Glen Powell Based His Hangman ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Call Sign on an Embarrassing Middle School Story
Actor Glen Powell is one of the new characters introduced in Top Gun: Maverick, who has the call sign of Hangman. The production allowed the actors to choose their individual call signs for their characters, but they didn’t take this task lightly. Powell truly wanted to bring the best name possible. He explained how he came up with the Top Gun: Maverick call sign of Hangman.
Glen Powell plays Hangman in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’
Top Gun: Maverick finds Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) pushing the boundaries of some of the Navy’s top aviators around. They will need to work together to succeed at the near-impossible mission put before them. However, they don’t all get along and must learn how to work together for the greater good.
Powell plays Hangman in Top Gun: Maverick, who views himself as a natural leader. However, he doesn’t ever work around his teammates. As a result, he’s in direct competition with Rooster (Miles Teller) for the spot of team leader on a mission that they may never return home from.
Glen Powell explained how he came up with the Hangman call sign
Jimmy Kimmel Live brought Powell onto the show to talk about his Top Gun: Maverick character, Hangman. Kimmel asked if it’s true that he got to choose his call sign, similar to how Teller did. However, Powell didn’t entirely come up with it on his own.
“Yeah, I got to pick Hangman,” Powell said. “When we originally went to the Navy, went to Fallon, Nevada, and hung with all the Navy people, my original call sign was Slayer.”
However, Powell continued: “When they were talking about the difference between Air Force call signs and Navy call signs, they said, ‘Navy call signs are like Peanut and Zaddy, and Air Force call signs are like Spine Ripper and Slayer.’ I was like, ‘Well, I can’t be an Air Force call sign.’”
“So, I went down to North Island, hung with a bunch of naval aviators and I met this one guy whose call sign was Noose. I was like, ‘Hey, why do they call you Noose, man?’ He goes, ‘You know…’ Then, one of his buddies was like, ‘I’ll tell you why they call him Noose.’”
Powell explained: “Basically they said when he was in middle school, he was going to go to a school dance, he was really excited. There was this girl he really liked, but he was worried he was going to be too excited, so he ended up taking his shoelace and tying it around his thing around his leg. (Laughs). So, you take a shoelace, you tie it around your leg, not a great plan to start off with. It got stuck. His buddy had to cut him out, so he got the call sign Noose, and Noose became Hangman.”
‘Top Gun: Maverick’ introduces a whole new team of recruits
Top Gun: Maverick introduces a whole team alongside Hangman. The various call signs include Rooster, Phoenix, Payback, Fanboy, Coyote, Bob, Cyclone, and of course, Maverick. Top Gun: Maverick brings a new crew for audiences to connect with, some of which call back to elements of the original cast.
They are the best jet pilots out there, but they will have to push far past their limits to succeed in this mission.
