Is Penny’s Ex-Husband Is An Original Top Gun Movie? (DETAILS EXPLAINED)

In Top Gun: Maverick, the identity of Penny Benjamin’s former husband is not revealed; nevertheless, recent speculation suggests that she may have been married to a prominent figure in the past.

Top Gun: Maverick’s Penny Benjamin (Jennifer Connelly) is also referenced in the first Top Gun as being one of Maverick’s prior romantic interests. However, a recent idea proposes that Penny’s ex-husband could also be a figure from the first Top Gun film. 

Jennifer Connelly plays Penny Benjamin. In the movie Top Gun, Maverick doesn’t provide a lot of background information about Penny’s history. He merely says that she isn’t currently married, which may indicate anything. 

On the other hand, considering how close she was to the TOPGUN program, it would not be shocking if Top Gun: Maverick’s Penny Benjamin was the wife of somebody who Maverick is familiar with.

Lt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell makes a triumphant return to the Navy’s TOPGUN program in Top Gun: Maverick. His task this time is to lead a squad of top TOPGUN grads on a mission to neutralize an illicit uranium facility. Top Gun: Maverick was released in 1997. 

The movie has countless of the original qualities that moviegoers enjoyed in the previous picture, including action, drama, comedic relief, and romantic development. 

Penny Benjamin, who is a single mum and the owner of a tavern that serves Navy personnel, is Maverick’s next potential romantic interest. Maverick and Penny’s budding romance develops over the duration of the movie, culminating in the pair taking a joy ride in the P-51 together as the credits roll.

Maverick provides a lot of responses to queries that have been asked regarding the background of the Top Gun series by filling in facts regarding the background of characters such as Maverick and Iceman.

Penny’s history, on the other hand, is simply alluded to, thus there is an opportunity for conjecture. Bringing back a character who was only mentioned in passing in the first Top Gun film suggests that there is a significant purpose to do so; nevertheless, as of right now, she does not appear to have an extremely strong connection to her version from 1986. 

On the other hand, there is a hypothesis that suggests that Penny Benjamin’s ex-husband might be one of the numerous characters in the first Top Gun movie, which could possibly lay the stage for the events in Top Gun 3.

In the Film Top Gun: Maverick, Information Regarding Penny Benjamin’s Ex-Husband Is Excluded

Penny Benjamin’s history is purposefully left hazy in Top Gun: Maverick and the character has only a tenuous tie to the events of the first Top Gun movie. 

It is good knowledge that Penny is a single parent to her daughter Amelia and that she did not have an amicable divorce from her former spouse. It is also reported that Amelia’s mother just divorced her husband and moved in with another woman.

Aside from that and the fact that she was mentioned in the first installment of Top Gun, little is known about Penny’s past. There does not seem to be any valid justification for Penny to maintain such a high level of discretion about her history, making her decision a puzzling one. 

However, it is very plausible that the identity of her ex-husband has been kept a mystery since it is somebody Maverick genuinely knows, which would have significant repercussions for the Top Gun series in the years to come.

It Makes Perfect Sense for Maverick (and the Audience) That Penny’s Ex-Husband Be Somebody They Are Already Familiar With

Because the woman played by Jennifer Connelly in the first version of Top Gun is shown as being the daughter of an admiral, it is implied that she has previously had a significant link to the TOPGUN program. 

Due to the fact that Penny has remained in close contact with the Navy between the happenings of the 1st and 2nd films, it is possible that Maverick is already familiar with her former husband.

Penny most likely wed one of the film’s numerous sailors or pilots since Top Gun features a large number of attractive bachelors, which makes it more probable than not that this happened. 

When you take into account the fact that Maverick and Goose both knew Penny from Top Gun and that Maverick even has a past of chatting with her, it is not a leap to imagine that Penny wound up with one of Maverick’s or Goose’s other buddies.

There Are a Lot of Missing Characters in Top Gun: Maverick; May One of Them Be Penny’s Ex?

One of the most intriguing features of this argument is that Penny’s former husband is not just a pilot in TOPGUN but also one of the primary protagonists in the first Top Gun. 

Maverick and Iceman are the only two young aviators from the original cast of Top Gun to make a comeback. Now that Goose is no longer alive, there are seven other pilots who may have been Penny’s ex-husband.

The characters Cougar, Wolfman, Slider, Merlin, Sundown, Hollywood, and Chipper are not present in Top Gun: Maverick. It would be a great Easter egg if one of these guys turned out to be Penny’s ex-boyfriend. On the other hand, it could also refer to something else entirely.

Even though Top Gun 3 hasn’t been officially announced, a great plot point might be established if Penny’s ex-husband turned out to be somebody Maverick already knows. 

The friction that would ensue between 2 old friends, one of whom is Penny’s ex and the other of whom is Penny’s current partner, has the potential to elicit the same feelings as some of the finest sequences in Top Gun: Maverick.

Tim Robbins’ career has flourished since he played Merlin in Top Gun, and despite the fact that his character was not featured in Top Gun: Maverick, Robbins has the celebrity authority and acting chops to pull off this Penny narrative if he appeared in Top Gun 3. 

Although there is no evidence to support this theory, there is a strong possibility that the guy from the first Top Gun movie who was Penny’s ex-husband appears in Top Gun: Maverick as well.