Anne Hathaway Joins Tom Cruise for Days of Thunder Sequel, Set for Summer 2028
Anne Hathaway has signed on to star opposite Tom Cruise in Paramount's Days of Thunder sequel, with the studio locking in a 2 June 2028 release date. Cruise announced the project himself on X on 29 August 2026, posting the tagline "Summer 2028." The Hollywood Reporter confirmed the casting and release plan the same day.
Cruise returns as Cole Trickle, the NASCAR driver he first played in the 1990 original — a film that reunited him with his Top Gun director Tony Scott. Hathaway will play a team owner and engineer, putting her on the pit-wall side of the racing operation rather than behind the wheel.
The sequel carries some familiar producing DNA. Cruise produces alongside Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced the 1990 film, and Tommy Harper. Jonathan Levine is set to direct from a script by Will Staples. Paramount plans to shoot the film for Imax, the large-format exhibition system that fills a tall, curved screen with image at far higher resolution than standard cinema projection.
The original Days of Thunder arrived in cinemas 36 years ago, produced by Bruckheimer and his then-partner Don Simpson. That film's cast included Robert Duvall as crew chief Harry Hogge, Nicole Kidman as a neurosurgeon, and Cary Elwes and Randy Quaid in supporting roles. The new film's further casting beyond Hathaway has not been announced.
For a general audience unfamiliar with the property, the setup is straightforward: a big-budget racing drama built around a star driver and his team, now updated for a sequel with Imax-scale photography and a summer corridor release — the season when studios schedule their largest theatrical bets.
The 2 June 2028 date places the film in the early-June slot that studios frequently target for broad-appeal, tent-pole releases — the kind of film a studio expects to anchor a month of cinema-going. Paramount has not disclosed a production start date.
