Top Gun: Maverick has recently hit theaters, and fans seem to be incredibly pleased with
the long-awaited nostalgic sequel to the classic 1986 original.
Despite the fact that the film has proven a success with fans, Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer
ended up being the only actors from the original film to reprise their roles in the new one.
This means that a large number of memorable characters from the original are missing from
the sequel, including such major characters as Kelly McGillis’ Charlotte Blackwood,
Tom Skerritt’s Mike “Viper” Metcalf, and Meg Ryan’s Carole Bradshaw.
Join Facts Verse as we take a look at all of the original Top Gun cast members who weren’t
invited back for the sequel.
Kelly McGillis The first Top Gun cast member we’ll be taking
a look at in this video is Kelly McGillis.
Of course, Kelly was the actress tasked with playing the love interest of Tom Cruise’s
character in the original film.
Kelly’s character of Charlotte Blackwood was a major part of that film, and she and
Tom’s character ended up together before the credits rolled.
However, it seems that the pair’s relationship has fallen apart at some point between the
original movie and 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick.
In Charlotte’s place, a new love interest has been written into the sequel, and a much
younger actress is playing her.
That actress is Jennifer Connelly, who plays a brand-new character by the name of Penny
Benjamin.
Some fans were understandably perturbed upon the announcement that Tom’s character of
Lt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell was going to be given a new love interest in the long-awaited
sequel, but the reasoning is clear.
Kelly McGillis herself has proclaimed candidly that the reason that she wasn’t asked to
reprise her role from the original film in 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick is because she’s
too old and out of shape.
Of course, Tom and Kelly are around the same age, but Kelly hasn’t kept up her appearances
to quite the degree that Tom has.
Tom Cruise has often been noted for his seemingly alien ability to appear the same age over
the course of the last few decades of his career, and Kelly claims that she had absolutely
no intention whatsoever of trying to get back into Tom Cruise levels of shape in order to
reprise her role from 1986’s Top Gun.
While fans may have initially been upset to hear that Kelly McGillis wasn’t asked to
reprise her Top Gun role in Top Gun: Maverick, it seems that the majority of fans are pleased
with the final product.
The long-awaited sequel has proven a hit with audiences, and it seems that most have come
to accept Jennifer Connelly in the role of Maverick’s new love interest.
Besides Kelly McGillis, there are a whole bunch of other cast members that weren’t
invited back for the sequel!
Tom Skerritt Besides Kelly McGillis, Tom Skerritt is arguably
the star whose absence from Top Gun: Maverick has disappointed fans the second most.
In the original film, Tom memorably played the character of Mike “Viper” Metcalf.
Mike was Maverick’s head instructor at the TOPGUN academy, and he had a history with
Maverick’s dad.
Prior to the original film, the character of Viper was supposed to have flown with Maverick’s
father, Duke Mitchell, in the Vietnam War.
The relationship between the characters of Maverick and Viper was one of the things that
made Top Gun so special, and it’s certainly a bummer that Tom wasn’t asked back to reprise
his role in the new film.
Many wondered if Tom Skerritt was going to end up making a cameo in the film, but it
seems that Top Gun: Maverick is completely Skerritt-less.
Thankfully, the film has plenty of new supporting cast members to make up for the lack of such
original stars like Tom Skerritt, with some of the new additions to the cast including
Miles Teller, Jon Hamm, and Ed Harris.
Michael Ironside Michael Ironside was another memorable cast
member from 1986’s Top Gun that wasn’t asked back to reprise his role in Top Gun:
Maverick.
While Kelly McGillis was too out of shape and Tom Skerritt was likely just too old,
it seems that Michael Ironside wasn’t asked back because he has a beef with Jerry Bruckheimer.
Of course, Jerry Bruckheimer was one of the producers of the original film, and he’s
returned to his producer’s chair for this long-awaited sequel.
It’s unclear what exactly the beef is between Michael and Jerry, but it seems that Michael
wasn’t at all surprised that he wasn’t invited back to reprise his character from
the original film in Top Gun: Maverick.
Michael is still a working actor, having recently appeared in the 2021 action film Nobody.
In Top Gun, Michael played the character of Rick “Jester” Heatherly, who was another
instructor at TOPGUN.
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John Stockwell In the original Top Gun, John Stockwell played
the character of Bill “Cougar” Cortell.
Despite the character’s courageous nickname, he proved to be somewhat of a coward when
he suffered a panic attack early on in the film and resigned from TOPGUN.
Of course, the fact that Bill ended up resigning makes it not much of a surprise that the actor
who portrayed him wasn’t asked to return for the long-awaited sequel.
Tim Robbins In 1986’s Top Gun, the character of Maverick
had a few different Radio Intercept Officers, or RIOs, over the course of the film.
The most memorable of those RIOs was the character of Nick “Goose” Bradshaw, who was portrayed
by Anthony Edwards.
Of course, Goose died during the original film and ended up having to be replaced in
the role of Maverick’s RIO.
The character of Sam “Merlin” Wells was Goose’s replacement.
Actor Tim Robbins portrayed the character, and he did so relatively early on in his career.
Since portraying the character of Merlin, Tim has become a much bigger star thanks to
his turns in films such as Bull Durham and The Shawshank Redemption.
It’s unclear exactly why Tim Robbins wasn’t asked to reprise the role of Merlin in Top
Gun: Maverick, though one can assume that the actor’s still-busy schedule had something
to do with it.
In 2019, around the time that Top Gun: Maverick was being filmed, Tim Robbins could be found
performing one of the lead roles on the Stephen King-inspired series Castle Rock.
Meg Ryan Meg Ryan is another star that appeared in
1986’s Top Gun relatively early on in their career.
As compared to Tim Robbins, Meg Ryan doesn’t keep quite as high of a profile nowadays.
In the original Top Gun, Meg portrayed the character of Goose’s wife.
Since portraying the character of Carole Bradshaw in the original film, Meg Ryan has gone on
to become a megastar thanks to her appearances in such romantic comedies as Sleepless in
Seattle and You’ve Got Mail.
However, she doesn’t like to act much nowadays.
Since Miles Teller’s character of Bradley Bradshaw in Top Gun: Maverick is supposed
to be Carole Bradshaw’s son, fans were hoping that Meg Ryan would at least make a cameo
in the new film.
However, it seems that a prospective cameo wasn’t worth asking Meg to come out of her
semi-retirement.
The actress has only appeared in a handful of works since the dismal reception of 2003’s
In the Cut, which featured Meg in the lead role.
The film was widely criticized at the time and proved quite controversial, despite having
been directed by critically acclaimed director Jane Campion.
It seems that the poor reception of In the Cut was enough to make Meg question her entire
Hollywood career.
Now that Jane has won the Academy Award for Best Director thanks to her work in 2021’s
The Power of the Dog, perhaps Meg is ready to get back to acting!
Regardless, it seems that Top Gun: Maverick wasn’t the right place for her to do it.
Rick Rossovich In the original Top Gun, Rick Rossovich played
the character of Ron “Slider” Kerner.
Ron was the RIO of Val Kilmer’s character of Tom “Iceman” Kazansky.
Although Val Kilmer has returned to reprise the role of Iceman in Top Gun: Maverick, Rick
wasn’t asked to come back to reprise the role of Slider.
As with Meg Ryan, a cameo appearance by Rick could’ve easily factored into the film’s
plot.
However, it seems that the producers had other ideas for the sequel.
Whip Hubley and Barry Tubb Whip Hubley played the character of Rick “Hollywood”
Neven in 1986’s Top Gun, and he’s another actor that wasn’t asked back to reprise
his role in Top Gun: Maverick.
Barry Tubb played the character of Leonard “Wolman” Wolfe, who was Hollywood’s
RIO.
Given that Whip Hubley wasn’t asked to return to reprise his role in Top Gun: Maverick,
it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Barry Tubb wasn’t asked to come back
to his reprise his role in the sequel, either.
Adrian Pasdar and Clarence Gilyard Jr.
Another pair of characters that didn’t end up returning to Top Gun: Maverick from the
original film is the pair of Charles “Chipper” Piper and Marcus “Sundown” Williams.
In 1986’s Top Gun, these characters were portrayed by actors Adrian Pasdar and Clarence
Gilyard Jr., respectively.
Sundown was Chipper’s RIO in the original film.
Neither Adrian nor Clarence was asked to reprise their role in Top Gun: Maverick, though their
characters weren’t big parts of the original movie and their exclusion isn’t a huge deal.
Overall, it seems that the return of Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer, plus the inclusion of Goose’s
son, was enough to please fans.
While none of the aforementioned stars were invited back to reprise their Top Gun roles
in the film’s recently released sequel, plenty of them are still working!
Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that Kelly McGillis claims that she wasn’t
asked to reprise her role from the original film in Top Gun: Maverick because she’s
too out of shape and that Michael Ironside claims he wasn’t invited back because he’s
not on good terms with producer Jerry Bruckheimer?
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