‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Enlists ‘The Good Place’ Actor Manny Jacinto
Top Gun: Maverickhas enlisted another rising star to its crew. Filipino-Canadian actorManny Jacinto,who can currently be seen on the riotously good NBC comedyThe Good Place, has joined theTop Gun: Maverickcast as a pilot. He’ll be joining a star-studded cast that includesTom Cruise,Val Kilmer,Ed Harris, andJennifer Connolly.Deadlinereports that Jacinto has been tapped to joinTop Gun: Maverickin the role of a pilot named Fritz. It’s unclear whether that will be his character’s real name or code name, but I’m leaning toward real name, since Fritz doesn’t appear anywhere on thecasting breakdownleaked last month. As for Fritz’s colorful code name, my money’s on Lardo.
Jacinto makes his first major feature film debut withTop Gun: Maverick, after his breakout role inThe Good Place, as the beautiful idiot Jason Mendoza. Jacinto’s proved to have major comedy chops withThe Good Placein a performance so hysterical that it managed to distract from his stunning good looks. I would be happy to see him stretch his acting chops in a more serious role inTop Gun: Maverick, though I also wouldn’t mind to see him bust out some hilarious one-liners as well. WithTop Gun, it could go either way.
Jacinto is the latest to join the cast of the long-awaitedTop Gunsequel, which is in the middle of acasting blitzfollowing the confirmation that the original 1986 hit’s stars Cruise and Kilmer were set to return. They were soon joined by a slew of big names, includingMiles Telleras the coveted role of the son of Goose, the pilot who died in the arms of Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell after an ejection gone terribly wrong.
Other fresh-faced stars joining the new generation of pilots includeGlen Powell(Everybody Wants Some),Thomasin McKenzie(Jojo Rabbit),Charles Parnell(A Million Little Pieces),Jay Ellis(Insecure),Bashir Salahuddin(GLOW),Danny Ramirez(Assassination Nation), andMonica Barbaro(The Good Cop). Meanwhile,Jon Hamm, Ed Harris, andJennifer Connollyround out the cast.
We don’t know much about the plot ofTop Gun: Maverick, which will supposedly center around Cruise and Teller’s characters. At one point, a script focused on drone warfare, but directorJoseph Kosinskichanged that when he landed the gig. “Personally, I would never want to see a movie about drones. For meTop Gunhas always been not about fighter planes,” the directorsaid. “It’s been about fighter pilots.” The casting breakdown above, loaded with pilot names, confirms that’s still the case.
