It was a little over three years ago when Glen Powell and Monica Barbaro blew up in a big way, among others, thanks to Top Gun: Maverick, which can be streamed with a Paramount+ subscription. Their characters, Jake “Highball” Seresin and Natasha “Phoenix” Trace, were among the crop of pilots taken under the wing (pun intended) of Tom Cruise’s Pete “Maverick Mitchell. Powell and Barbaro have remained friends since making the Top Gun sequel, and the former had some kind words to pass along to the latter.
Barbaro is on TIME’s list of the world’s most influential rising stars in 2025, and Powell, who reunited with her over the summer, wrote the actress’ entry. He started off by talking about how he knew right away that she’d be an important person in life when they started working together on Top Gun: Maverick, saying:
shouted her out at the Oscars in March, when she was up for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in A Complete Unknown. Then in May, Jay Ellis, who played Reuben “Payback” Fitch, revealed that he, Barbaro, Ramirez, Glen Powell, Miles Teller and other Maverick cast members are “all on text chains together.” Still, it sounds like Barbaro and Powell have an especially tight bond if he’s the one who was selected to sing her praises for TIME.
Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Netflix series FUBAR, which was cancelled after two seasons. She’ll next be seen sharing screen time with Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Halle Berry and Barry Keoghan in Crime 101, which comes out February 13 on the 2026 movies schedule. As of the end of July, she was shooting the yet-to-be-dated Artificial with her boyfriend Andrew Garfield.
Glen Powell can currently be seen leading the Hulu subscription-exclusive series Chad Powers, and he’ll be back on the big screen in November leading the new film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Running Man. It stands to reason that if Top Gun 3 gets the greenlight, Barbaro and Powell will be brought back, though maybe another project might pair them back together beforehand. For now, I’m just glad these two remain such good friends off camera.