With the steady rise in popularity of the superhero genre, fans keep wanting their favorite actors to join one or the other franchise. The recent past has seen various big wigs indulging in the genre like Christian Bale playing Gorr, in Thor: Love and Thunder, Charlize Theron appearing at the end of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Robert Pattinson, who stuck to doing indie roles after Twilight, donning cape and cowl for Matt Reeves’ The Batman. And then there are some stars like John Boyega who’d like to steer clear of franchises and keep doing independent movies. When Irish actor Paul Mescal was recently inquired by People about which franchise, he’d like to join Marvel of DC, he came up with his intentions to do neither but to join Tom Cruises’ Top Gun franchise.
Mescal made his feature film debut with Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut The Lost Daughter, starring alongside the likes of Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Peter Sarsgaard, and Ed Harris among others. He recently starred in Aftersun, and the psychological drama God’s Creatures, both of which got good reviews during their festival run. However, he is best known for starring in BBC’s romantic psychological drama Normal People, as Connell Waldron, an academically bright student and athlete, who struggles with his life choices. His performance earned him a British Academy Television Award as well as nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Critics’ Choice Television Award. “If I get to keep making indie films for the rest of my life, I’ll be a happy man,” he said of his work. However, when probed further he revealed that “Something like Top Gun: Maverick would be more interesting to me,” adding “I love that movie.”
This year’s biggest summer blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick has gained a lot of love and applause from fans. The movie brought Cruise back to his fan-favorite character Pete “Maverick” Mitchell after three decades to train a new generation of Top Gun graduates. It tickled the nostalgic bone of fans across generations and has become the highest-grossing domestic film of all time. A few weeks after its initial release the movie solidified its position as Cruise’s highest-grossing film, also claimed the title of the #1 film of 2022 as well as dethroned Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War from its coveted spot in box office history.
While there is no official announcement or passing thought from makers about a Maverick sequel, it could very well be a future option for Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie‘s collaboration. And we’d love to see Mescal in it who’ll next be seen in features like Strangers, Lionel, The History of Sound, and more.
You can check out our conversation with the Top Gun Maverick director below: