One actor must join Top Gun 3 to make up for his repeated failure to join recent Tom Cruise sequel movies. In the last couple of years, Cruise focused on revisiting some of his most iconic characters with follow-up films. In 2022, he brought back Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in the record-breaking Top Gun: Maverick, and in 203 as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One. At one point, a specific actor was supposed to join either of those projects but ended up not doing them.
https://screenrant.com/top-gun-3-nicholas-hoult-failed-casting/