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Tom Cruise‘s new movie Top Gun: Maverick is bringing all kinds of nostalgia for fans of the 1986 Top Gun movie. The sequel will star Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Ed Harris, and Val Kilmer who will return to his iconic role of “Iceman.”

The film has been a hot topic of conversation ahead of its release and was even discussed during a recent interview with Twenty One Pilots frontman Tyler Joseph. The singer revealed that he had actually been working on the movie before he was fired by Cruise. Here’s more on that and why Cruise previously said that a Top Gun sequel shouldn’t be made.

(L): Tyler Joseph of Twenty One Pilots performing onstage at the 2022 iHeartRadio ALTer EGO, (R): Tom Cruise smiling at the Mexico premiere of 'Top Gun Maverick'
(L): Tyler Joseph of Twenty One Pilots | | Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images for iHeartRadio, (R): Actor Tom Cruise | Hector Vivas/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures

Cruise once said making a ‘Top Gun’ sequel would be ‘irresponsible’

Following the release of the original Top Gun more than 35 years ago, Cruise wasn’t keen on making another one. He even said that doing more Top Gun films would be “irresponsible.”

“Some people felt that ‘Top Gun’ was a right-wing film to promote the Navy. And a lot of kids loved it. But I want the kids to know that that’s not the way war is — that ‘Top Gun’ was just an amusement park ride, a fun film with a PG-13 rating that was not supposed to be reality,” Cruise told Playboy (per Gizmodo) in 1990. “That’s why I didn’t go on and make ‘Top Gun II’ and III and IV and V. That would have been irresponsible.”

Well, apparently Cruise had a change of heart because Top Gun: Maverick, which was put on hold numerous times because of COVID-19, has been made and is set to hit theaters on May 27.

Joseph revealed that Cruise fired the entire ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ staff

During an interview with Joseph on KROQ Los Angeles’ Klein & Ally Show, Cruise and his highly-anticipated movie came up. The Twenty One Pilots vocalist then surprised the hosts when he let it slip that he was part of an entire crew working on Top Gun: Maverick that was let go by Cruise.

“Funny thing, I was working with the music placement person for the new Top Gun, on writing a new song for them, and then I believe Tom Cruise came in and just fired everyone,” Joseph said. “You’ve seen that new Top Gun trailer has been out for like three years. There’s been a few overhauls, and I was part of that.”

The musician added that he was fired, “pretty soon after they brought me in to show me parts of the movie and what they were looking for and stuff … then I got word that there was a wholesale swap.”

Twenty One Pilots will be doing MTV Unplugged

Tyler Joseph of Twenty One Pilots singing on stage at the Audacy Beach Festival
Tyler Joseph of Twenty One Pilots singing on stage at the Audacy Beach Festival | Jason Koerner/Getty Images for Audacy
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Joseph stated that he was axed before he even finished writing the song. But when it comes to his music these days things are going well. In fact, the Twenty One Pilots duo recently signed on to do MTV Unplugged.

“We’re doing a set for MTV Unplugged coming up … For me, the MTV Unplugged series has become less about playing something not plugged in, but more about presenting the artist or band in a different way than they’ve ever presented themselves, so that will be the case for this,” he explained. “We’re really excited for this on June 9th. Usually, Josh and I perform to pre-recorded tracks. I always like to say we’re proud of those tracks because we made them ourselves, but they’re prerecorded nonetheless so that we can focus on the performance and be able to engage with the audience. For this, we’re going to be building off the tracks for you in real-time to create a new version of our songs.” 

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