Top Gun Star Rick Rossovich Trusts Tom Cruise To Deliver With Maverick

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Top Gun star Rick Rossovich trusts Tom Cruise to deliver with the sequel Top Gun: Maverick. While the long-awaited follow-up to the classic flight film was originally scheduled to be released in the summer of 2019, it was first postponed to give production more time to work on the film's complex dogfight scenes. Since then, the Top Gun sequel has dealt with an endless series of delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Paramount's most recent changes to its release schedule set the sequel's debut back to November 19.

Released in 1986, Top Gun helped launch Tom Cruise into stardom. At the time, he was still known for the teen sex comedy Risky Business, and Top Gun presented Cruise as a likable and reckless protagonist in Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, a young naval aviator. Though the film is known for its high-flying action sequences, it also presents an emotional story that sees the death of his right-hand man Goose (Anthony Edwards). The original also features characters played by Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, and Rick Rossovich as Slider.

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While Top Gun: Maverick has faced numerous obstacles in its release, leading some to question if the sequel might flop, one of Cruise’s original Top Gun co-stars has no doubt he will deliver. In an interview with Screen Rant ahead of the original movie's re-release in Dolby theaters, Rick Rossovich discussed why it took 35 years to make a sequel to the beloved ‘80s classic: “For a long time, we all said, 'We don't need to have another one. Don't mess with that.' Franchises work, and then sometimes they really go haywire.” However, Rossovich eventually came around because he trusts Cruise’s creative judgment and believes he will deliver when Top Gun: Maverick is finally seen by audiences. Read the rest of Rossovich’s comments below:

I knew, and everyone really knew, that Tom wouldn't do something unless it was right. So, he waited. I mean, how many Mission Impossibles has he done? Seven is a lucky number. But I think with Top Gun, there's a special place in his heart for that movie. So, he wasn't gonna do anything that was half-measured, and he was really going to get it right. I think he's putting all the pieces of the puzzle together. And why not wait 35 years? This guy has some of Dick Clark's blood or something. He looks as good as he's ever looked, so I'm a little jealous there. He's held it together.

While the sequel will not bring back many characters from the original (barring Cruise’s and Kilmer’s) it will feature Miles Teller as Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, Goose’s son. This will force Maverick to confront his past, as he was partially responsible for his partner’s death. Top Gun: Maverick will also feature new characters played by Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, and Ed Harris.

Since Cruise is almost 60 years of age and still going strong filming numerous stunts for Mission: Impossible 7, Rossovich certainly isn’t the only one marveling at the action star’s impressive stamina and audacity. Cruise is perhaps a bigger box office draw today than he was in 1986, and many will likely flock to theaters this November to see Cruise’s signature death-defying stunts and experience the film’s high-octane action. According to Rossovich, Top Gun: Maverick is guaranteed to deliver.