Val Kilmer talks about returning to Top Gun: Maverick in an emotional interview. The upcoming Joseph Kosinski-directed sequel is more than three decades in the making. Tom Cruise reprises his iconic role as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell who remains a Navy pilot. But aside from him, Top Gun: Maverick is also bringing back Kilmer’s Iceman, which is obviously exciting for a lot of fans.
Top Gun: Maverick isn’t bringing back a lot of Top Gun characters, as the film wants to focus on the present and future instead of the past. In the film, Maverick, who remains a Navy Captain despite his piloting skills, is recruited to train a special crop of recruits for a special mission. Apparently, despite his bad image in the organization, Iceman, who’s now an admiral, vouched for him to do the job. Marketing for Top Gun: Maverick has yet to feature Kilmer’s Kazansky physically. Despite that, the confirmation that he is going to be an integral part of the story is something that Top Gun fans should look forward to.
As for Kilmer, he’s more than happy to be able to revisit one of his most memorable roles in Top Gun: Maverick. In a new interview with ET Canada, the actor compared the experience to “being reunited with a long lost friend,” and added, “the characters never really go away. They live on in deep freeze. If you’ll pardon the pun.” He didn’t share anything more about his role in the film, understandably so to keep spoilers at bay. Instead, he reminisced about their days working on Top Gun. Read his additional comments below:
“My main joy was the camaraderie of the cast, [producers] Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, along with the incredible, unflappable enthusiasm of Tony Scott and Tom Cruise. My crew was Rick Rossovich [who played “Slider”], the funniest strong man in show business back then, and Barry Tubb [“Wolfman”]… Oh, we all laughed till we fell down the hot, spiked crabgrass at the Holiday Inn in San Diego.”
With only a couple of weeks to go before Top Gun: Maverick hits theaters, advanced screenings for critics have started, and the general consensus is that it may be even better than the original Top Gun. While the reviews for stunts and action set pieces were long expected to be great considering Cruise’s commitment to that aspect of moviemaking, it sounds like the sequel also delivers on other storytelling fronts. Top Gun: Maverick‘s emotional narrative, in particular, has been praised. Surely, the nostalgia factor has something to do with this, given Cruise and Kilmer’s returns as Maverick and Iceman. But it will also be interesting to see how their relationship from the first film has evolved over the decades and how it impacts the next generation of Navy pilots.
Although marketing for Top Gun: Maverick hasn’t physically shown Iceman, he’s confirmed to share an emotional scene with Maverick. Not much is known regarding this bit, but given theories that the sequel will see the death of Kazansky, this may be their final goodbye. As sad as this could be, it’s great that the sequel found a way to incorporate Iceman into the story without making it feel like a forced cameo. It highlights just how enduring his and Maverick’s friendship is despite starting as TOPGUN rivals.
Key Release Dates
Top Gun: Maverick
Release Date:2022-05-27
