Cole Trickle is getting back behind the wheel. Tom Cruise has officially put a Days of Thunder sequel on the starting grid for 2028, with Anne Hathaway joining him as a race team owner and engineer. Nearly four decades after Tony Scott’s NASCAR film hit cinemas, Paramount Pictures is bringing the property back to the big screen.
Cruise and Hathaway revealed the project at Daytona International Speedway, posing beside a green-and-yellow race car carrying Cole Trickle’s name and a “Days of Thunder Summer 2028” message. The pair also had some fun with the timing in an announcement video, with a pregnant Hathaway saying she is going to have her baby first and then make the movie.
“We’re coming out summer of 2028. Don’t be late,” Cruise says in the video. Hathaway laughs and asks, “Are you sure you want to go with that?” Cruise responds, “I don’t know. I’m trying.”
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Variety broke the news before Paramount and the stars made it official, reporting that the sequel is set for a U.S. theatrical release on June 2, 2028. The film will be shot for IMAX, with releases also planned for premium formats including Dolby Cinema and 4DX.
Cruise Is Back as Cole Trickle, Hathaway Is Running a Team
Cruise will once again play Cole Trickle, the hotshot NASCAR driver he first brought to the screen in 1990. Hathaway’s character has not yet been named, but Paramount has confirmed that she will play a team owner and engineer. It will mark the first time Cruise and Hathaway have starred in a film together.
Beyond that, plot details remain firmly under wraps. There is no word yet on whether Cole is still racing, whether Hathaway’s character will put him back behind the wheel, or which other characters from the original could return.
One thing worth making clear amid some of the reaction to Hathaway’s casting: she has not been announced as a replacement for Nicole Kidman’s Dr Claire Lewicki. Hathaway is playing an entirely new character, and Paramount has said nothing about whether Kidman will or will not appear.
Cruise Wants the NASCAR World Front and Centre
Cruise didn’t just turn up at Daytona for a photo opportunity. He attended the pre-race drivers’ meeting ahead of the NASCAR Cup Series regular-season finale and spoke about what he wants the new film to capture.
“It’s not just about racing. It’s about the community and the people here,” Cruise said, as quoted by the Associated Press.
Cruise said he wants audiences to understand NASCAR as both a team and a community, while also embracing “the speed, the excitement and all that danger and stuff.”
He also recalled filming the original at Daytona, including one hairy incident in which the car he was driving caught fire on the backstretch while cameras were rolling.
The emphasis on authenticity will hardly come as a surprise from Cruise, whose increasingly ambitious practical filmmaking has become a defining part of his later career.
Nearly Four Decades After the Original
The original Days of Thunder was released in 1990, four years after Cruise and Scott had teamed for Top Gun. Cruise played Cole, a talented but inexperienced driver recruited into NASCAR by team owner Tim Daland (Randy Quaid), with veteran crew chief Harry Hogge (Robert Duvall) tasked with turning him into a serious contender.
Michael Rooker played rival driver Rowdy Burns, while Kidman starred as neurosurgeon Dr Claire Lewicki. Cary Elwes and John C. Reilly were also among the cast. Robert Towne wrote the screenplay from a story he developed with Cruise, while Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer produced.
The film earned around US$158 million worldwide against a reported US$60 million production budget. Reviews were mixed, but Days of Thunder developed a strong following over the decades, particularly among NASCAR fans.
Talk of another lap has been around for some time. The Hollywood Reporter first reported in November 2024 that Cruise was discussing a sequel with Paramount, following the enormous success of another decades-later Cruise revival, Top Gun: Maverick.
There are obvious parallels. Top Gun: Maverick arrived 36 years after its predecessor and became Cruise’s biggest film, earning roughly US$1.5 billion worldwide. The new Days of Thunder will arrive 38 years after the original.
There’s also been a very recent reminder that racing movies can pull sizeable crowds. The Jerry Bruckheimer-produced F1, starring Brad Pitt, became a major theatrical hit in 2025, earning around US$631 million worldwide and becoming Apple’s highest-grossing film.
Randy Quaid Has Already Taken Aim at Hathaway’s Casting
Not everyone from the 1990 film appears thrilled with the new direction. For what it’s worth, Randy Quaid, who played Cole’s team owner Tim Daland, unleashed a series of posts attacking Hathaway’s casting and arguing that Kidman should instead return opposite Cruise.
“We need Nicole back,” Quaid posted on X, writing that “Anne isn’t sexy, because and if you haven’t noticed, she’s pregnant.”
Quaid’s criticism quickly went well beyond simply wanting the original cast reunited. In another post, he described Hathaway as a “leftist, woke, horrible choice” and argued that the Days of Thunder NASCAR audience is “MAGA”.
Paramount has not announced Quaid as part of the sequel, and there has been no confirmation that Kidman or any of the other surviving original cast members will return.
Who Is Making the New ‘Days of Thunder’?
Cruise will produce the sequel alongside Jerry Bruckheimer and Tommy Harper. Bruckheimer’s involvement provides another major link to the original, which he produced with the late Don Simpson.
Jonathan Levine is set to direct. His credits include 50/50, Warm Bodies and Long Shot. The screenplay comes from Will Staples, whose credits include the Michael B. Jordan-led action thriller Without Remorse and video games Need for Speed: Rivals and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
Cruise, meanwhile, has Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Digger among his upcoming films, while Hathaway is in the midst of a packed run that includes Mother Mary, The Devil Wears Prada 2, The Odyssey, The End of Oak Street and the upcoming Colleen Hoover adaptation Verity.
Paramount Pictures will release the new Days of Thunder in U.S. cinemas on June 2, 2028.
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