Actor Manny Jacinto has just been tapped for a role in Top Gun: Maverick, 2020’s eagerly awaited sequel to the 1986 hit Top Gun. Apparently, Jacinto will play the role of Fritz, a young pilot who is being taught by Maverick at the top gun school.
Jacinto is best known for his role as Jason Mendoza in the NBC comedy The Good Place. He’s joining a pretty star-studded cast as well. Jennifer Connelly, Val Kilmer, Ed Harris, Jon Hamm, Monica Barbaro, and Miles Teller have all been tapped for roles in the upcoming sequel.
On top of being the two youngest cast members, Jacinto and Teller will both be playing pilots at the Top Gun flight school. Jacinto’s role as Fritz doesn’t seem connected to the original film, at least not on the surface level. But Teller’s role actually comes straight out of the original Top Gun. The Whiplash star will be playing the role of Maverick’s protege and Goose’s son. For those who haven’t seen the original, Goose was Maverick’s original partner and died before the end of the first Top Gun.
Initially, it was believed that the movie might focus on drones and how they have changed warfare and made fighter pilots, like Maverick, increasingly less relevant in society. However, it has been reported that the drone storyline has been abandoned in favor of a more action-focused plot.
Actor Val Kilmer will be reprising his role as Iceman as well, and per any movie with a senior staff like this, you can count on the younger characters inevitably learning a lesson about the merits of not being able to totally abandon the old way of doing things. Top Gun: Maverick is hitting theatres on June 26, 2020.
