Jerry Bruckheimer and Tom Cruise were desperate to make sure 'Top Gun: Maverick' was released in cinemas.

The long-awaited sequel to 'Top Gun' will finally be released next month after numerous delays due to the coronavirus pandemic and the 78-year-old producer never considered putting the movie on a streaming service.

Speaking at CinemaCon, where the movie was shown in full to a panel, Jerry said: "I always thought, and so did Tom, that this was a movie for theatres. You felt it today. It's a communal experience."

The movie sees Cruise reprise his role as Captain Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell as he is asked to train a new team at the Top Gun Naval Station on the orders of Val Kilmer's Tom 'Iceman' Kazansky – who is now a Navy admiral.

Jerry, whose film credits include 'Beverly Hills Cop' and 'Days of Thunder', revealed that Tom was adamant that Val should have a role in the movie – despite not being able to speak naturally after suffering from throat cancer.

The producer said: "Obviously, he's compromised, but he's still an amazing actor. Tom actually said he wasn't making this movie without Val in it."

Jerry also refused to say if a third 'Top Gun' film could follow.

He said: "That's hard to predict."

The movie's director Joseph Kosinski confessed that it was "surreal" to see his film shown to an audience in Las Vegas after all of the delays.

The 47-year-old director said: "It's surreal. It's been two years. I wish everyone who worked on the film could have been here. It was very unique to see it with 3,000 people."

Joseph revealed how he and Tom devised an elaborate training programme so that the cast would actually be filmed flying rather than using CGI trickery.

He explained: "With Tom, it's a requirement that it be as grounded and realistic as possible.

"It began a 15-month project to figure out how to get a motion picture camera in the cockpit of these airplanes."