Top Gun: Maverick didn’t really replace Tom Cruise’s franchise hero, but Top Gun 3 can fix this by promoting a certain character as its lead.
While Top Gun: Maverick couldn’t tell the story’s most promising story because of Tom Cruise, nothing is stopping Top Gun 3 from addressing this abandoned plot. Top Gun: Maverick was a massive success with critics and viewers alike. The long-awaited sequel outperformed even the most optimistic box office projections and became the biggest hit of star Tom Cruise’s career. Meanwhile, the positive reviews of Top Gun: Maverick called the sequel a triumphant comeback for the actor after the failure of 2017’s The Mummy. Some critics even called Cruise’s return to the role some of the screen veteran’s best work ever.
Despite all this success, Top Gun: Maverick had its problems. For one thing, Top Gun: Maverick’s soundtrack failed to recreate the cultural impact of the original movie’s music. For another, promising supporting characters like Monica Barbaro’s Phoenix and Glen Powell’s Hangman were relegated to the background of Maverick and Rooster’s story. Furthermore, this Maverick/Rooster plot itself had an underlying problem, and it was one that Cruise’s presence magnified. Cruise’s character got the spotlight, but this came at the expense of his replacement. Fortunately, Top Gun 3 can still address this issue with Top Gun: Maverick’s story, which can finally make Miles Teller’s Rooster the hero of the series.
Top Gun: Maverick Probably Should’ve Retired Maverick
Maverick was clearly supposed to mentor his eventual replacement in Top Gun: Maverick. However, Top Gun: Maverick was sold as a Tom Cruise movie, not a Miles Teller movie. It seemed that, by the end of the movie, Maverick would have retired and passed the baton on to Goose’s son. This will now need to be Top Gun 3’s Rooster/Maverick storyline since Top Gun: Maverick essentially abandoned that approach about halfway through the sequel. While they did bury their beef, Maverick leading the mission, and the fact that the movie made no mention of him potentially retiring after this achievement, effectively killed the character’s potentially perfect send-off.
It is easy to see why Top Gun: Maverick didn’t retire Maverick, but it is harder to defend his character flying the sequel’s big mission. Even though Rooster’s heroics made an impression in the ending, as does Hangman’s well-timed appearance, Top Gun: Maverick’s big finale was very much Cruise’s moment to shine. It was a chance for Maverick to make up for all of his mistakes, save Rooster in the way he could never save Goose, and redeem himself in the eyes of the military’s top brass. The problem was, since he flew the mission and did not retire, this left Rooster feeling more like his sidekick than the new Maverick.
Why Top Gun: Maverick Couldn’t Replace Maverick With Rooster
The structure of Top Gun: Maverick made it seem as though Maverick would choose Rooster to lead the climactic mission rather than surprising everyone by choosing himself. After Maverick’s risky test run, Cyclone conceded that no one else could fly the mission, which made all of the hand-wringing over whether Maverick would pick Rooster or Hangman ultimately pointless. However, Cruise’s A-list status and the fact that he has always been inextricably linked to the Top Gun franchise would have made Rooster leading the mission a disappointment, despite how logical it seems. While Miles Teller’s Rooster was engaging, he still isn’t the established hero of the Top Gun series.
However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Rooster couldn’t replace Maverick in the long run. While the Mission Impossible series would have a hard time replacing Cruise since the franchise has been going strong for decades, the lengthy wait between Top Gun movies now means Teller’s Rooster could become Top Gun 3’s hero without much justification. Cruise’s character is nearing retirement age and has thoroughly rehabilitated his image in the Navy, and he has also found a stable partner in Penny Benjamin. As such, Top Gun 3 is the ideal time for Maverick to mentor his replacement as he finally leaves the cockpit since Top Gun: Maverick gave him a perfect ending.
Top Gun 2’s Maverick Story Still Works
The fact that Maverick is both the hero and villain of Top Gun was what made his Top Gun: Maverick arc work. Maverick’s first half did tease the possibility that Rooster would lead the main mission, but it made sense that Cruise’s character did so in the end. Maverick hadn’t grown since the original movie, so it would have been heartbreaking to see him miss out on a shot at redemption. By making Maverick a washed-up renegade rather than a contented family man, Top Gun: Maverick’s star made the character’s showboating seem not only necessary but uplifting after the character spent decades unsure of his purpose.
The popular fan theory that Top Gun 2’s story was all Maverick’s dying dream proved just how much the movie’s plot served to fix the character’s unacknowledged flaws from the original movie. If Maverick was a successful admiral happily married to his Top Gun love interest Charlie at the start of Top Gun: Maverick, his insistence that he should fly the mission would have been insufferable grandstanding. However, Top Gun: Maverick’s story succeeded because the sequel stripped Maverick of the glory, professional acumen, and personal contentment he acquired at the end of the original movie. In the sequel, Maverick started all over again, which made his story compelling.
Top Gun 3 Can Still Make Replace Maverick With Rooster
Now that Maverick is in a happy relationship and recognized by the military, Rooster replacing his mentor won’t be a letdown. Top Gun: Maverick reversed the sequel’s original plans when the movie’s creators bulked up Cruise’s supporting role and made him the star of the movie. In the process, Top Gun: Maverick deepened the sadness at the core of Maverick’s character and gave him a truly triumphant send-off. Since this was such a success, Maverick can now allow Rooster to replace him as the hero of the franchise without shortchanging fans.
Viewers who came to see Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick could reasonably have felt cheated if Goose’s son was the one leading the team in the sequel’s ending. However, the optimistic ending of Top Gun: Maverick meant that the Top Gun franchise can now move on from its original hero without worrying about his fate. With Top Gun: Maverick, Maverick got his happy ending, but with Top Gun 3, he can retire happy. This could allow Top Gun 3 to make Rooster the new hero of the series, something that Top Gun: Maverick promised but never followed through on in the first sequel.