Jester Won’t be in Top Gun 2 Because Jerry Bruckheimer Hates Him
Say no to Jerry and you don’t get to fly again.
Top Gun: Maverick seems to have stalled while the filmmakers work out how to do all the bits with the planes in it, but most of the cast seems to be staying put. Miles Teller, Jon Hamm and Jennifer Connelly are leading the film, but one of the big draws was always going to see Maverick and Iceman back in action.
Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer are definitely on board, but the one (surviving) graduate of Top Gun who won’t be returning for the sequel is Michael Ironside’s Jester – and it’s all because Jerry Bruckheimer doesn’t like him.
“I’m not going to be in this film,” Ironside told The Hollywood Reporter. “The one person still in charge is Jerry Bruckheimer and Mr. Bruckheimer and I don’t really get along, or didn’t get along. He offered me a project 10 or 12 years ago and… I said no to it.”
Bruckheimer, clearly, isn’t a guy who likes to hear the word “no” and he still holds a grudge against Ironside for daring to turn down a bit part in a sequel that seems to be having trouble getting off the ground anyway.
“The next time I saw him at a hockey game… I went up and said, ‘Hey Jerry’ and he just turned around and I figured, ‘Well that relationship is over with’. But he has a business he has to run, he has to make decisions based on his way of doing things and what makes him feel safe.”
You might have been in Scanners, Total Recall, and Starship Troopers, but nobody says no to Jerry.
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