New 'Top Gun: Maverick' trailer finally reveals Val Kilmer's Iceman

Watch: Val Kilmer returns in new trailer for Top Gun 2

A new trailer for Top Gun: Maverick has given us our first look at Val Kilmer's Tom “Iceman” Kazansky in the long-awaited aviation sequel.

Watch it above.

Kilmer's involvement in the sequel to Tom Cruise's 1986 action hit has been known for some time, but his character has remained hidden until now.

A shot in the new trailer shows former ace pilot Iceman is now the Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and was instrumental in getting Maverick back into active duty.

Kilmer has suffered a number of health problems in recent years battling throat cancer, and is no longer able to talk without the aid of a voice box due to a tracheotomy.

Read more: Val Kilmer's kids discuss father's cancer battle

Raised as a Christian Scientist, Kilmer told The New York Times in 2020 that he initially was reluctant to seek medical care after he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014. In the same interview he revealed that his children had convinced him to get treatment, but also attributed his healing to prayer as opposed to medical procedures.

In 2020 Top Gun producer Jerry Bruckheimer promised Yahoo that Kilmer will reprise his signature role as Cruise's onscreen nemesis, Iceman.

"No spoilers, but he's in the movie," he teased.

Originally scheduled for release in June 2020, Top Gun: Maverick has faced a number of delays due to the pandemic, with its star Tom Cruise pushing for a full theatrical release, and is now due in cinemas and IMAX from 25 May.

“It’s a continuation of the character and where he’s been over the last number of years,” Bruckheimer told Yahoo of the sequel’s plot, which involves an older Maverick training a new group of top guns — including the son (Miles Teller) of his dearly departed friend and fellow pilot, Goose (Anthony Edwards).

“Technology has advanced, so a lot of things we couldn't do before that we can do now, especially with the aerial footage. And Tom is an aviator, so he can fly anything we have in the movie, from helicopters to jets to prop planes.”

Here's the synopsis: After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him.

When he finds himself training a detachment of TOPGUN graduates for a specialised mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose.”

Facing an uncertain future and confronting the ghosts of his past, Maverick is drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who will be chosen to fly it.

Top Gun: Maverick is in IMAX, cinemas and 4DX from 25 May.