Anne Hathaway Joins Tom Cruise’s Days of Thunder Follow-Up

Anne Hathaway and Tom Cruise have never made a film together, despite both being A-list fixtures for more than two decades. That changes with Paramount’s Days of Thunder follow-up, which Cruise announced Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway, setting a June 2, 2028 release date.

Cruise arrived at the track through a VIP entrance and addressed a room of NASCAR executives about the racing community before the reveal, according to TMZ. He and Hathaway also filmed a short promotional video together on site, posing against a race car bearing the sequel’s title card.

Hathaway’s Role, and a First-Time Pairing

Hathaway is playing a racing team owner and engineer who will reportedly bring Cruise’s Cole Trickle onto her team — a reversal of the original film’s setup, where Trickle was the one being recruited. Beyond that framing, Paramount hasn’t detailed how her character fits into the broader plot. Filming hasn’t started yet; Hathaway is currently pregnant with her third child, which is part of why production is still ahead rather than already underway.

Who’s Behind the Camera

Jonathan Levine is directing from a script by Will Staples. Levine is best known for comedies like 50/50 and Long Shot, making this a notable genre jump into big-budget racing action. Cruise is producing alongside Jerry Bruckheimer — who also produced the original — and Tommy Harper. The film is being shot for IMAX, with Paramount planning an exclusive theatrical window in Dolby Cinema and 4DX formats before any other release.

A Nearly Two-Year Road to Confirmation

Talk of a sequel first surfaced in November 2024, but Cruise didn’t publicly acknowledge the project until a May 2025 appearance on Today, where he said a follow-up was still being discussed alongside further Top Gun plans and compared the slow process to how long Top Gun: Maverick took to come together. Saturday’s Daytona event was the first time Paramount attached a director, a co-star and a release date to the project at once.

Following Up a Nearly 40-Year-Old Film

The original Days of Thunder arrived in 1990, directed by Tony Scott and grossing $157.9 million worldwide with Cruise starring alongside Robert Duvall, Randy Quaid, Nicole Kidman and Cary Elwes. It was a modest hit by comparison to Cruise’s other work — the 12th-biggest release of 1990, well behind where Top Gun landed among the previous decade’s films. None of the original supporting cast has been mentioned in connection with the sequel, and Paramount hasn’t said whether any of them, or their characters, factor into the new film at all.

No other cast has been confirmed, and with filming still ahead of Hathaway’s due date, a production start date hasn’t been set either.

Source: Variety, ComicBookMovie, TMZ, Screen Rant