While Top Gun 3 killing off Tom Cruise’s Maverick might seem like the inevitable next step after Top Gun: Maverick’s ending, this would be a bad idea for the Top Gun franchise. While many viewers guessed that Iceman would die in Top Gun: Maverick, a lot of fans of the franchise also assumed that Top Gun’s original hero Maverick would also not survive his mission. After all, it had been over three decades since Tom Cruise first played the part of Maverick and, between the two movies, the character had grown from a reckless young renegade to an embattled, weary veteran.

https://screenrant.com/top-gun-3-maverick-kill-death-mistake/