Cole Trickle is coming back. Thirty-six years after Days of Thunder sent Tom Cruise onto the NASCAR circuit as the brash open-wheel transplant Cole Trickle, Paramount has officially greenlit the sequel. Cruise confirmed the project himself on Saturday from Daytona International Speedway, posing with Anne Hathaway beside a lime-and-yellow stock car stamped with the title and a summer 2028 date. The studio has locked a theatrical release of June 2, 2028.
The film will be shot for IMAX and released exclusively in theaters, including Dolby Cinema, 4DX, and other premium large-format screens.
Cruise returns as Trickle. Hathaway, in her first collaboration with him, will play a NASCAR team owner and engineer — a new character, not a recasting of Nicole Kidman’s Dr. Claire Lewicki from the 1990 film. Plot details remain under wraps.
The pair announced the news in a short video shot on the empty Daytona track. Hathaway, who is expecting her third child, joked that she would have the baby first and then make the movie. Cruise agreed. Production is expected to begin in early 2027, which lines up with that timeline.
Jonathan Levine (50/50, Warm Bodies, Long Shot) will direct. His upcoming sports drama Mr. Irrelevant is scheduled for a Christmas Day 2026 release after strong test screenings; Paramount put him in talks for the Days of Thunder sequel in July. Will Staples (Without Remorse) wrote the script after spending time at NASCAR races and team shops. Tom Cruise, Jerry Bruckheimer — who produced the original — and Tommy Harper are producing.
The original Days of Thunder, directed by the late Tony Scott from a story Cruise conceived, opened in June 1990. It earned $157.9 million worldwide on a $60 million budget and remains one of the sport’s most visible Hollywood calling cards, even if critics at the time compared it unfavorably to Top Gun. Robert Duvall, Randy Quaid, Cary Elwes, and Kidman co-starred. No original supporting players have been confirmed for the sequel.
By June 2028, 38 years will have passed between the two films — two years longer than the gap between Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick. That earlier legacy sequel proved there is still a massive audience for Cruise revisiting a 1980s/1990s action property with modern spectacle. Paramount is clearly hoping the same formula works on the oval.
Filming is expected around real NASCAR venues. Daytona already figured heavily in the first movie, both on screen and as the site of Trickle’s crash and later comeback. Levine and Staples have already been spotted at tracks talking with drivers.
What the story actually is — mentor, rival, comeback, team politics, or something else — has not been disclosed. For now the studio is selling the pairing, the date, and the promise of IMAX racing. After more than three decades of rumors, that is enough to get the engines turning.
