Glen Powell Says ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Delay Nearly Made Him Go Broke

Glen Powell almost went broke due to the delays surrounding the release of Top Gun: Maverick. The Hit Man actor, 35, opened up about his financial concerns that were going on behind the scenes of the 2022 blockbuster, which was delayed for two years amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in a new profile for The Hollywood Reporter.

Star Tom Cruise reportedly pushed for the delay in order for the film to be released in theaters instead of on streaming, but Powell said it was almost ruinous for him as a less-established performer. “I’d never made any significant amount of money on a movie, including Top Gun, and I was depleting a bank account to a point where my accountant was like, ‘This pandemic cannot last much longer,’” he confessed.

Powell continued of his superstar castmate, “Tom was already Tom; I was waiting for my life to change.” Ultimately, the movie theater release did pay off financially, as Top Gun: Maverick brought in $1.5 billion worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing film of 2022 and serving as a breakout role for Powell, who would go on to star in 2023’s Anyone But You alongside Sydney Sweeney.

Powell almost didn’t take his Top Gun role at all, however, as he originally auditioned for the role of Goose’s son, Rooster, which ultimately went to Miles Teller. Asked instead to play his character, Hangman, Powell revealed that when he looked through the original script, the role didn’t impress him. “I read the script, and I didn’t like this guy,” Powell said. “He was just a dick, and he wasn’t even a good pilot.” Cruise stepped in to try to work with Powell and the producers on the role, and ultimately there were changes made to Hangman that convinced Powell to sign on. 

In the end, Powell’s time filming Top Gun: Maverick ended up being so impactful that he would go on to produce The Blue Angels documentary alongside J.J. Abrams, which is available to stream on Prime Video now. The documentary follows a year in the life of the Navy’s elite Flight Demonstration Squadron, as Powell told PEOPLE it was “pretty impossible” to leave the Top Gun world  “and not feel completely inspired by the world of aviation.” 

“I mean, Tom makes it look pretty damn cool,” he joked. “When we were shooting that movie, we were getting to live on real naval bases and were getting to fly with the best pilots. The folks of the Navy made that movie possible and became our friends and our family.”