How Lewis Hamilton NEARLY starred in Top Gun: Maverick

Formula 1 superstar Lewis Hamilton was nearly cast in the blockbuster movie of last summer, Top Gun: Maverick.

The sequel to 1980s classic Top Gun was released to enormous commercial and critical success. On a budget of $170 million, it has grossed an astonishing $1.4 billion worldwide so far which is by far the highest-grossing film in the career of superstar actor, Tom Cruise.

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The movie was praised not only for its spectacular action sequences but how it emotionally ties to the first movie.

In Top Gun: Maverick, Pete Mitchell returns to the Top Gun academy to act as mentor and teacher to a group of elite new recruits, led by Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of his best friend Goose, who died in the first movie.

READ MORE: F1 superstar Lewis Hamilton wants to become an actor

And, we nearly got a surprise cameo from Hamilton.

“Basically I’m a friend of Tom...Cruise” Hamilton told Vanity Fair.

“One of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. He invited me to his set years ago when he was doing Edge of Tomorrow, and then we just built a friendship over time."

As a fan of the original Top Gun as a child, Hamilton was desperate to gain a role in the sequel no matter how small.

"When I heard the second one was coming out, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I have to ask him,’ ” he said.

“I said, ‘I don’t care what role it is. I’ll even sweep something, be a cleaner in the back.’"

Unfortunately for Hamilton, his hectic Formula 1 schedule meant that he was unable to make a cameo in the film. And no, it wasn't as a cleaner, but as a fighter pilot.

The role would have required physical and mental preparations for the vigours of being in the air (even if he wasn't actually flying himself) and Hamilton didn't want to appear without those preparations.

Hamilton and Brad Pitt team up for F1 movie

The director of Maverick, Joseph Kosinski, will helm a new Formula 1 movie which will star and be produced by Brad Pitt.

Crucially, Hamilton is also an executive producer on the project, and that is positive news for F1 fans, as according to the multiple-time world champion himself, the original script was bullshit.

"To hear the B.S. that’s in the script because the Americans that are writing it are just getting newly accustomed to Formula 1," he explained.

Hamilton has appeared in cameos before in Cars and Zoolander respectively.