Brand new looks of Top Gun: Maverick has arrived offering teasing glimpses of Tom Cruise in a fighter jet’s cockpit as well as his new love interest, Jennifer Connelly’s Penny Benjamin. The sequel to the thirty six year blockbuster will see Cruise reprising as Lieutenant Pete Mitchelle or better known for his codename, Maverick.
With Top Gun: Maverick just a month away from gracing theatres, more new promotional materials have arrived (thanks to Empire’s June 2022 issue) along with behind-the-scenes images of director Joseph Kosinski, producer Christopher McQuarrie and Jerry Bruckheimer.
Connelly is one of few new faces joining Top Gun 2 though her character’s name would quickly ring a bell to any fan of the 1986’s Top Gun. Playing as Penny Benjamin, a name that was mentioned in the original movie by Goose (Anthony Edwards) when Maverick was being reprimanded by Stinger (James Tolkan).
Glen Powell’s pilot trainee Lieutenant Hangman is also in one of the images, shown training on the airfield along with Lewis Pullman’s Bob and Monica Barbaro’s Phoenix. Another shot shows Miles Teller’s Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, the son of Nick “Goose” Bradshaw. Readers can check it out below.
Tom Cruise as Pete Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick
Powell originally auditioned to play Goose’s son but the role went to Teller. However, that didn’t stop Cruise and the Top Gun 2 writers from offering him another part, a newly written character specifically for Powell. In fact, the star even received a piece of convincing advice from Cruise that he “could have a little bit of creative license” and make it his own role.
The official plot for Top Gun: Maverick teases Mitchelle “confronting the ghosts of his past” and being “drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears.” It will be interesting to see if Goose’s son, Rooster could be one of the consequences of the past that Maverick must face.
Top Gun: Maverick hits theaters on May 27, 2022.
Source: Empire
