‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Left Out Kelly McGillis: Why the Original Star Was Never Asked to Return
variety.comZack Sharf When “Top Gun: Maverick” finally opens in theaters later this month, fans of the 1986 classic will get to witness the long-awaited returns of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) and Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (Val Kilmer).
But fans won’t see Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood, the Top Gun instructor played by Kelly McGillis. Maverick and Charlie’s romance (and the chemistry that sizzled between Cruise and McGillis) was one of the backbones of the original “Top Gun,” but McGills wasn’t asked to star in the sequel because her character was never even considered to return. “Top Gun: Maverick” director Joseph Kosinski confirmed the omission to Insider ahead of the sequel’s release.“Top Gun: Maverick” is set 30 years after the original and finds Maverick forced to train a new generation of hot shot pilots.
The new recruits are played by the likes of Miles Teller, Glenn Powell, Monica Barbaro and Jay Ellis. Teller stars as Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, a pilot trainee who is the son of Maverick’s late best friend Nick “Goose” Bradshaw.
Kosinski said not even Meg Ryan, who played Goose’s wife in the original film, was considered to return despite the Bradshaw family being a key plot point in “Top Gun: Maverick.” “Those weren’t stories that we were throwing around,” Kosinski said about bringing back the original female stars. “I didn’t want every storyline to always be looking backwards.
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