Tom Cruise and Anne Hathaway Are Officially Racing Into ‘Days of Thunder 2,’ and the Internet Can’t Handle It

Legacy sequels have become something of a Hollywood staple over the past decade, with studios increasingly mining beloved catalog titles for fresh box office gold. Few franchises, though, have generated quite as much sudden excitement as this latest resurrection from Tom Cruise’s storied filmography.

‘Days of Thunder,’ the 1990 NASCAR drama that helped cement Cruise’s status as one of Hollywood’s biggest action stars, has spent decades as a cult favorite despite its relatively modest theatrical run. The film reunited Cruise with ‘Top Gun’ director Tony Scott, delivering the kind of high-octane racing spectacle that became a defining touchstone of the era.

Now, after years of speculation, that legacy is officially getting a follow-up. Anne Hathaway will star opposite Cruise in the next chapter of ‘Days of Thunder,’ Variety confirmed exclusively, with Paramount Pictures dating the sequel for June 2, 2028, nearly forty years after the original film’s release.

Cruise will reprise his role as Cole Trickle, the hotheaded rookie driver who first captured audiences’ attention back in 1990, while Hathaway steps into an entirely new role as a racecar team owner and engineer. Plot specifics remain largely under wraps for now, though the casting alone has already sent fans into a frenzy across social media.

Jonathan Levine, known for directing ’50/50′ and ‘Long Shot,’ is confirmed to helm the sequel from a script penned by Will Staples, whose previous writing credits include work on major video game franchises alongside feature film projects. Cruise is producing the film alongside Jerry Bruckheimer, who also produced the original, and Tommy Harper.

The project will be shot specifically for IMAX screens, with plans for a theatrical release spanning multiple premium formats including Dolby Cinema and 4DX. That level of format ambition signals just how seriously Paramount appears to be treating this follow-up, positioning it as a genuine tentpole event rather than a modest nostalgia play.

Cruise announced the casting news himself over the weekend, sharing a promotional image of the two stars posed together beside a NASCAR race car in Daytona, complete with the film’s newly revealed logo and release window. Hathaway reportedly joked during the announcement that she’d need to have her baby first before production could begin in earnest, a lighthearted nod to her current life circumstances outside the project.

Hathaway arrives at this new project fresh off an especially busy stretch of work, having appeared in ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2,’ Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey,’ and ‘The End of Oak Street’ throughout the year, with her adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s ‘Verity’ still ahead this October. That momentum makes her addition to ‘Days of Thunder 2’ feel like a natural extension of what’s already shaping up as a career-defining year.

For Cruise, the sequel arrives as he continues expanding his post-‘Mission: Impossible’ slate, having previously teased ongoing development on the project during interviews discussing his future plans. Given the actor’s well-documented commitment to large-scale theatrical spectacle, expectations are already running high for how this follow-up might reinterpret the franchise’s signature racing sequences for a modern audience.

With production reportedly expected to begin sometime in 2027 ahead of its 2028 release, fans now have a considerable wait before seeing Cruise and Hathaway share the screen. Until then, speculation about the sequel’s plot and supporting cast will almost certainly continue building in the months ahead.

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