Actor Glen Powell has revealed that Tom Cruise’s decision to delay Top Gun: Maverick for two years, nearly left him broke.

The 35-year-old, who is currently promoting his new action comedy Hit Man, spoke about the financial impact of the decision in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

Top Gun: Maverick served as the sequel to the 1986 blockbuster, Top Gun, and was delayed several times due to complex action sequences and the Covid pandemic.

Originally set to be released in 2019, it eventually premiered just over two years later in May 2022, surpassing $1bn at the global the box office.

Although several streaming services attempted to purchase the rights to the $170m movie, the sale was blocked on Cruise’s instructions as the actor and producer was adamant it should be released exclusively in cinemas.

Powell who was still starting out in Hollywood at the time said the decision to do so almost destroyed him financially. Even when the film was released he reports that he “never made any significant amount of money” for his role as Hangman in the movie.

“I’d never made any significant amount of money on a movie, including Top Gun, and I was depleting a bank account to a point where my accountant was like, ‘This pandemic cannot last much longer,’ ” he said.

Although the Anyone But You star accepts that the decision to wait for a theatrical release was the right one for the movie, he expressed frustration at the timing.

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“Tom was already Tom; I was waiting for my life to change.”

Earlier this year, it appeared that Cruise was set to reprise his role as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in a third Top Gun movie.

The 61-year-old action star first played the character in 1986’s Top Gun and returned in 2022 for Top Gun: Maverick, which was a massively successful box office hit grossing $1.496bn worldwide.

Puck reported that Paramount had commissioned Top Gun: Maverick screenwriter Ehren Kruger to start work on a third instalment in the franchise.

Additionally, sources told The Hollywood Reporter that the studio also plans for director Joseph Kosinski to return and for Cruise to reunite with his co-stars Glen Powell and Miles Teller.