Top Gun: Maverick may be one of Tom Cruise’s biggest box office hits of his career, but for years, the actor wasn’t interested in returning to the franchise because he wanted to challenge himself.
Speaking about the film during a screen talk at the BFI in London, the actor revealed how the studio wanted him to “immediately” return to the role of Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell after his 1986 film became a sensation. But even if it was a tempting offer, he wasn’t keen to repeat himself so soon, which explains why he only returned again in 2022.
“The studio wanted me to make Top Gun over and over,” Cruise explained. “And I said ‘look, I’m not [interested], as a young artist, I really felt I wanted to develop my talent in different areas’, and I wanted to understand more and challenge myself more with different kinds of movies.”
He added: “It was Top Gun, they wanted me to make [another] Top Gun immediately. They were talking about the sequels and actually some of the earliest [versions of Top Gun: Maverick] that what we ended up with was an early idea that we that we had then.
“We wondered if we ever do it, what would that be? And actually, [Christopher McQuarrie, his regular collaborator] came on very early on this story process, like ten years before we were talking about it.”
Cruise also explained that the reason he even made the original Top Gun was thanks to director Ridley Scott, who he was working with on Legend when Scott suggested Cruise meet his brother Tony Scott while he was in the UK — Tony Scott went on to direct the original Top Gun.
Cruise called Tony Scott, who he went on to work with in Days of Thunder an incredible artist who he was “very grateful” to have had the chance to work with. He added that had an “exceptional experience” with the cast and crew.
While Cruise took decades to return to the franchise for Top Gun: Maverick, it won’t be a long a wait for a third film in the series as that has already been greenlit with Cruise returning.