Top Gun was Meg Ryan’s first major film role before she went on to become a Hollywood heartthrob. Her first leading role came in the cult classic When Harry Met Sally… and she remained in high demand throughout the ’90s and early 2000s. However, she was notably absent from the sequel to the Tom Cruise film, Top Gun: Maverick, which was released in 2022. Her absence from the film was due to the director’s decision not to dwell on the past.
A Top Gun sequel was planned at Paramount as far back as 2010, with producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Tony Scott, and Tom Cruise set to return. Unfortunately, the project stalled with Scott’s untimely passing in 2012. When production resumed in 2017, Joseph Kosinski was brought in to direct the film.
Meg Ryan Was Not Even Considered For Tom Cruise’s Epic Sequel
The most notable return from the original movie, apart from Tom Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, was Val Kilmer’s Tom “Iceman” Kazansky. The sequel took a different direction with Cruise’s character training a bunch of new pilots, including his deceased best friend Goose’s son. However, two of the main female characters from the original film, Kelly McGillis’s Charlie Blackwood and Meg Ryan’s Carole Bradshaw, were absent in the sequel.
McGillis played Cruise’s romantic partner and a pilot instructor in Top Gun. However, she was replaced by Jennifer Connelly as the new romantic interest. Meg Ryan played the wife of Nick “Goose” Bradshaw, Maverick’s best friend and radar intercept officer. Ryan’s character was killed off-screen in Top Gun: Maverick. Miles Teller’s Rooster Bradshaw in the sequel is the son of Ryan’s character.
Interestingly, both female characters were not even brought up in discussions during the sequel’s development. Joseph Kosinski shared that he wanted to introduce new characters in the sequel rather than revisit the past. He wanted to limit the past with Kilmer and Teller’s character arcs. Kosinski told Insider:
“Those weren’t stories that we were throwing around. I didn’t want every storyline to always be looking backward. It was important to introduce some new characters.”
While this decision might have been disappointing for the actresses, it ultimately worked in favor of the movie. The sequel was widely considered far superior to its predecessor and went on to gross $1.496 billion at the box office.
Meg Ryan Remained Silent About Her Omission From The Movie
Meg Ryan was earlier perceived as having retired from Hollywood after her 2009 film, Serious Moonlight. During her hiatus, she appeared in several episodes of the online series Web Therapy. However, she returned to the big screen with the film Ithaca in 2015, taking on an additional role as a director. She also starred in a TV film, Fan Girl, the same year.
Ryan once again removed herself from the spotlight, but she is set to return again in November 2023 with her film What Happens Later. Ryan refrained from commenting on her omission from Top Gun: Maverick. However, her co-star Kelly McGillis opened up about the sequel to Entertainment Tonight:
“They did not [call me], nor do I think they would ever. I’m old, and I’m fat, and I look age-appropriate for what my age is. And that is not what that whole scene is about.”
Jennifer Connelly’s character, Penny Benjamin, had been mentioned in the original movie as the Admiral’s daughter. Joseph Kosinski saw the introduction of her character as an incredible opportunity to explore new storylines. Top Gun: Maverick is now available for streaming on Paramount+.
