
Crucially, Carole’s wish and the friction between Maverick and Rooster gives the movie the opportunity to further explore the lasting guilt that Cruise’s character feels over Goose’s death. This guilt and the friction that plagues Maverick and Rooster throughout the movie ultimately makes Top Gun: Maverick‘s ending action sequence that much more satisfying and exciting. Although seeing more original characters make a return would’ve been exciting, Top Gun: Maverick arguably strikes a perfect balance between nostalgia and innovation.
Top Gun: Maverick
Top Gun: Maverick is the sequel to the 1986 original film starring Tom Cruise as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, a top-tier pilot in the Navy. Thirty years after the original film’s events, Maverick is asked to head up a section of the TOP GUN program to embark on a dangerous mission. Things become personal when the program includes the son of Maverick’s late friend, forcing him to confront his past.
- Release Date
- May 27, 2022
- Director
- Joseph Kosinski
- Cast
- Jennifer Connelly , Jake Picking , Raymond Lee , Tom Cruise , Lewis Pullman , Monica Barbaro , Miles Teller , Danny Ramirez , Val Kilmer , Manny Jacinto , Ed Harris , Glen Powell , Jon Hamm
- Runtime
- 130 minutes
- Main Genre
- Action
- Writers
- Ashley Miller , Justin Marks , Peter Craig , Zack Stentz
- Website
- https://www.topgunmovie.com/home/
- Franchise
- Top Gun
- Cinematographer
- Claudio Miranda
- Producer
- Jerry Bruckheimer, David Ellison, Don Granger, Dana Goldberg, Tom Cruise
- Production Company
- Skydance Media, Tencent Pictures, TC Productions, Jerry Bruckheimer Films
- Sfx Supervisor
- Scott R. Fisher
- prequel(s)
- Top Gun
- Franchise(s)
- Top Gun
