Why 'Top Gun: Maverick' Decided To Change The Romance Between Tom Cruise And Jennifer Connelly’s Characters Halfway Through Filming

"Top Gun: Maverick" was the smash blockbuster movie hit of Summer 2022, and reached yet another pinnacle of recognition by nabbing a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars. The movie is a fast-paced good time, but wouldn’t quite complete the sequel equation without the central romance between Tom Cruise and Jennifer Connelly’s characters. Now, director Joseph Kosinski has shared how their characters’ relationship changed throughout filming the movie to better suit the story Kosinski was going for. The Oblivion director sat down with Vanity Fair to detail behind-the-scenes factoids about the most difficult scenes to bring together for "Top Gun: Maverick," and how the different character relationships were established. The action filmmaker revealed that Cruise and Connelly’s relationship was approached much differently as written in the original script, and he explained why changes were made while filming, revealing that establishing scene between the characters at her bar was just as hard to capture in some ways as the high-flying stunts.