Top Gun Maverick: Tom Cruise Wasn’t Going to Make the Sequel Unless Val Kilmer Was in It

Top Gun: Maverick producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, has revealed that Tom Cruise insisted Val Kilmer return as Iceman for the sequel.

This news comes by way of People, which reports that Bruckheimer said Cruise was the driving force behind getting Kilmer back as Iceman in the Top Gun sequel.

Now, more than 35 years later, Top Gun fans will see Cruise’s Maverick and Kilmer’s Iceman reunite on the screen when Top Gun: Maverick debuts in theaters on November 19.

“He said, ‘We have to have Val, we have to have him back. We have to have him in the film,'” Bruckheimer told People. “And he was the driving force. We all wanted him, but Tom was really adamant that if he’s going to make another Top Gun, Val had to be in it.”

Bruckheimer said Kilmer is a “fine actor [and] such a good individual,” revealing that watching him and Cruise reunite on set was “very emotional.” The producer continued and explained that bringing back some of the Top Gun gang was something the Maverick team wanted to do.

Kilmer’s son, Jack Kilmer, told People that the actor was “so stoked” to return to the role and that Top Gun: Maverick really honors the legacy of Iceman.

Kilmer has actually been wanting to return as Iceman for years now. When the sequel’s title was revealed back in 2017, Kilmer took to Instagram to express his interest in reprising his original Top Gun role.

“I’m ready Tom — still got my Top Gun plaque,” Kilmer said. “Still got the moves! Still got it!”

Then, a little over a year later, it was reported that Kilmer would, in fact, be returning to the role of Iceman in Top Gun: Maverick. Now, audiences will see Iceman and Maverick on screen together once again when the sequel hits theaters November 19.

While waiting for the movie’s release, check out the first Top Gun: Maverick trailer and then read about how the Navy stopped Cruise from flying an actual jet in Top Gun: Maverick. Read about how Kelly McGillis wasn’t asked to return for Top Gun: Maverick after that.

Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

Ed Asner, Star of Pixar’s Up, Dies at 91

Acting legend Ed Asner has died, Variety reports. He was 91.

Asner is known to modern audiences most for his role as Carl Fredricksen in Pixar’s Up, where he played the curmudgeonly old man who tied hundreds of balloons to his home and embarked on an adventure alongside Doug the dog and “Junior Wilderness Explorer” Russell.

A publicist for Asner confirmed the actor’s death to Variety, stating Asner died on Sunday surrounded by his family.

Asner’s big break as an actor was the Mary Tyler Moore Show, which ran from 1970 to 1977. Asner played the grumpy newsroom producer Lou Grant, Moore’s boss. Asner won three Emmy awards for best supporting actor for his role on the show. The Lou Grant character proved so popular he got his own spinoff, a more serious in tone hour-long series simply titled “Lou Grant.” Asner similarly won two Emmy awards for his work on Rich Man, Poor Man and Roots. Asner appeared as Santa in Will Ferrel’s Elf.

Asner told CNN in 2010 that he had never seen a Pixar movie until Wall-E, which debuted one year before Up.

“I was shocked to see how adult [Wall-E] was, with the setting in our lives, both present and future, and how they dealt with it. … And then quite relieved to find that the one I was working on, “Up,” how adult it was,” Asner said. If I would fault the producers [and] distributors in any way [it’s that] they didn’t find some better way to immediately make adults realize that this was as much for them as for kids. … My God, that four-minute passage in there detailing their life together. We all wish that our lives could be displayed as beautifully as that one is.”

Asner’s more recent roles include appearances on Grace & Frankie, Netflix’s Cobra Kai, voices on American Dad, and The Boondocks. The hugely positive reception to Up reinvigorated interest in the actor’s presence, landing him spots on Law & Order: SVU, The Middle, and Hawaii Five-0.

Asner is survived by his four children.

Joseph Knoop is a producer/writer for IGN.

27 MORE Things You STILL Didn’t Know In Zelda Breath Of The Wild

In the video above, we cover 33 tips and tricks that aren’t quite as well known, ranging from secrets to glitches, some that are pretty simple and others that are fairly complex. Breath of the Wild has been out for four years at this point, and players have found some amazing things, intended or not, that keep the game and its sense of discovery feeling fresh.

Fortnite Adds Will Smith’s Mike Lowrey Character From Bad Boys

Fornite has added Will Smith’s Mike Lowrey character from the Bad Boys movie franchise to the battle royale’s Item Shop.

Epic Games announced the Bad Boys x Fortnite crossover in a blog post on Saturday, revealing that a little of Miami’s South Beach would be coming to the game by way of detective Mike Lowrey.

The Mike Lowrey Outfit can be purchased in the Fortnite Item Shop right now and it includes the Detective’s Duffle Back Bling. The Loose Cannon set also features Lowrey’s dual-wielding pickaxe known as the Loose Cannon Cutters. You can see the entire Mike Lowrey set in the image below:

Unfortunately for Bad Boys diehards, Lowrey’s police partner and best friend, Marcus Burnett (played by Martin Lawrence in the movies) is nowhere to be seen.

“Mike Lowrey is one cool customer,” the blog post reads. “Whether he’s involved in explosive action or a high-speed chase, he’s always undeniably smooth.”

Hopefully he’s great at building, too.

While the addition of Lowrey is probably exciting for Will Smith and Bad Boys fans, the character’s inclusion in Season 7 of Fortnite Chapter 2, specifically, is an odd one. That’s because the entire season is themed around aliens and alien invasions, and not many actors have fought aliens on the big screen more than Will Smith, as noted by PCGamesN.

The most obvious alien-themed choice when choosing a Will Smith character would have been Agent J from Men in Black, but Steven Hiller from Independence Day would have worked just as well too. Lowrey, however, has not fought off an alien invasion before.

Nevertheless, it’s a good day to be a Fortnite fan who’s also a fan of Will Smith. Mike Lowrey and his equipment are now available to purchase in the Fortnite Item Shop.

For more Fortnite, read about how Epic Games recently added Ryan Reynold’s Dude character from Free Guy to the game and then read about how the company added Ripley and the Alien Xenomorph to the battle royale. Catch up on everything in Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 7 after that.

Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

Optimize Your Creativity With This Next Level Controller

Technology should be able to help simplify our lives and streamline our workflows, but it can often end up doing the exact opposite.When it comes to creativity, that might be especially true. That’s because when you’re using these insane programs on your computer with a million different commands to master, you can easily end up getting lost and blocked from the tedium of it all.

Rated 4.3 out of 5 stars on Amazon, TourBox Neo is the ultimate controller for creators, and it’s on sale now for 21% off at just $150. It’s designed specifically for people operating in creative fields, helpful in navigating Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, Capture One, and other programs. So what exactly is it? Well, TourBox Neo is a console that attaches to your macOS or Windows system that you can use for editing photos, videos, and audio as well as drawing. It’s designed to help you use your hand more intuitively than the traditional mousepad or external mouse set up, with a knob, wheel, scroller, and a variety of different buttons.

The controls are much more precise than any mouse, and the knob lets you modify different attributes you’ve probably seen before on editing software: hardness, size, transparency, etc. Of course, you can and should still use a mouse along with it, but you’ll find that this console picks up in all of the places that the mouse is deficient or redundant in. If you’re tired of fumbling around and interrupting your personal process with obnoxious tasks on a mouse, you can finally be free of that.

The TourBox Neo can be yours for $150, and you’ll likely find that with its customizability and general utility, you won’t be able to believe that you were working so long without it. So if you’re on the fence, get off it: There’s limitless value to how much clearer-headed you’ll be when working with the TourBox Neo.

Price subject to change

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Fortnite Adds Will Smith’s Bad Boys’ Character Mike Lowrey

Some Fortnite crossovers are more surprising than others, and today’s official reveal of Mike Lowrey of Bad Boys fame would be one such collaboration if it weren’t for a recent credible leak that tipped off the game’s community in advance. Here’s what you need to know about the new Fortnite Will Smith skin.

Fortnite Will Smith/Mike Lowrey Skin

He can't be stopped now.
He can’t be stopped now.

While Lowrey debuts without his buddy cop partner, Marcus Bennett, he does come with several additional cosmetics. Lowrey hits the Item Shop as an individual character skin or in a bundle with his complete Loose Cannon set. Also included in the set are the following items:

  • Detective’s Duffle back bling
  • Loose Cannon Cutters pickaxe

The Bad Boys series began in 1995 and has since seen two sequels release, the latest of which came last year after a seventeen-year gap since Bad Boys 2 in 2003. Talks are ongoing for a fourth movie. Lowrey joins a host of other action heroes in Fortnite, most of which come from the world of comics like Marvel and DC, as well as several from Star Wars.

A recent leak does seem to suggest more grounded square-jaws will be coming to the game in the future, though. One leak indicates Chris Hemsworth’s character from Netflix’s Extraction was at least being made in the game at some point, though given that the movie was released over a year ago, it’s possible those plans were scrapped–or maybe he’ll debut alongside a sequel.

We don’t know when Mike Lowrey will exit the Item Shop, but we expect it’ll take a few days before he’s rotated out, meaning (sings) he ain’t going nowhere.

The season is winding down, so we can expect many more crossovers to come in Season 8 and beyond. For more recent licensed characters, don’t miss the Fortnite skins for Wonder Woman and J Balvin.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Daily Deals: A Weekend of Gaming Laptop Sales

This weekend has brought with it a plethora of PC sales for you to browse over. Lenovo has a wide variety of offerings in both the laptop and desktop space, while MSI and Newegg both have their own products up for sale in those categories as well. If that’s not what you’re after, we’ve also got the latest from Samsung’s cellphones discounted, cheap SD cards, Transformer figurines on sale and more.

Lenovo Intel Gamer Days Sale: Save on Legion Gaming Laptops and Desktop PCs

Lenovo’s “Legion” series of gaming PCs and laptops offer the latest and greatest gaming performance at a very reasonable cost. They’re equipped with the newest RTX 30 series video cards, which offer huge speed gains compared to the previous generation’s RTX 20 series cards, along with new technology like DLSS 2.0 (very useful) and ray tracing (not as much). Alongside these new GPUs are your choice of either AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series or Intel’s Rocket Lake/Tiger Lake processors. Lenovo also offers one of the best customer service experiences compared to other prebuilt PC makers, which is especially important if you haven’t built the PC yourself. Lenovo’s sale events can be hard to navigate, so we’ve conveniently rounded up a list of the best Legion deals going on right now.

Lenovo Legion Gaming Laptops

Lenovo Legion Gaming PCs

Daily Deals for August 28th 2021

Halo Infinite: Why The Campaign Wasn’t Shown During Gamescom

Halo Infinite received quite the spotlight during Gamescom’s One Night Live showcase, including the reveal of the game’s December 8 release date, but more of the game’s campaign wasn’t shown.

Fans were disappointed when Halo Infinite’s campaign failed to make an appearance during Gamescom, citing concerns they have considering the game’s release is just a couple of months away and the last time the campaign was shown in a big capacity was over a year ago.

However, 343 Industries has seen and heard the disappointment over the campaign’s lack of appearance during Gamescom and Halo Infinite Head of Creative, Joseph Staten, has now addressed where the campaign was, as reported by GameSpot.

“We’re at a critical phase in the flight that is Halo Infinite, so it’s extremely important to avoid distractions and stay focused on mission-critical tasks only,” Staten wrote in the latest Inside Infinite news post. “For Campaign, that means putting maximum effort into ensuring the wide-open, adventure-filled experience you’ll all get to play on December 8 is as great as it can possibly be. And gameplay demos and trailers not only take a huge amount of effort to do well, they also take cycles away from bugs and other shutdown tasks.”

In short, when developing a game, creating a gameplay demo or story trailer — which is probably what fans wanted to see of the game’s campaign during One Night Live — takes time and that time takes away from developers that would otherwise be working on the full game release.

Staten continued in the blog and explained that he’s in the middle of a campaign playthrough and that he can’t wait to get home (from Gamescom) to continue.

“I hope all of you take comfort from the fact that, honestly, I can’t wait to get back home, fire up the build, and hit ‘Continue’ on the campaign,” Staten said. “No matter how many times I play, Halo Infinite remains, fundamentally, super fun to play — and we’re very eager to share all the fun with you through captured gameplay, trailers, and other content once we get this plane safely on the ground.”

Staten’s statement comes from the same Halo Infinite news post where 343 Industries explained that Halo Infinite’s multiplayer progression is tied to challenges rather than XP-based leveling. Just days before all of this, Staten also revealed that the game will be released without campaign co-op or forge at launch.

Halo Infinite’s multiplayer and campaign will be released on December 8. While waiting for that, check out IGN’s thoughts on the multiplayer technical preview and then check out the recently-revealed Halo Infinite PC requirements.

Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

Tim Schafer Answers 23 Questions

Tim Schafer is the creative mind behind games like Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, Broken Age, and, most recently, the action platformer Psychonauts 2. Tim’s career goes back 30 years, starting at LucasArts co-writing The Secret of Monkey Island. In 2000, however, Tim set on his own path and founded Double Fine Productions, with its debut title being the cult-classic Psychonauts. In the above video, Tim answers 23 questions like “what’s the hardest part of writing?”, or “what’s Psychonauts 2’s biggest inspirations?”

In Kurt Indovina’s review, he says “Psychonauts 2 does more than just fill the shoes of its beloved predecessor, it sets itself apart as a classic in its own right.” Read the full review here: https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/psychonauts-2-review-mind-over-matter/1900-6417718/

Psychonauts 2 is available now for Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PC, as well as Xbox Game Pass.

Netflix Revives Manifest For One Last Season After NBC Cancellation

Netflix has revived Manifest for one last season after NBC cancelled the series earlier this year.

NBC cancelled Manifest back in June and fans quickly took to Twitter with the “#SaveManifest” hashtag to express their desire to see a fourth season happen.

Now, just over two months later, Netflix has announced that it has picked the series up to create a fourth and final season.

“The fourth and final season will be comprised of 20 episodes, which will bring the story of the passengers of Flight 828 to its conclusion,” a press release from Netflix reads.

When Season 3 of Manifest came to an end, the series left quite a few questions open on the table, ideally to be answered in a fourth season…but Netflix cancelled the series. It seems “#SaveManifest,” and the great numbers the show has seen on Netflix since its premiere on the subscription service back in June, showed that the show had more story to tell (and fans to please).

“Since its premiere on Netflix in June, Manifest has proven very popular with our members,” Netflix Head of Global TV, Bela Bejaria, said in a press release. “[Manifest producer and creator Jeff Rake] and his team have crafted a beguiling mystery that has viewers around the world on the edge of their seats and believing again in second chances, and we’re thrilled that they will bring fans some closure with this final super-sized season.”

Rake said that never in his wildest dreams did he envision the amount of support and love for Manifest that’s been revealed as of late — enough support to revive the series. He also said he’s excited to have the chance to reward the show’s fans with the ending they deserve.

“On behalf of the cast, the crew, the writers, directors, and producers, thank you to Netflix, to Warner Bros., and of course to the fans,” Rake said. “You did this.”

Manifest premiered on NBC back in 2018 and ran for three seasons before it was cancelled in June of this year. The series revolved around the mysterious Montego Air Flight 828. What was supposed to be a standard flight quickly turned into something else when passengers realized that five years had passed after landing.

The mystery of this flight will seemingly be wrapped up in a final 20-episode season set to premiere on Netflix, although the company didn’t mention a release date.

For more about Manifest, check out our thoughts on the show’s start in IGN’s Manifest Season 1 Episode 1 review and then watch this Manifest Season 3 trailer.

Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.