Rooster was always going to be Tom Cruise’s Maverick’s Wingman in Top Gun 2.

Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick is one of the best aviation action dramas of all time. A sequel to his hit, Top Gun released in 1986, the movie is now among the highest-grossing movies of all time. Famous for its spectacular action sequences and entertaining storyline, Top Gun 2 is the perfect recipe for a blockbuster,

Tom Cruise in a still from Top Gun: Maverick | Paramount Pictures

The long-awaited sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, not only brought back Tom Cruise as Maverick but also introduced new characters, including Maverick’s wingman. While fans only realized it later in the movie, Top Gun 2 had already hinted who Cruise’s wingman is way early in the film.

Tom Cruise’s Wingman in Top Gun 2 Was Apparent from the Start

Miles Teller as Rooster in Top Gun: Maverick | Paramount Pictures

Tom Cruise returned as Captain Pete Maverick Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick after a record 36 years. While a sequel was due a long time ago, nobody expected the movie to become as big as it did upon its release. Grossing $1.4 billion worldwide against a budget of $170 million (via The Numbers), the movie introduced several new characters as well.

Starring the likes of Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Val Kilmer, and more, it was later revealed in the movie that Teller’s Lt. Bradley Rooster Bradshaw is Cruise’s Maverick’s wingman. Rooster is the son of Maverick’s late best friend and former RIO (Radar Intercept Officer), Nick Goose Bradshaw.

According to the director Joseph Kosinski, it has been obvious from the start that Rooster is the wingman instead of Powell’s Lt. Jake Hangman Simpson. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Kosinski stated,

Maverick needed to choose a wingman for that final mission, someone that he could count on, someone that would come back for him, as Rooster does in the third act. He goes back for Maverick despite everything and everyone telling him not to. So that’s what Maverick was looking for in that final mission.

Apparently, the movie made it obvious that Maverick would come to rely on his late RIO, Goose’s son Rooster more ever since the famous Great Balls of Fire sequence in the movie.

As for Powell’s Hangman, Kosinski states he had a lot of learning to do in the film since many believe he is the perfect successor of Cruise’s Maverick.

Glen Powell’s Hangman Was Not Supposed to be Tom Cruise’s Wingman in Top Gun 2

Glen Powell as Hangman in Top Gun: Maverick | Paramount Pictures

Glen Powell’s Lt. Jake Hangman Seresin, an F?A-18E pilot in Tom Cruise’s Top Gun 2. Full of confidence, Powell’s Hangman shares several similarities with Maverick. Unbearable at times, he is nonetheless seen as the true successor of Maverick when the franchise moves forward.

Yet, despite his talent and confident nature, he is not the wingman that Cruise’s Maverick chooses at the end of the film. And according to the director Joseph Kosinski, it is because he had a lot of growing up to do throughout the film,

Hangman is an incredible pilot, but he still had a few lessons to learn over the course of this film. And of course, he comes through in the end as well, in a spectacular way. Hangman had some growing up to do, a little maturing to do as a pilot, and he comes through at the end of the movie, having gone through that arc and learning his lesson.

With Top Gun 3 said to be in the works (see Variety and ComicBook.com) it would be interesting to see the character dynamics between Hangman and Rooster since they potentially can be the new faces of the franchise.

Top Gun: Maverick can be streamed on Amazon Prime.