Top Gun sequel trailer: Fans spot new detail in Tom Cruise’s jacket

Amid all the excitement over the trailer, fans couldn’t help but notice one key detail was off — and it’s left people scratching their heads.

He may feel the need … to appease China.

In the Paramount Pictures trailer for Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel to the 1986 blockbuster, Tom Cruise’s character is seen wearing his iconic bomber jacket — with two key changes.

Two patches that had originally shown the Japanese and Taiwanese flags have been replaced with two ambiguous symbols in the same colour scheme, leading to speculation that the swap was meant to appease the People’s Republic.

Maverick’s first jacket sported a large patch that read “Far East Cruise 63-4, USS Galveston,” commemorating an actual US battleship’s tour of Japan, Taiwan and the Western Pacific.

The patch featured the US, UN, Japanese and Taiwanese flags.

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Tom Cruise in the new Top Gun: Maverick trailer

In the new flick, the jacket still includes the American and UN flags, but the Japanese and Taiwanese flags are nowhere to be seen — and the Galveston is not mentioned, according to Business Insider.

One possible reason for the difference is that Top Gun: Maverick is partly produced by Chinese film distributor Tencent Pictures, the Japan Times reported.

China and Japan have long had a fraught relationship, including over territorial matters.

Regarding Taiwan, Beijing deems the self-governing island nation a renegade province that is one of its “core interests”.

There’s a new Top Gun movie coming out. And Maverick is wearing the same leather jacket - only this time it’s Communist Party of China-approved, so the Japanese and Taiwanese flag patches are gone (screenshot on right is from the new trailer)... pic.twitter.com/gUxFNFNUKX

— Mark MacKinnon (@markmackinnon) July 19, 2019

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Paramount Pictures and Tencent Pictures did not immediately respond to requests for comment by the Japan Times.

But some also speculated that the move was merely due to changes in the storyline.

The original patch is from Maverick’s dad’s Vietnam tour, while the new patch appears to say “85-86” with the words “Indian Ocean Cruise,” which was where the dogfights in the first movie occurred.

And still others chalked up the change to a simple misunderstanding among the filmmakers, the Japan Times reported.

The patch assortment on flight suits and jackets in the Top Gun franchise has always been a running joke (among running jokes) for those in the #NavyAir business. They are random in where they are placed and commands they represent. Seek no meaning because there is none.

— Ward Carroll (@wardcarroll) July 19, 2019

“The patch assortment on flight suits and jackets in the Top Gun franchise has always been a running joke (among running jokes) for those in the #NavyAir business,” Ward Carroll, a former F-14 Tomcat pilot, said on Twitter.

“They are random in where they are placed and commands they represent. Seek no meaning because there is none.”

This article first appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced here with permission