Ridley Scott turned down ‘Top Gun’ sequel because of late brother Tony

Ridley Scott was asked to pilot the sequel to Top Gun, but declined for a sentimental reason.

The Gladiator filmmaker revealed as much in a recent conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, after he was queried about Top Gun: Maverick and whether it was “weird” to watch the sequel from director Joseph Kosinski. (Kosinski succeeded Scott’s late brother Tony Scott, who directed the first 1986 action adventure film.)

“No,” it was not weird, said Scott. “They asked me to [direct] it and I said, ‘I don’t want to follow my brother.’ Tony was always interested in today. A lot of my stuff is either historic, fantasy or science fiction. Tony didn’t like fantasy — things like Alien or Blade Runner or Legend.”

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Tony Scott, who also directed such classics as True Romance and Man on Fire, died August 2012 by suicide at the age of 68. Scott’s expansive interview with THR even concluded with a touching sentiment after the outlet asked if there was anything else he wanted to add to the conversation. “I miss my brother,” said Scott.

Top Gun, a box office success and the highest-grossing film of its year, introduced Tom Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, a fighter pilot the Top Gun Naval Fighter Weapons School. Cruise reprised the role for the sequel, which sees him training a new generation of pilots and confronting the ghosts of his pasts. Val Kilmer also returned as Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, starring alongside franchise newbies Miles Teller and Glen Powell.

The sequel paid homage to the late Scott in a memorial dedication as the credits rolled at the end of the film. And though Maverick was also a massive box office success, it appears Ridley Scott was a tough critic on it. Director Fede Álvarez, who revived Scott’s Alien franchise with Alien: Romulus, shared Scott’s reaction to Maverick at last year’s DGA Latino Summit while speaking about the nerve-wracking process of sending his Alien film over to the director.

“I wanted him to see it before anybody,” said Álvarez. “And everyone gave me the head’s up that Ridley is really tough. . . I asked him about the new Top Gun and he’s like ‘meh.’ I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ And he was like, ‘My brother’s was original and this is like eh.’ He really respected it, but you could see how tough he was. So I was like, ‘There’s no way I win this one.’”