Unlike most of the new cast members in “Top Gun: Maverick,” who are, mostly, relatively fresh faces compared to returning cast members like Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer, Jon Hamm is a certified star. The actor is equally at home in dramas like “Mad Men” and on comedies like “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” and since his iconic AMC series ended in 2015, he has kept busy in films like “Tag,” “Lucy in the Sky,” and Clint Eastwood’s “Richard Jewell.”
He also starred opposite his “Top Gun: Maverick” co-star Lewis Pullman in “Bad Times at the El Royale.” Hamm was particularly proud of his participation in that project, telling an interviewer on the press junket that he liked how original the story was. “It’s not based on a comic book, or a video game, or a board game, or an amusement park ride, or anything else,” he pointed out. “It just exists in its own thing, so there isn’t, like, a Wikipedia page on it that everyone’s like, ‘This is the whole story and this is what you should expect.'”
In “Top Gun: Maverick,” Hamm’s character is named Cyclone. Though the character is new to the “Top Gun” world, Hamm explained his role to GQ, telling the magazine, “I play the boss, the guy who’s shaking his finger and telling Tom Cruise that he’s writing checks his body can’t cash. It’s exciting.”