Outside of the various Marvel and DC releases from 2022, fans have felt the need for speed this year thanks to one of the most universally beloved movies in recent memory - Top Gun: Maverick.
With the sequel coming more than three decades after its predecessor, fans were ready to dive back into this action adventure, and it became an instant success upon its arrival in theaters. It even set the record for the best second weekend at the box office in the pandemic era, and it's now approaching the top 10 highest grossing movies of all time as it becomes available for release digitally.
Now that Top Gun 2 is the biggest non-franchise movie in quite some time, some of its stars have become increasingly popular in fan casts for some of the bigger franchises in the movie industry. Many of these fan casts involve Marvel Studios' upcoming reboot of the X-Men, within which countless classic characters will need big-name actors to take over the roles from their Fox Studios counterparts.
One actor who's come up often in these discussions is Glen Powell, who played newcomer Hangman alongside Tom Cruise's Maverick and Miles Teller's Rooster in their summer blockbuster. Now, he's cleared the air on his current status with Marvel Studios.
Glen Powell Addresses Marvel Rumors
Speaking with Variety, Top Gun: Maverick star Glen Powell touched on the rumors regarding his casting in the MCU as Cyclops from Marvel's X-Men.
When asked if there was any truth to those rumors, Powell made it clear that nobody from Marvel has been in touch with him, even with fans passionately asking him if he's playing the role:
"Before Comic-Con, everybody was like, “Dude, are you Cyclops?” No, I’m not. Nobody has called me. I don’t even have one contact info for Marvel, so I have no idea what people are talking about."
He also addressed whether it would take another 36 years to get a third Top Gun movie, which is how long it took for fans to get the second one after Top Gun released in 1986. He joked about potentially not looking as good as Tom Cruise does when he's 60 years old, although he remains hopeful that he'll get to come back for another round:
"I don’t know if I’m going to look like Tom Cruise at 60. We have different trajectories. He’s maintained. I don’t know if Hangman is going to look the same. I could look pretty gross. Hopefully before then, I’d like to make another movie."
Will Glen Powell Actually Play the MCU's Cyclops
Glen Powell certainly has the resume and the experience to be one of the MCU's top names should that decision be made, with his role in Top Gun: Maverick cementing him as a star in the modern era. He even looks like he could fit well in the role of Cyclops for the MCU, a character previously played by James Marsden in the original trilogy and by Tye Sheridan in X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix.
At the moment, it appears that the X-Men might not even make their way into the MCU until the end of the Multiverse Saga so that Marvel can recast new actors in the roles that were used in the Fox movies. With Powell only approaching his 34th birthday in October, he still has more than enough time to take on a role with the team should he decide to do so, although it's clear that that decision is still some time away from being made.
Right now, the closest any of the X-Men are to debuting in the MCU is with Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool 3, which is early in development for a potential release in early 2024. But should Powell get the opportunity to bring a new version of Cyclops to the big screen, he certainly has all the tools and skills to make the MCU's take on the hero one that fans will enjoy.
Top Gun: Maverick is now available for purchase digitally.
