Movies - TV
Glen Powell's Initial Reluctance To Play Top Gun: Maverick's Hangman Saved The Character
By CHRISTIAN GAINEY
Glen Powell plays a cocky pilot named Jake “Hangman” Seresin in “Top Gun: Maverick,” but that almost didn’t come to be. When he was offered the role of “Slayer,” an early version of Hangman, Powell declined because of the character’s lack of substance.
However, director Joseph Kosinski and Tom Cruise wanted him to play the role so badly that they rewatched the original movie and tweaked the character to give him the flying skills of Maverick and the stride of Iceman. Powell finally felt that the character had a lot more to it in terms of its heroism, and came on board.
As a matter of fact, Powell auditioned for Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw which ended up going to Miles Teller. This behind-the-scenes competition between the two is definitely reflected in the on-screen tension between their characters, partly taking us back to the nostalgia of the competitive dynamic between Maverick and Iceman in the original movie.