Hollywood star Tom Cruise on Monday said he hopes long-waiting Korean fans of “Top Gun” who watched the action film as kids back in 1986 will fully enjoy the new sequel, “Top Gun: Maverick.”

“Grown-up man, you can enjoy that film, and you can cry  in that movie, and that‘s OK. It’s for you and it’s for everybody, so enjoy,” Cruise said during a press conference held at Lotte Hotel in Seoul on Monday.

Along with Cruise, four of the stars of “Top Gun: Maverick” -- Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Jay Ellis and Greg Tarzan Davis -- as well as the film’s producer Jerry Bruckheimer participated in the press conference.

The new movie is directed by Joseph Kosinski, whose “Spiderhead” was also released earlier this month on Netflix. Cruise reprises his role as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, who is now a captain in the US Navy.

During the conference, Cruise said that he felts a lot of pressure returning with the “Top Gun” franchise after more than three decades.

“Every country I would go to, they would ask for the sequel. Jerry (Bruckheimer) and I’ve been talking about it for many years. There was a tremendous amount of pressure,” he said.

The Hollywood star said he spent many hours in hotel rooms thinking of ideas to make the sequel for fans of the original film. He explained that the goal was to make fans feel that the two films have the same world, characters and emotional tones.

“Jerry and I, we agreed that we are not going to stop until we get it right,” he said. “I don’t ever want to disappoint fans.”

Since this is the American actor’s 10th visit to Korea, he emphasized that it is special, especially after going through the difficult time of the pandemic.

His first visit came in 1994 with promotions for “Interview With the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles,” and he most recently visited Korea four years ago to promote “Mission: Impossible -- Fallout” in 2018.

 

“It’s a privilege to be here. I am so happy to see everyone, I missed you all, and as I said earlier I’m going to come back next summer, and next summer,” Cruise said. “It was important to all of us that we are able to come here in person and to have that communal experience of watching the movie in a theater together. It was actually beautiful after the time that we’ve been through and very special, so thank you for your warm welcome.”

Cruise talked further about the red carpet and the Korean premiere that was held in Lotte World Tower in Seoul the day before.

“It’s just been four years since I’ve been here and I could feel the energy. We all could. I think we are all connecting again. So it had an added level of joy that I felt,” Cruise said. “I’ve seen people there that were in every single premiere that I’ve done in Korea. It’s just a beautiful thing. It really is amazing, so it was magical. The whole evening it was just a great time. We all had a lot of fun together. “

“Top Gun: Maverick” hits local theaters on Wednesday.