Jay Ellis Says Top Gun: Maverick Group Chat Is 'On Fire All the Time' After Oscar Nominations

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Top Gun: Maverick star Jay Ellis says the movie's six Oscar nominations are "a dream" for the film's cast and production team.

"It's wild, man. It's wild," Ellis, 41, told Entertainment Tonight of his reaction to the film's Academy Award nominations at the premiere of his new movie Somebody I Used To Know on Wednesday.

"We just wanted people to go see it. We just wanted to work with Tom Cruise," the actor said of the cast's hopes for the Top Gun sequel when they first started on the movie. "We just wanted to work with Jerry Bruckheimer and Joe Kosinski."

Ellis joked to the outlet that the Top Gun: Maverick cast group chat usually involves his "cast mates realizing and really commenting on how much I've enriched their lives and how much they love me and I've made them better people."

"But every once in a while, some good news will come through, like the Oscar nominations," the actor told ET. "Our chat is on fire all the time."

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Top Gun: Maverick received nominations for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Original Song, Best Visual Effects and Best Sound at the upcoming 95th Oscars.

Cinematographer Claudio Miranda previously won an award for best cinematography during January's Critics Choice Awards, and the film's stunt team is nominated for outstanding performance by a stunt ensemble in a motion picture at the upcoming Screen Actors Guild Awards on Feb. 26.

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When Ellis caught up with PEOPLE during October's Academy Museum Gala in Los Angeles, the actor revealed he's not in the know when it comes to a follow-up project to Top Gun: Maverick.

"I haven't heard about it, so if you know something, tell me," Ellis told PEOPLE exclusively. "No, I don't think there will be. What do I know? Maybe there will be. Maybe there will."

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"I mean, we would all love to work together. We'd love to do it again. We'd love to be with Tom [Cruise] again. We'd love to be in the back F18s again," he added. "So if we're lucky enough to do it again, I'm sure every single one of us would be there."

Ellis and his cast mates will find out whether the Top Gun sequel is a Best Picture winner on Sunday, March 12. The actor's new movie with Alison Brie — directed by her husband Dave Franco — Somebody I Used to Know begins streaming on Prime Video Friday, Feb. 10.