Tom Cruise supports friend and Top Gun: Maverick co-star Glen Powell at Twisters premiere

Hollywood star Tom Cruise made a special appearance in London to support his close friend and Top Gun co-star Glen Powell at the premiere of his new movie.

Powell, 35, is starring in forthcoming disaster film Twisters, alongside Normal People actor Daisy Edgar-Jones. The European premiere for the movie, which follows a social media stormchaser as he attempts to track tornadoes, took place in Leicester Square on Monday (8 July). The movie is a sequel to the original 1996 film, Twister.

The pair first worked together on Top Gun: Maverick after a series of pandemic-related delays. Cruise, 61, first played the lead character in 1986’s Top Gun and returned in 2022 for the sequel, a massively successful box office hit grossing $1.496bn worldwide. Powell played Lieutenant Jake “Hangman” Seresin in the sequel.

Fans were left delighted as Cruise shared a picture with his arm around his friend, from inside the movie theatre at the premiere. The pair are holding popcorn as a crowd of people can be seen, some smiling, behind them.

“Fun night with friends, watching a movie!” wrote the star in the caption.

The official Top Gun social media account commented on the post writing, “Our Maverick and Hangman”, as fans were overjoyed at the reunion.

The Mission Impossible star did not walk down the red carpet, presumably to surprise his friend and not detract attention. Instead he opted for a casual jacket and t-shirt combo as he smiled from inside the establishment.

Twisters has another link to Powell and Cruise’s highly successful sequel. Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski has a story by credit on the movie. Meanwhile, Cruise has long been close to Steven Spielberg who executive produced the new Twisters movie as well as the original film.

Powell has previously commented on how his employment on Top Gun almost left him broke. The star who was still starting out in Hollywood at the time said the decision to delay the movie almost destroyed him financially. Even when the film was released he reports that he “never made any significant amount of money” for his role as Hangman.

“I’d never made any significant amount of money on a movie, including Top Gun, and I was depleting a bank account to a point where my accountant was like, ‘This pandemic cannot last much longer,’ ” he said. “Tom was already Tom; I was waiting for my life to change.”