Warning: the article contains spoilers for Top Gun: Maverick.
A surprise favorite character amongst moviegoers who experienced the G-force high tension of Top Gun: Maverick, fans may be shocked to know that Glen Powell’s Hangman wasn’t always written as he appears in the final version of the film.
Tom Cruise returns as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in a sequel more than 30 years after the original, one that’s surprisingly superior to the first outing, while still maintaining many of the same archetypes.
Specifically, Hangman fulfills the role of the lovable asshole that Val Kilmer originally played as Iceman in the opener. While Iceman — or Ice, as he is now known — is present in the movie as Maverick’s friend and superior, it’s Hangman who plays something of a minor antagonist opposite Miles Teller’s Rooster amongst the new recruits.
But, similar to the way we went from hating Kilmer to loving him by the end of Top Gun, the same type of arc occurs in the box office smash sequel. However, Powell explained in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that the way the character was originally written didn’t make Hangman out to be all that great of a pilot, or even a compelling personality.
“He didn’t have any redemption. He just sort of faded off into the sunset. He didn’t make the mission, he had a terrible reaction to it and you never heard from him again. So they pitched me that [savior] moment, and it really did get my gears turning to go, ‘Okay, this is not just Draco Malfoy in the Navy. This is a guy who’s really going to have something to do and something to say.’”
The moment in question is when Rooster and Maverick are escaping from a top-secret mission, on the verge of getting shot down by an enemy plane that is much more advanced than the one they are piloting. Suddenly, Hangman, who was just a backup pilot relegated to the bench for the entire assignment up until that point, emerges from the smoke and blasts the enemy plane into oblivion, saving them both.
This writer can attest that he audibly pleaded “c’mon Hangman!” in the theater, right before the moment in question happened, and it practically brought a tear to the eye when he finally came through.
We must admit, Hangman would be something of a letdown of a character had his shot at redemption never happened. And of course, he and Rooster conclude the mission by giving a warm handshake to each other — after previously being sworn enemies — atop the aircraft carrier, just like Iceman and Maverick had done 30 years earlier.
Top Gun: Maverick is in theaters now.
