One of the most celebrated moments of the year’s biggest film, Top Gun: Maverick, would be the iconic reunion between original Top Gun stars Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer. The impactful scene was brought up in a chat between director Joseph Kosinski and Glass Onion helmer Rian Johnson (per Variety), and it was asked how exactly the scene came to be. In the film, Kilmer’s Iceman is depicted as having throat cancer, a way of working around the actor’s real-life health struggles.
As Kosinski explains, working that into the story was actually Kilmer’s idea. The director explains how once Kilmer pitched bringing Iceman into the sequel this way, the writing for making it happen came naturally from there. Though, leading up to film, there were changes made regarding how much Kilmer would actually speak.
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Kosinski goes on to explain how the change was in part for the sake of Kilmer, but that they also found that having him physically speak less at the start made it mean more when he does so.
Getting Val Kilmer Involved Was Important
Everyone involved with the production wanted to get Val Kilmer to return for Top Gun: Maverick. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer previously spoke about how Tom Cruise “really wanted” Kilmer to be there to reunite with him. In fact, Cruise may have been more adamant than anyone that the reunion needed to happen. As the producer told People:
Top Gun: Maverick will land on Paramount+ for streaming on Dec. 22, 2022, following a recent two-week return to theaters.
