Top Gun: Maverick has become not only the hit movie of the summer but the hit movie of 2022, grossing over $1 billion at the worldwide box office. The original Top Gun in 1986 was a box office sensation, but nobody could have imagined this sequel would fly past films like Titanic, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and The Avengers on the domestic box office charts. Incredible reviews and a larger-than-life scope have made this movie a must-see on the big screen, and judging by the fact that it stayed in the domestic top five for over six weeks, proves that audiences are coming out to theaters multiple times to see Top Gun: Maverick.

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Originally set for release in 2020, Top Gun: Maverick was delayed for over two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. While other studios sent movies straight to streaming or experimented with hybrid releases for theaters and streaming, Tom Cruise made sure that Paramount held onto Top Gun: Maverick as a theatrical experience, and it has paid off for everyone: Tom Cruise, Paramount, and the audience. Top Gun: Maverick arrived in theaters 36 years after the original was released in theaters meaning a lot of time has passed for the actors of the original film and their characters. Here is a breakdown of how the Top Gun characters changed in the time before Top Gun: Maverick.

Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell (Tom Cruise)

     Paramount Pictures

The lead of the first film and titular character of the sequel, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell has stayed a pilot in the 36 years since the original film, still pushing himself and his planes to the limit. Maverick continues to get into trouble, and his friend Iceman has been bailing him out for years. He also has grown distant from Bradley, the son of his deceased friend Goose, part of which was because Carole (Bradley’s mother) asked Maverick to not let her son fly.

Maverick seems to be caught in a similarly repeating pattern, as over the years he has reportedly been an instructor but was forced out, he has renewed his relationship with past flame Penny Benjamin, and despite always trying to go faster with his “need for speed,” has found himself standing still in life. His arc in Top Gun: Maverick is about him letting go of the past and embracing the future.

Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (Val Kilmer)

Maverick’s main rival-turned-friend in the first film, Top Gun: Maverick established that Maverick and Iceman remained great friends. While Maverick stayed a pilot, Iceman rose through the ranks to become a highly respected commander in the Navy, and has been responsible for helping bail Maverick out of trouble over the years whenever Maverick disobeys orders. Iceman also got married and had numerous kids and grandkids. It’s also revealed that Iceman was diagnosed with throat cancer, and while he recovered from it for a short time, it returned and now hurts him to speak. He now primarily communicates through text and his computer, but just before his death, he gives Maverick one final pep talk.

Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller)

The son of Goose from the original Top Gun, Bradley Bradshaw was actually seen in the first Top Gun film as a 4-year-old child who sings along with his father and his uncle Maverick to Jerry Lee Lewis’ song ‘Great Balls of Fire’. After his father’s death, Bradley attempts to enroll in the US Naval Academy, but Maverick pulls his papers, setting his career back four years. This combined with the death of his father makes Bradley resentful of Maverick. When he finally does join the Navy he becomes a TOPGUN graduate and earns the call sign Rooster, as he is known to wait for the right time, similar to a Rooster waiting for the sun to rise.

Carole Bradshaw (Meg Ryan)

In the original Top Gun, Goose’s wife and Rooster’s mother Carole was played by a then relatively unknown Meg Ryan three years before her role in When Harry Met Sally… In Top Gun: Maverick, it is mentioned that sometime between the event of the first film and before Rooster became of age to join the Navy she got sick and passed away. Maverick made Carole a promise to not let Rooster fly like his father and suffer a similar fate. This motivates Maverick to pull Rooster’s application from the Navy, and he never informs him of his mother’s wish, as he does not want him to have any resentment towards his mother.

Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood (Kelly McGillis)

One of the most notable absent characters from Top Gun: Maverick is Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood who was played by Kelly McGillis in the original Top Gun. Maverick’s main love interest in the first film is nowhere to be seen in the new film. McGillis was not asked by the filmmakers to reprise her role for the sequel. The character is not referenced in Top Gun: Maverick at all leaving her life after the first film unknown.

Penny Benjamin (Jennifer Connelly)

While Jennifer Connelly’s character Penny Benjamin first appears in Top Gun: Maverick, she was actually referenced back in the first film. She was referenced twice in the original as an Admiral’s daughter who Maverick had a fling with. It appears that the two have picked up on their fling on and off over the past 36 years between Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick. Penny now has a teenage daughter, Amelia, and is divorced from Amelia’s father. She also owns a bar close to the flight academy which is often frequented by servicemen.