Hathaway Joins Cruise for Days of Thunder 2

Anne Hathaway joins Tom Cruise in a Days of Thunder sequel, with Paramount setting a June 2, 2028.

Anne Hathaway will star opposite Tom Cruise in the next chapter of "Days of Thunder," the NASCAR drama that launched in 1990. Paramount Pictures has dated the feature film sequel for June 2, 2028 — nearly 40 years after Tony Scott's original hit theaters. Cruise revealed the news Saturday on his social platforms, sharing a promotional image of the two stars leaning against a NASCAR race car in Daytona. Cruise will reprise his role as scrappy driver Cole Trickle, while Hathaway is set to play a racecar team owner and engineer. Jonathan Levine ("Long Shot," "Mr. Irrelevant") is confirmed to direct from a script by Will Staples, with Cruise producing alongside Jerry Bruckheimer and Tommy Harper.

The gap between films is remarkable: the original debuted in June 1990, making this return a 38-year wait, per Tbreak UAE. It's also the first significant piece of IP Cruise will engage with after ramping down the "Mission: Impossible" franchise, according to Variety — a sign of where his post-Ethan Hunt career is heading. The path mirrors "Top Gun: Maverick," which earned nearly $1.5 billion worldwide and proved audiences will return to Cruise's classic roles when given a large-scale theatrical treatment, HOLR Magazine notes. Pairing him with Hathaway as a team owner and engineer suggests a fresh dynamic rather than a simple rehash.

The announcement came with receipts: Cruise's own posts on X declared "Days of Thunder. Summer 2028," accompanied by the Daytona image. Deadline reports Hathaway's addition came after Paramount tapped Levine to direct, fast-tracking the film as Cruise's next project. Variety reports Hathaway is in the middle of a career tear, with four films in theaters in 2026 — "Mother Mary," "The Devil Wears Prada 2," "The Odyssey" and "The End of Oak Street" — plus the Colleen Hoover adaptation "Verity" to close the year. Tbreak UAE adds that a video showed a pregnant Hathaway joking she would deliver her baby first, then go make the movie.

Plot details are scarce, but Hathaway's role as a racecar team owner and engineer suggests the story could explore the modern business and technical side of NASCAR alongside Cruise's returning driver, HOLR Magazine speculates. The original followed Trickle, a hot-headed rookie recruited to a new NASCAR team by retired racing legend Harry Hogge (Robert Duvall), with Nicole Kidman, Randy Quaid, Cary Elwes and Michael Rooker also starring. Deadline notes the original made $82.6 million domestically and $157.9 million worldwide, and famously introduced Cruise to Kidman, his wife of 11 years.

Paramount is going big: the film will be shot for IMAX screens and released exclusively in theaters in formats including Dolby Cinema and 4DX, per Variety. The project reunites Cruise with Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced the 1990 original, creating a direct connection between the two films, HOLR Magazine reports. For Cruise, the sequel sits alongside another "Top Gun" movie on his slate and this year's Alejandro González Iñárritu prestige drama "Digger." After "Maverick" demonstrated the commercial potential of legacy Cruise IPs, Paramount is betting the same formula works on the NASCAR track.

With the cast, director, returning star and release date all locked, the sequel has taken a major step toward production, though no specific filming start date has been officially announced, HOLR Magazine notes. Hathaway has also wrapped the Adam Driver military drama "Alone at Dawn" and is working on a third "Princess Diaries" film, per Variety, so the 2028 shoot will slot into an already packed schedule. Fans of the original have a nearly two-year wait ahead.