Top Gun: Maverick: Was Penny Benjamin in Top Gun 1?

“High Gun: Maverick” is full of nostalgia and callbacks to the unique 1986 film, together with some legacy characters and acquainted scenes. One factor viewers have seen has modified, nonetheless, is who performs the love curiosity to Tom Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. The sequel — which was nominated for six Academy Awards — sees Maverick, now a long time into his profession, wooing a bar proprietor (and daughter of an admiral) named Penny Benjamin. This is what to learn about Maverick’s love curiosity.

Is Penny Benjamin within the Authentic “High Gun”?

Penny, performed by Jennifer Connelly, is just not bodily within the first “High Gun” film, however she does exist in it, although solely talked about in passing. She isn’t really seen on display screen.

In a single scene, Maverick’s previous exploits are mentioned to incorporate “a historical past of high-speed passes over 5 air-control towers and one admiral’s daughter,” and Maverick’s BFF Goose mutters Penny’s title underneath his breath — making her the “admiral’s daughter” in query. That is later confirmed when Goose’s spouse, Carole, teases Maverick about his romantic historical past, telling her that Goose “informed me all concerning the time you went ballistic with Penny Benjamin.”

Whereas she by no means seems in particular person within the first “High Gun,” Penny turns into a significant character within the sequel. Now performed by Connelly, Penny owns a bar that’s the downtime vacation spot of selection for the TOPGUN crew. She’s lower than thrilled when Maverick exhibits up once more, and their dialogue positively implies that they’ve had a little bit of an on-and-off romance all through the years between the 2 motion pictures.

“It began the primary time once they have been fairly younger. And also you get the sense that they form of come collectively, they’ve this form of fiery romance, after which it falls aside,” Connelly described in a 2022 interview with FilmIsNow. “However then they maintain coming again to one another.” She echoed these sentiments in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “I believe that they’d a number of flings that did not pan out significantly effectively within the years between,” she mentioned. “We talked about their backstory and what that historical past may need been.”

The actor additionally recalled being 15 years outdated when the primary film got here out. “I do not keep in mind the precise second, to be trustworthy with you, however I keep in mind the flying, Tom on his bike with the aviators, and what a charismatic character he had created,” mentioned Connelly. “And naturally, I keep in mind the songs that received caught in my head and by no means left.”

Why Is not Kelly McGillis’s Charlie Blackwood in “High Gun: Maverick”?

Within the first “High Gun,” Maverick’s love curiosity is Charlie Blackwood, an astrophysicist who crosses paths with him on the TOPGUN academy. Different forged members from the unique “High Gun” returned for “High Gun: Maverick,” like Val Kilmer, so what’s behind this love-interest switcheroo?

Kelly McGillis performed Charlie in “High Gun,” however when the sequel got here round, in keeping with her, she wasn’t even requested to be a part of the film.

“They didn’t [invite me back], and nor do I believe they might ever,” she mentioned again in 2019 when the primary trailer for “High Gun: Maverick” dropped and she or he was conspicuously absent. “I am outdated and I am fats and I look age-appropriate for what my age is, and that’s not what that entire scene is about,” she mentioned. McGillis, who’s now 66 years outdated, is sort of precisely 5 years older than 61-year-old Cruise; Connelly is 52. McGillis had nothing however constructive issues to say about Connelly becoming a member of the forged, nonetheless, saying she’s “so glad [Connelly] received that chance.”

In distinction, director Joseph Kosinski mentioned that bringing again Charlie merely wasn’t in keeping with the story they have been seeking to inform within the sequel. “I did not need each storyline to at all times be trying backwards,” Kosinski beforehand informed Insider. “It was necessary to introduce some new characters.” This meant excluding some characters from the unique, together with McGillis as Charlie and Meg Ryan as Carole Bradshaw.