Did You Notice Top Gun Easter Egg Glen Powell Sneaked Into Maverick?
Glen Powell has revealed that he snuck in a clever Easter egg reference to Tony Scott's iconic Top Gun film during his time on Maverick. Even the film's director, Joseph Kosinski, was left in the dark about Powell's sneaky nod to the original blockbuster hit initially.
Acting alongside Tom Cruise in the role of the antagonist Jake "Hangman" Seresin in Maverick has been an invaluable experience for Glen Powell.
In an interview with ET, Powell discussed how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the film's production. He stated that Maverick was filmed between 2018 and 2019 and was eventually released only three years later which gave the cast an unparalleled amount of time to promote the movie.
Powell noted how unusual it felt to make a big-budget film with a limited cast and crew, and then to show it to a large audience worldwide.
Top Gun: Maverick, a sequel to Tony Scott's 1986 film, was released in May 2022, and received a positive response from audiences and critics alike. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, the story continues the journey of the beloved pilot Pete "Maverick" Mitchell as he comes back to train new recruits in a Navy pilot training program for a dangerous mission.
Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer returned to their roles, while the sequel also featured new characters played by brilliant actors including Glen Powell.
Maverick is filled with references and hidden nods to the original film, one of the most prominent being a beach football game played by the recruits, which serves as a recreation of the iconic volleyball scene from Top Gun.
But even director Joseph Kosinski was unaware of one additional callback that was included by Glen Powell.
The actor revealed in an interview with ET that he secretly inserted a reference to the first film's release date into the scene at the Hard Deck bar. Specifically, he pressed the numbers "8" and "6" when requesting a song via the jukebox. He did it in honor of the year the first film was released – 1986.
According to the actor, the director of the sequel only noticed Powell's Easter Egg during post-production.
Powel described how the director hit him up and asked, "Hey did you press 86?" and that's when the actor confirmed that he did indeed include the Easter Egg that would undoubtedly please millions of Top Gun fans.