While Glen Powell has been active in the acting world for a long time, with his notable earlier work including making his film debut in Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over and having a small role in The Dark Knight Rises, it’s no secret that Top Gun: Maverick launched him to worldwide fame. The 2022 movie that saw Tom Cruise’s Pete Mitchell training a group of Top Gun graduates, including Powell’s Hangman, was met with critical acclaim and ended up being the 2nd highest-grossing movie that year. Now, roughly two and a half years after its release, Powell has compared Maverick to the best Marvel movies, and his take is A+.
2024 was another big year for Powell, as he starred in Hit Man and Twisters, which can respectively be streamed with a Netflix subscription and Peacock subscription. His performance as Gary Johnson in the former movie netted him a Golden Globe nomination a few days ago, and now his interview with Everyday Warrior Nation is up, which included him explaining why something like Top Gun: Maverick stands out from the MCU and other superhero stories. He started off by saying:
We’ve been watching Marvel movies for so long. Those movies are great. But it’s like, it’s not movies about real heroes, right? And it’s not movies about people that we recognize. The thing that makes a pilot a superhero is just a normal person with exceptional talent and exceptional bravery.
As someone who’s not only watched many of the Marvel movies in order numerous times, but also a fan of the superhero genre in general, I agree with Glen Powell’s opinion. Sure, it’s nice to see characters like Spider-Man and The Hulk fight antagonists aliens, mad scientists and other threats, but it’s also great when we can see the kind of heroes that Powell’s talking about. In Top Gun: Maverick’s case, those were pilots, but even if we’re talking about characters in other heroic professions, the point is that they’re showing off their talents and bravery in a world where, although heightened, a lot more closely resembles real life. Powell continued:
I appreciate all the Marvel stuff in the fact that it’s big, it’s cinematic, it’s fun, what they do , they do better than anyone. I also just find that Top Gun is such an exceptional thing to be a part of ‘cause it really is real. It’s real in the fact that we’re shooting on real carriers with real bases. The people that are flying us are real Top Gun pilots. I just feel like that is such a greater accomplishment than anything else.
I appreciate a good CGI slugfest among superheroes and supervillains, but Glen Powell’s right, when it’s an incredible feat actually being performed in real life, that makes for an extra special cinematic moment. In Top Gun: Maverick’s case, you can revisit those aerial spectacles and watch Powell act opposite Tom Cruise, Miles Teller and many others by streaming the sequel with a Paramount+ subscription. Powell has also teased that Top Gun 3 is in the works, but that has yet to be officially confirmed.
The actor will next be seen starring in The Running Man, which opens November 21 on the 2025 movies schedule. Captain America: Brave New World, the next of the upcoming Marvel movies, comes out on February 14.
