Why Ridley Scott Turned Down an Offer to Direct ‘Top Gun: Maverick'

In a wide-ranging and surprisingly candid new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Gladiator II director Ridley Scott revealed the reason he turned down an offer to direct Top Gun: Maverick.

The original Top Gun, released in 1986, was directed by Ridley’s brother, Tony Scott. Tony died in 2012 by suicide after jumping from the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro, CA. Though Tony left his family several notes, their contents have never been made public.

As Maverick’s producers were developing the late-era sequel, they approached Ridley with an offer to direct the sequel as something of a tribute to Tony. But Ridley declined out of respect. “They asked me to [direct] it and I said, ‘I don’t want to follow my brother,’” Ridley told THR. When asked if he found it uncomfortable to watch Maverick, which ends with a dedication to Tony, Ridley simply responded: “No.”

Though both Scott brothers were equally successful at mounting big-budget productions, Ridley acknowledged that they each made fundamentally different movies. “Tony was always interested in today,” he said of his brother’s experimentation with genre and cutting-edge shooting techniques. “A lot of my stuff is either historic, fantasy or science fiction,” Ridley explained.

Somewhat surprisingly, Ridley added that his own brother disliked some of his most famous movies as a result. “Tony didn’t like fantasy — things like Alien or Blade Runner or Legend,” Ridley said.

Ridley hasn’t made many public remarks about his brother’s death, but at the end of the interview when THR asked the the legendary director if he wanted to add anything, Ridley offered a heartbreaking four-word statement. “I miss my brother,” he said.