Top Gun: Maverick's Jon Hamm Said Tom Cruise Felt 'Weird' Returning 30 Years Later

Top Gun: Maverick Tom Cruise smiling in a briefing room

Waking up today, you might have caught sight of Tom Cruise’s Captain Pete Mitchell doing a sweet fly-by in an SR-71 Blackbird. That wasn’t a dream, that was something you actually saw in the latest trailer for Top Gun: Maverick, so don’t feel weird about remembering that.

However, if we’re talking about the subject of “weird,” we need to mention how Tom Cruise himself used that same word to describe just how he felt coming back to the role that helped land him a spot in the danger zone known as fame.

That particular story, as luck would have it, comes from one of Tom Cruise’s new co-stars, fellow charmer Jon Hamm, as he talked about his first day on set below:

My first day, I walked up to him, he gave me a big hug and said, ‘Welcome, it’s so great to have you!’ (I got) the full Tom Cruise experience, it was great. I was thrilled, obviously, and I asked him, I said, ‘It’s gotta be crazy weird for you — you’re on the same set, in virtually the same costume, just 30 years later. What’s that about?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, it’s really weird!’ I went, ‘OK, well, there we go!’ The movie’s gonna be amazing.

First off, let’s just imagine Jon Hamm and Tom Cruise broing out on the set of Top Gun: Maverick, because that right there helps back up the weirdness that seems to have been present on set. I say this only because having the man who helped make Mad Men a household name feels like an interesting scene partner to team up with Cruise, but ultimately a fitting one.

Much like that collaboration, the fact that we’re getting a Top Gun sequel decades after the fact feels like a weird prospect. At least, it did until we saw that sweet trailer action earlier this year, as well as with that fresh round we set our eyes upon this morning. Take another look for yourself, because you know you want to, below:

As Jon Hamm told in his story to GMA, Tom Cruise feels weird because he’s basically back in one of the earliest role of his career, and partially playing the same old Maverick we’ve known and loved. And yet, with Top Gun: Maverick, there will undoubtedly be changes and twists that will help Cruise and director Joesph Kosinski (with whom he’d previously collaborated with on Oblivion) take this new trip to the Danger Zone into new and exciting territory.

If you’re as amped as we are about beach football being the new beach volleyball, Miles Teller’s well cultivated mustache, and Jon Hamm teaming up with Tom Cruise, then you’re definitely ready to see Top Gun: Maverick when it debuts on June 26, 2020.

Mike Reyes
Senior Movies Contributor

Mike Reyes is the Senior Movie Contributor at CinemaBlend, though that title’s more of a guideline really. Passionate about entertainment since grade school, the movies have always held a special place in his life, which explains his current occupation. Mike graduated from Drew University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, but swore off of running for public office a long time ago. Mike's expertise ranges from James Bond to everything Alita, making for a brilliantly eclectic resume. He fights for the user.