Tom Cruise Is Getting Back in the Car: Days of Thunder 2 Confirmed for 2028

I’ll admit it. When I heard the words “Days of Thunder sequel,” I felt an actual flutter of excitement, I like Tom Cruise and I loved Top Gun: Maverick and the Mission Impossible movies and, like Maverick, I think this reboot might be pretty good.

Tom Cruise has officially confirmed that Days of Thunder 2 is happening, with a release date locked in for 2028. He’s reprising his role as hotshot NASCAR driver Cole Trickle, the character that first put him behind the wheel back in 1990 and became one of the defining roles of his career. Joining him this time is Anne Hathaway, who’s set to play a race car team owner and engineer. Plot details are still under wraps, but if the original film is anything to go by, expect chemistry, rivalry and a lot of engine noise.
Cruise is producing alongside Jerry Bruckheimer and Tommy Harper, the same team behind the original, with Jonathan Levine directing from a script by Will Staples. The film is being shot for IMAX, which tells you Paramount isn’t treating this as a nostalgia cash-in. They’re going big.
Why This Feels Like More Than a Rehash
We’ve been here before, of course. Every few years, Hollywood dusts off a beloved title from decades past and hopes the goodwill carries it. Sometimes it works beautifully. Sometimes it really doesn’t. But there’s a reason studios keep going back to this particular well right now, and it comes down to one word: Maverick.
Top Gun: Maverick didn’t just do well. It reminded an entire generation of moviegoers why we fell for Cruise in the first place, and it did it without leaning on irony or self-aware nostalgia-baiting. It played the story straight, took the stakes seriously, and let the emotional weight of decades pass do the heavy lifting. Audiences responded. It became one of the biggest box office successes of Cruise’s career, and it proved that a legacy sequel can work when it treats the original with genuine respect rather than mining it for cheap references.
That’s clearly the template here. Days of Thunder was never quite Top Gun in cultural stature, but it holds a real place in the hearts of women who were watching it in cinemas the first time round, myself included. There’s something quietly satisfying about seeing Cruise return to a role from his twenties now that he’s spent decades proving he still does his own stunts and still shows up for the theatrical experience in a way almost no other actor does.
A Fresh Pairing
Anne Hathaway stepping into the world of NASCAR as a team owner and engineer is an interesting choice, and a welcome one. She’s had an enormous run over the past year, and pairing her with Cruise for the first time gives the sequel a genuine reason to exist beyond simply cashing in on the title. It’s not a retread with the same cast reunited for the sake of it. It’s a new dynamic layered onto a familiar world.
Circle 2028
We’ve got a while to wait, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It gives us plenty of time to rewatch the original (google “Days of Thunder” and take your pick of streaming platforms) and get reacquainted with Cole Trickle before he’s back on the track.
Are you here for more of this legacy sequel trend, or has Hollywood officially run out of new ideas? I’d love to know where you land.