'Top Gun: Maverick' Director Reveals How He Convinced Tom Cruise To Reprise His Character

Director Joseph Kosinski has opened up about how he convinced Tom Cruise to reprise his iconic character in "Top Gun: Maverick."

The 48-year-old director told Polygon in an interview published Sunday that the actor needed an emotional reason to return as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in the "Top Gun" sequel.

"I worked with Tom, and I knew to start with character and emotion," he explained.

"I just pitched this idea of Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller) growing up to become a naval aviator, and him and Maverick having this fractured relationship that had never been repaired," he added.

The director went on to share that Maverick returns in the sequel to train a group of new students who are going on "very dangerous" mission.

"The conflict [is about] the difference between being an aviator who goes in and risks his own life, and someone who's in a more senior position that has to send others in to risk their lives," he said.

Kosinki also shared how hard it is for the character to be in a senior position and send his juniors on a deadly mission.

"And to me, it felt like that leveraged the emotion of the past film and those relationships that we all love, but took it in a new direction. So that's where I started," he recalled. "I think that was honestly the element that really grabbed Tom, because it gave him an emotional reason to return to this character."

The director also revealed that apart from training new students, Cruise also loved his character's introduction in the sequel.

"The idea of finding him as a test pilot on the bleeding edge of what's possible seemed to me like the perfect way to find him, and Tom loved that," he said.

"Top Gun: Maverick," which hit theaters on May 24, made a whopping $120 million in North America during its opening weekend. The movie also stars Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, Glen Powell, Monica Barbaro, Ed Harris, Jon Hamm, Jean Louisa Kelly and Lyliana Wray.

"Top Gun," the franchise's first installment, came out in 1986.