Broncos owner Lewis Hamilton regrets declining Top Gun role

Rooster, Goose and Hangman, but what about a Bronco?

Denver Broncos owner and F1 superstar Lewis Hamilton was asked to go from the racing cockpit to a fighter jet cockpit. But the eight-time* world champion turned Tom Cruise down because the movie’s film schedule clashed with the F1 season.

Danny Ramirez eventually landed the role of Fanboy, which was slated for Hamilton, in the Tom Cruise film. The 2022 movie saw Cruise rebirth Pete “Maverick” Mitchell from the 1986 classic. The sequel was a massive success, earning nearly $1.5 billion at box offices around the globe and possibly saving the cinema industry entirely. On Monday, Ramirez thanked Hamilton for passing up the role, a move the race car driver said he regretted in a GQ interview that also published on Monday.

“Firstly, I hadn’t even had, like, an acting lesson,” Hamilton said. “And I don’t want to be the one that lets this movie down. And then secondly, I just really didn’t have the time to dedicate to it. I remember having to tell Joe and Tom – and it broke my heart. And then I regretted it, naturally, when they show me the movie and it’s, It could’ve been me!”

Hamilton wound up winning the 2018 championship while the film was shooting and he’s maybe got another shot at joining Cruise up in the skies. There’s talk of a third Top Gun being a possibility. Even if Hamilton can’t get into Top Gun, he has a role in a much anticipated F1 movie starring Brad Pitt. The upcoming untitled movie has been shooting at F1 circuits on race weekends between and sometimes during events and Hamilton’s role is to oversee the realism of the movie.

Hamilton was friends with fellow Broncos owner Mellody Hobson before the two joined the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group. Hobson’s husband is the legendary filmmaker George Lucas.