Why isn’t Iceman in the Top Gun: Maverick trailer?
Val Kilmer is supposed to appear in Top Gun: Maverick, but his famous “Iceman” character from the first movie is notably absent in the trailers for the 2020 sequel.
Next summer, we’ll finally be getting a Top Gun sequel when Top Gun: Maverick hits theaters. Tom Cruise will of course return to his star-making role from the original 1986 movie as Pete Mitchell (call sign “Maverick”). Val Kilmer played Cruise’s rival/adversary turned friend, Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, in the first movie and he has been slated to return for the sequel.
A new trailer for Top Gun: Maverick came out on Monday (which you can watch below). There’s a greater glimpse into the story, as Maverick becomes an instructor to a batch of new Top Gun recruits. But as in the first trailer, which debuted at San Diego Comic-Con over the summer, Kilmer is absent despite his apparent presence in the movie as a fellow instructor.
It could be that Kilmer’s role is a brief, novelty-style cameo as a nostalgia-driven callback to the first movie. Or it’s possible he’s seen in some kind of flashback, and technically credited with an appearance.
But there’s another theory out there about Iceman’s fate in the new movie. As Screen Rant theorizes, could Iceman be dead in Top Gun: Maverick?
In the new clip, Maverick is seen attending what is clearly a military funeral with the casket eventually draped in an American flag.
If Iceman is dead, either at the outset of Top Gun: Maverick or during the movie, it wouldn’t be the first time a main Top Gun character was killed off. In the first movie Maverick’s wingman, Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards) died after a failed ejection attempt. In the sequel movie, Miles Teller will be playing Goose’s son, Bradley Bradshaw, so we’ll likely see how his father’s death affected him and his friends.
So who could be in that casket? It’s pretty clearly someone close to Maverick. It might be a new recruit he has forged a bond with, or a more senior contemporary. But until we see Kilmer in a trailer to help dismiss the theory, the deceased person is most easily tabbed to be Iceman.
Next. All the cameos we want to see in The Rise of Skywalker. dark
Top Gun: Maverick flies into theaters on June 26, 2020. Keep up with FanSided Entertainment’s Movies category for more Top Gun and movie-related news.