Days of Thunder 2: Cast, Release Date and Everything We Know About Tom Cruise's Racing Sequel

Tom Cruise is going back to the NASCAR world of Days of Thunder, and he’s no longer doing it alone. Anne Hathaway has joined the sequel, Paramount has locked in a June 2, 2028 release date, and the announcement itself came with the kind of staged spectacle Cruise tends to favor: the two of them at an empty Daytona International Speedway, standing next to a race car painted up with the film’s logo. It’s nearly four decades after the original put Cruise behind the wheel of a stock car for the first time.

What we know about the cast

Cruise is reprising Cole Trickle, the driver he played in 1990. Hathaway is joining as a racing team owner and engineer — that’s the extent of what’s been confirmed about her character. Paramount hasn’t said whether she’s Trickle’s boss, a rival, a love interest, or some combination, and nobody involved has addressed how (or whether) any surviving cast from the original — Nicole Kidman, Randy Quaid, Cary Elwes — factors into this one. Treat any of that as open until the studio says otherwise.

The announcement itself came with actual dialogue worth noting. Cruise, in the video posted to his social accounts, said simply: “We’re coming out summer of 2028. Don’t be late.” Hathaway, visibly pregnant at the time of filming the clip, added: “I’m gonna have this baby, then we’re gonna make this movie” — a reasonably direct signal that production isn’t starting imminently.

When does it come out?

June 2, 2028, per Paramount. Reporting around the announcement describes it as a theatrical release shot for IMAX, with plans for Dolby Cinema and 4DX presentations as well — not a streaming or hybrid release. No international dates have been mentioned yet.

Who’s making it

Jonathan Levine is directing from a script by Will Staples. Levine’s résumé includes 50/50, Warm Bodies and Long Shot — none of them racing movies, which makes him a less obvious choice than a straight action or motorsport director, though nothing reported so far explains what drew him to this one specifically. Staples previously co-wrote Without Remorse and has writing credits on Call of Duty entries, which at least puts him in familiar territory for large-scale action set pieces.

Cruise is producing alongside Jerry Bruckheimer, who also produced the original Days of Thunder with the late Don Simpson, and Tommy Harper.

What’s the story?

Nobody’s said. That’s not a gap in reporting — Paramount simply hasn’t released plot details beyond the cast and Hathaway’s job description within the film. There’s no confirmed synopsis, no word on which NASCAR circuit or era the story is set in, and nothing establishing why Cole Trickle is back in a car after all this time. Anything more specific than “Cruise plays Cole Trickle again, Hathaway plays a team owner and engineer” is speculation dressed up as reporting, and Red Reactions isn’t going to guess at a plot that hasn’t been written yet, or at least hasn’t been described publicly.

Also worth noting: outlets are using “Days of Thunder 2” as shorthand for search purposes, but the film hasn’t received a confirmed final title. Some reporting still refers to it simply as the Days of Thunder sequel. That may change once Paramount formally announces one.

Why Cruise is doing this now

The comparison to Top Gun: Maverick is unavoidable, and Cruise clearly knows it — both projects put him back in a role from early in his career, decades later, after the property had gone quiet. But the mechanics are different. Maverick worked partly because Cruise’s own real-world commitment to practical flying stunts became part of the story people told about the movie. Days of Thunder is NASCAR rather than naval aviation, an entirely different kind of racing culture with its own audience and its own rules about what’s achievable in-camera.

The original Days of Thunder opened in 1990, directed by Tony Scott and produced by Bruckheimer and Simpson, the team also behind Top Gun. It made about $158 million worldwide on a $60 million budget — solid, not spectacular, and the reviews at the time leaned on comparisons to Top Gun that the new film will have to reckon with all over again, just from the other direction.

What comes next

With Cruise, Hathaway, Levine and a release date now locked in, the biggest missing piece is the story itself. Expect this page to get updated as Paramount reveals more: additional cast, a firm production start, the eventual title, and whatever comes with it once cameras roll. It’s not the only decades-later Paramount sequel currently in motion, either — Kate Hudson is producing a follow-up to How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, part of the same wave of studios returning to older hits with their original stars still attached.