Tom Cruise is returning to the racing world of Days of Thunder, and he will be joined by Anne Hathaway in a sequel that Paramount says will be shot for exhibition in IMAX and released in the summer of 2028.
Creative team and credits
The studio announced the project via a social media video featuring the principal cast. Jonathan Levine, best known for films including Warm Bodies and Long Shot, will direct. Producing credits include Jerry Bruckheimer, Tommy Harper and Cruise himself, reuniting the actor and producer behind the lucrative collaboration on Top Gun: Maverick (2022).
Who’s who on screen
Cruise will reprise his role as NASCAR driver Cole Trickle. Hathaway is set to play a team owner and engineer, marking a notable pairing between two actors with very different screen histories: Cruise as an action star and Hathaway with a broader dramatic and comic resume, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Les Misérables in 2013. The source notes Hathaway is currently appearing in the drama The Odyssey and has been involved in other high-profile projects this year.
Legacy and box-office context
The original Days of Thunder, directed by the late Tony Scott and released in 1990, featured an ensemble that included Robert Duvall, Randy Quaid, Cary Elwes, John C. Reilly and Nicole Kidman. The 1990 film grossed about $157.9 million worldwide. The sequel reunites Cruise with Bruckheimer after their post-legacy success with Top Gun: Maverick, which arrived 36 years after the first Top Gun and went on to earn roughly $1.5 billion globally.
| Film | Original release | Worldwide gross (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| Days of Thunder | 1990 | $157.9m |
| Top Gun: Maverick | 2022 | $1.5bn |
Production and timing
Paramount has indicated the sequel will be captured in IMAX, signalling a cinematic approach aimed at the premium large-screen market — a format that has become a selling point for event filmmaking. The studio’s planned summer 2028 release places the project within a competitive season typically reserved for high-profile tentpoles and legacy revivals.
- Director: Jonathan Levine
- Producers: Jerry Bruckheimer, Tommy Harper, Tom Cruise
- Format: IMAX
- Release window: Summer 2028
Context and implications
The announcement taps into a trend of studios mining older properties for sequels and legacy continuations, a strategy that can be commercially lucrative when handled as event cinema. The Top Gun: Maverick example is instructive: released more than three decades after its predecessor, it proved that nostalgia, when combined with contemporary spectacle and a strong marketing campaign, can translate into vast box-office returns. Whether a renewed focus on motorsport drama will attract similar audiences remains to be seen.
For Cruise, returning to a role from early in his career offers both an opportunity to revisit past star vehicles and to capitalise on his enduring box-office draw. Hathaway’s casting positions her in a vehicle that sits between character-driven drama and large-scale commercial filmmaking, potentially broadening the film’s audience appeal.
More details — including additional casting, a plot synopsis beyond the basic roles announced, and production schedule — have not yet been released. The studio and creative team will face expectations around how faithfully the sequel connects to the original’s tone and characters while updating the story for contemporary audiences and the IMAX presentation.
Fans of the original and followers of modern franchise filmmaking will be watching how Paramount balances nostalgia with spectacle as the film moves into production.
