Although 2024 has been an incredible year for Glen Powell, this could ironically prove a problem for Top Gun 3. Glen Powell has been around a lot longer than cinemagoers might think. The actor’s earliest roles date back to hit parts in Spy Kids 3D: Game Over and Fast Food Nation between 2003 and 2006. Powell later rose to stardom with supporting roles in The Expendables 3 and Ride Along 2 alongside a scene-stealing turn in TV’s Scream Queens. However, it was 2022’s Top Gun sequel Top Gun: Maverick that introduced him to the A-list.
Although Powell lost out on the role of Goose’s son Rooster, his audition was impressive enough to warrant the creation of a new character for him to play. Powell’s Hangman played a pivotal role in Top Gun: Maverick’s ending, becoming the sequel’s breakout character. Much like Val Kilmer’s original Top Gun villain Iceman, Hangman transcended his origins as a supporting antagonist and became a beloved figure in his own right. Since then, Powell’s career has only improved. Anyone But You, Hit Man, and Twisters proved the star has blockbuster audience appeal before Top Gun 3 even enters production.
Glen Powell Could Be Top Gun 3’s Leading Man
The Star Has Proven A Bigger Box Office Draw Than Miles Teller
As ironic as it might sound, Powell’s improved public profile might be a problem for Top Gun 3. Top Gun: Maverick’s ending finally buried the beef between Rooster and Maverick. In the process, the sequel gave Miles Teller’s protagonist an opportunity to replace Tom Cruise’s Maverick as the hero of the series. Maverick successfully pulled off a risky final mission before settling down with Jenifer Connelly’s Penny Benjamin, meaning the timing is perfect for Rooster to take over his central role in Top Gun 3. There is just one problem with this, and that’s Powell’s popularity.
Top Gun 3 is likely to downplay the role of Cruise’s Maverick.
The box office success of Twisters makes Top Gun 3 even more exciting since it proves that Powell can carry a legacy sequel that doesn’t have many connections with the original movie. Top Gun 3 is likely to downplay the role of Cruise’s Maverick as this would allow the series to replace its lead actor and expand its fictional universe. However, Top Gun: Maverick set up Rooster as Maverick’s replacement, not Hangman. This might prove a problem since, in the years after its release, Top Gun: Maverick’s breakout star has proven to be a profitable blockbuster lead.
Top Gun: Maverick Set Miles Teller Up As Tom Cruise’s Replacement
The Franchise Seemed Set To Make Rooster The New Maverick
Rooster’s role in Top Gun: Maverick was precision-engineered to make him the perfect replacement for Maverick. Both Rooster and Maverick were hot-headed pilots who were undeniably skilled but struggled with teamwork and authority. Both were rebels who resented their teachers and felt that the deaths of their respective fathers left them with something to prove. Although Top Gun: Maverick ignored this, both Maverick and Rooster lost their fathers to plane accidents and both fueled their flying prowess with grief. Both Maverick and Rooster became better pilots when they learned to work with others, further underlining their similarities.
2016’s Bleed For This and 2017’s Thank You For Your Service and Only The Brave all failed to recoup their budgets upon release.
This is a problem since, outside of Top Gun: Maverick, the last decade of Teller’s career has been defined by high-profile flops. 2015’s Fantastic Four reboot was a disaster, while The Divergent Series: Allegiant failed so badly that the franchise’s concluding chapter was quietly canceled. 2016’s Bleed For This and 2017’s Thank You For Your Service and Only The Brave all failed to recoup their budgets upon release, despite the latter sharing the same director as Top Gun: Maverick. Even 2016’s satirical biopic War Dogs underperformed at the box office.
Both Devotion and Top Gun: Maverick saw Powell play fighter pilots, but only one was a box office success.
Top Gun 3 May Struggle To Balance Its Three Heroes
Hangman Needs A Bigger Role Thanks To Powell’s Box Office Success
As such, it seems pretty obvious that Top Gun 3 needs to replace Teller’s Rooster with Powell’s Hangman as the franchise’s leading man. Luckily for Teller, one movie proves that this might not be the best course of action. Powell’s 2022 biographical war movie Devotion was a box office disaster, earning only $20 million on a budget of $90 million. This catastrophic failure proves that Powell isn’t bulletproof at the box office and its similarities with Top Gun: Maverick reinforce this reality. Both Devotion and Top Gun: Maverick saw Powell play fighter pilots, but only one was a box office success.
That said, Devotion’s failure will only become less relevant as time passes. Teller’s biggest movie since Top Gun: Maverick, 2022’s Spiderhead, underperformed critically upon release. Despite boasting the talents of Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski and a supporting turn from Christ Hemsworth, Spiderhead failed to wow viewers only a few weeks after Top Gun: Maverick’s historic success. As such, Top Gun 3 may still replace Teller’s Rooster with Powell’s Hangman if the latter actor’s hot streak continues.