Tom Cruise posted an Instagram video Saturday with Anne Hathaway confirming what rumors have circled for nearly a year: Days of Thunder is getting a sequel, slated for summer 2028.
The announcement was loose, almost casual. Cruise and Hathaway bantered about starting production after she has her third child. No director was named, no title was revealed, and filming hasn’t started.
What we got was a NASCAR stock car painted in Cole Trickle’s familiar livery with “Summer 2028” on the quarter panel and Trickle’s name above the door. That’s it. And yet it’s enough to confirm Paramount is going all in.
Cruise has been telegraphing this move since Top Gun: Maverick printed money in 2022, grossing nearly $1.5 billion worldwide. He said publicly he wanted to give Days of Thunder the same legacy-sequel treatment. Paramount reportedly signed him last July and began searching for a director.
Finding one won’t be simple. Tony Scott, who directed the 1990 original, died in 2012. His kinetic, sun-drenched shooting style gave NASCAR a visual language Hollywood hadn’t attempted before or since, and whoever steps into that chair inherits a very specific aesthetic expectation from a very loyal audience.
The cast situation is similarly complicated. Robert Duvall, who played crew chief Harry Hogge and arguably stole the entire movie, passed away in February at 95. Randy Quaid, who played team owner Tim Daland, is 75 and still around, though his public life over the past decade has been, charitably, unconventional.
Hathaway’s role is unknown. She wasn’t in the original. Nicole Kidman played the romantic lead, neurosurgeon Dr. Claire Lewicki, and that role launched her American career. Whether Kidman returns or Hathaway replaces her or plays someone entirely new is anyone’s guess.
The original Days of Thunder was never a critical darling. It earned decent money but was widely dismissed as “Top Gun with race cars,” which was both accurate and unfair. Over 35 years it evolved into a genuine cult film, quoted endlessly by motorsport fans and rewatched with the kind of affection reserved for movies that never tried to be more than exactly what they were.
NASCAR itself is a different animal now. The sport has struggled with declining attendance and television ratings for years, shifted to a Next Gen car that divided its fanbase, and watched its cultural footprint shrink in ways that would have seemed impossible when Dale Earnhardt was alive. A Cruise-powered blockbuster could inject mainstream attention back into stock car racing the way Maverick reminded people the Navy existed.
Jeff Gordon publicly lobbied for a role in the sequel back in 2025, before the project was officially confirmed. NASCAR will almost certainly cooperate with production. The promotional upside is too large to ignore.
Two years is a long runway. No script has been discussed publicly. No shooting locations announced. No director attached. Cruise is 62 and will be 64 when this thing hits theaters, assuming it holds its date.
The last time he revisited a legacy franchise, he delivered one of the highest-grossing films in Paramount’s history. The studio is betting he can do it again with a property that has a fraction of Top Gun’s brand recognition.
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