Glen Powell is now officially a Hollywood leading man, and he has a secondary role to partially thank for that: his memorable turn as Hangman in 2022’s “Top Gun: Maverick.” So when will Hangman return to the skies? The actor is playing mum, but he’ll at least confirm he has “a date” for when “Top Gun 3” starts shooting.
READ MORE: ‘Top Gun 3’: Paramount Has Had A Sequel In Development Since Last Fall
EW reports (via the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast) that the “Twisters” star confirmed he’s received a state date for filming of the sequel in a new interview with co-star Daisy Edgar-Jones. When asked whether “Top Gun 3” or a sequel to “Normal People,” starring Edgar-Jones, would arrive first, Powell quipped, “I mean, I have a date.” His “Twisters” co-star got excited: “Top Gun?” she asked him?
But Powell wouldn’t divulge any further, instead pressing Edgar-Jones if she had a start date for a follow-up to her Hulu breakout series with Paul Mescal. She didn’t know anything, so Powell told host Josh Horowitz, “Okay, then probably me.” Powell refused to share anything else, though. “Absolutely not,” he told Horowitz when asked if he could do so, “Uh, Josh, we should go to the next question.”
So, okay, Powell having a start date for “Top Gun 3” isn’t exactly news. But a start date makes sense given that Paramount confirmed they’re developing the sequel in January, with “Maverick” co-writer Ehren Kruger returning for the script. That caused problems for Powell, with many friends and relatives thinking that meant he was in the know about the movie. “People looked at me like I knew what was going on,” he told Variety earlier this year. “There is going to be some fun stuff being announced soon…but it was confidential to me. I talk to [Joseph] Kosinski, [Tom] Cruise, and [Jerry] Bruckheimer all the time. There is stuff happening and it sounds very exciting. I don’t know when I’ll be going back… I’m sure there is a jet waiting for me sometime in the future.”
Now it’s a question of who else from the “Top Gun: Maverick” will return for “Top Gun 3.” Cruise and Powell will undoubtedly be back, and it’s likely Miles Teller‘s Rooster is, too. But Jon Hamm, Monica Barbaro, Jennifer Connelly, Lewis Pullman, Charles Parnell, Danny Ramirez, and Jay Ellis, among others, are all question marks. And Powell’s Hollywood star wasn’t the only one to rise thanks to Kosinski’s 2022 film. Barbaro has arguably her biggest role to date in the upcoming Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” while Ramirez has a slew of buzzy upcoming films, including one with director Todd Haynes. Getting the “Maverick” gang back together, or at least the entire gang, could prove difficult for Paramount.
But expect the studio to pull out all the stops for “Top Gun 3.” “Maverick” was Paramount’s second-biggest film ever after “Titanic,” raking in $1.48 billion worldwide, making it the twelfth highest-grossing movie ever. And it did well critically too, with six Oscar nominations, winning one for Best Sound. So expect big plans for the next “Top Gun,” even if Powell can’t talk about them. “It’s about my pay grade,” the actor joked about his info on “Top Gun 3” while on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” in May. “But, yeah, I have a feeling there’s probably a cockpit with my name on it.” No doubt there is, Hangman.