Austin Butler Almost Landed Major Role in 'Top Gun: Maverick'

Austin Butler may have made it big with Elvis, but Top Gun: Maverick nearly got him. The long-awaited sequel to Tom Cruise's 1986 Top Gun came out in 2022 and also starred Miles Teller as Rooster, the son of Maverick's late RIO and best friend, Goose. Teller got a lot of praise from the role, but it evidently almost went to Butler. Casting director Denise Chamian appeared on the podcast The Town with Matthew Belloni, where she spilled some casting secrets for Maverick.

The two got on the topic of casting actors of a certain age for projects, and Chamian admitted she met Butler early on since he read for her for The Maze Runner trilogy, but it didn't quite work out. "Then several years later, he read for me for Top Gun," Chamian shared. "He read for Miles Teller's role. We were doing a huge search for the son, and he came in, and he was phenomenal. He changed so much. He had matured. His acting talent had strengthened. When I showed him to Tom, Tom agreed that he was going to be a big star but that he was just too young."

Butler is four years younger than Teller, so it makes sense that it was too young for the role. While it's hard to imagine anyone else as Rooster, you can't help but wonder how different the movie would have been if Butler had landed the role. However, it seemed to have worked out for the better, as Chamian was also the casting director on Elvis, which came up not long after Top Gun. She admitted how the former Nickelodeon star was "so right" for the role of the King of Rock 'n Roll, and the rest is history.

Since there is a Top Gun 3 in the works, maybe Austin Butler can join the cast since he wasn't able to during Maverick. He seems like the kind of person that would be perfect for that kind of movie, and it would be a total shame if that didn't happen. Plus, having him and Miles Teller in the same movie would be one of the best things ever. Hopefully it happens, but for now, fans will just have imagine Top Gun with him and keep their fingers crossed their prayers are answered.