Anne Hathaway Will Star In 'Days Of Thunder 2' Alongside The Old Cole Trickle, Tom Cruise

Every movie that's ever made any money is getting a sequel or a remake these days, and for "Days of Thunder," that coin flip landed on "sequel."  Thankfully Jerry Bruckheimer is producing and Tom Cruise will return, so you don't have to worry about "Days of Thunder 2" using an AI-generated lead actor. Since it's Tom Cruise we're talking about, expect the racing to be incredible, too. Until now, we didn't know much about the sequel, but Cruise now officially has a co-star: Anne Hathaway. 

Cruise revealed Hathaway's role in an Instagram post that included the caption "Days of Thunder. Summer 2028." Instead of making us wait to find out when in the summer of 2028, Variety reports that Paramount has already scheduled "Days of Thunder 2" for a June 2, 2028 release date. As you can see in the image provided, it doesn't look like they're officially going with "Days of Thunder 2" for the name; the car just says "Days of Thunder" on it. Instead, Variety refers to the film as "the next chapter of 'Days of Thunder'" and "[t]he 'Days of Thunder' follow-up."

As far as the plot is concerned, Variety says:

Cruise will reprise his role as the scrappy driver Cole Trickle. Plot details are scarce, but Hathaway is set to play a racecar team owner and engineer. Jonathan Levine ("Long Shot," "Mr. Irrelevant") is confirmed to direct. Cruise is producing alongside Jerry Bruckheimer and Tommy Harper.

Those of you who have already seen the original "Days of Thunder" may have noticed that Anne Hathaway is not Nicole Kidman, Cruise's co-star in the original "Days of Thunder." Considering that Cruise and Kidman met while filming, got married, and then went through contentious divorce, that shouldn't be terribly surprising. Most people prefer not to work with their exes, and we don't even know if filming would have worked with Kidman's schedule. She's been busy the last couple of years, that's for sure. 

We're also talking about a sequel to a movie that will be almost 40 years old by the time the sequel is released. Chevy Chase's "The Christmas Letter" co-star Randy Quaid, however, got so mad that at the time of writing, he's still posting about how mad he is about Hathaway's casting. "We need Nicole back. Don't be a p—y, @TomCruise. You need the original girl. It's not personal; it's filmmaking. Anne isn't sexy, because and if you haven't noticed, she's pregnant." he tweeted. In a follow-up tweet, he said "If I were in control of production, a real sequel worth watching for DAYS OF THUNDER would be seeing Tom and Nicole together on screen again. We don't need a new girl; we need a new race car!" He then added, "Anne Hathaway is a leftist, woke, horrible choice for DAYS OF THUNDER NASCAR audience who are MAGA. The sexy older chick for Tom in this film needs to be Nicole. That's the casting that would sell the idea," before posting this gem a few days later:

Randy Quaid/Twitter

These are all very normal things to tweet about a woman who I can only assume would never be in the same room as Randy voluntarily. What a normal well-adjusted dude who isn't creepy or weird at all. No wonder he's in such high demand to star in all the best movies. 

Here at Jalopnik, though, we can't wait to see Hathaway in a racing movie, especially one as awesome and well-done as the new "Days of Thunder" will surely be.