Since I already did rave reviews of “Top Gun: Maverick” for other local venues, this Webb column honors that crowd-pleasing sequel with background and trivia on both films.

The follow-up to the No. 1 box-office hit of 1986, “Maverick,” has already soared past $300 million worldwide, doing so without original director Tony Scott, original co-star Kelly McGillis or original song “Take My Breath Away,”; but there would be no “Maverick” without Tom Cruise—so let’s start there:

Repeatedly called in recent days “the last true movie star,” Cruise sits atop a 52-film resume that has netted over $10 billion globally. He single-handedly greenlighted the “Top Gun” sequel after meeting with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and fledgling director Joseph Kosinski. (The latter, with a brief filmography including “Oblivion” and “Tron: Legacy,” replaces Scott, who took his own life ten years ago.)

According to AP writer Jake Coyle, Kosinski and Bruckheimer sold Cruise by stressing that “Maverick” would frontline character and emotion. Cruise was almost instantly on board—but he did have stipulations.

One involved casting — specifically, that Val Kilmer, who played Maverick’s rival Iceman in the first film, would have a role here. This presented a challenge given Kilmer’s recent struggles with throat cancer, which has left him all but unable to speak. Nonetheless, with the aid of some AI work in the sound department, Kilmer not only shows up in “Maverick,” but he also speaks aloud — in what may be the movie’s strongest scene. Or at least its most nostalgic one.

But Cruise apparently had no casting codicils about women from the first film.

Meg Ryan played the wife of Maverick’s co-pilot, “Goose” (as in, “Talk to me, Goose”). Her absence is explained in the script, but the first film’s love interest, Kelly McGillis’ Charley, seems to have vanished off the face of the earth.

McGillis — who also appeared in such eighties hits as “Witness” and “The Accused” — is five years older than Cruise and recently said in no uncertain terms, “I’m old, and I’m fat, … and that is not what that whole scene is about. To me, I’d much rather feel absolutely in my skin and who I am at my age as opposed to placing value on all that other stuff.”

All this helps explain one other glaring omission: Berlin’s sultry “Take My Breath Away,” which was composed specifically for “Top Gun” and won an Oscar in the process. Kosinski explained that the song was too closely associated with the McGillis plotline — so it was replaced by an original composition from Lady Gaga, which runs during the closing credits.

Fortunately, “Top Gun’s” rip-snorting “Danger Zone” does show up briefly at the outset. It’s worth noting that in the first film, producers tested more than 300 extant songs to run behind the opening credits before finally asking soundtrack producer Giorgio Moroder to pen something original. Kenny Loggins, still hot after his 1984 title hit for “Footloose,” had a smash with Moroder’s resulting composition — but Loggins was actually their third choice to perform it; Toto and Corey Hart were offered the song but couldn’t — or wouldn’t — do it.

Cruise’s more significant stipulation was to shoot the aerial combat scenes with the actual actors in the cockpits, including Tom himself, who turns 60 in July — and who was the only one able to manage this feat in the original film.

For “Maverick,” Cruise personally designed a three-month boot camp to accustom co-stars to the G-forces of supersonic flight. They also learned how to eject and how to survive an ocean crash. And on top of all that, each actor got cinematic schooling as well — since they themselves often had to operate the many cockpit cameras. (These multiple angles, incidentally, resulted in a whopping 800 hours of total footage; this was then edited down to the movie’s eventual 131-minute run time.)

Despite all the practical effects, however, none of the performers actually piloted the jets; except for small arms, it is officially illegal for civilians to control any mechanism owned by the Department of Defense. So those of us whose jaws are still hanging open after “Maverick’s” action — we want to know who was flying the plane in those incredible scenes. No doubt the lead actor himself would tell me if I asked.

Talk to me, Cruise.