The 51-year-old actor stars in the long-awaited sequel to Tom Cruise’s 1986 action classic as Vice Admiral Beau "Cyclone" Simpson and thinks it pays homage to its predecessor while standing successfully on its own.

Jon told The Hollywood Reporter: “It’s so reminiscent of the first film and hits all those nostalgic elements, but it really does stand on its own."

“The interesting thing about coming back to a truly beloved property after so much time is that there are two generations of kids who have never seen the original movie." If they have, they saw it on cable or something, but they didn’t have the experience of going to see it in a theatre.

“So for this generation, this is a brand new thing, and 'Top Gun: Maverick’ is going to be what the original was to its generation.”

Jon explained that the movie has left both his teenage and present self “blown away” and thinks it will live up to expectations.

The 'Mad Men’ actor said: “My 15-year-old self is blown away, as is my 51-year-old self." I’m on both sides of that equation.

“It was a tremendous experience, made more interesting by the fact that it had to be put on hold and paused for two years." The unintended consequence of that is that it built expectation and anticipation.

Jon continued, “Paramount knew that they had something really good. Tom certainly knew that he had something really good. At various points during shooting, he would grab me and go, "You gotta come see this," and he would take me to his trailer to show me ten minutes of raw footage. And I was like, 'Oh my god, I’ve never seen anything like this.'”