{"id":873678,"date":"2026-08-30T09:18:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T09:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/873678\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T09:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T09:18:16","slug":"days-of-thunder-sequel-tom-cruise-and-anne-hathaway-confirm-film-but-one-aussie-star-will-not-return-to-franchise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/873678\/","title":{"rendered":"Days of Thunder sequel: Tom Cruise and Anne Hathaway confirm film, but one aussie star will not return to franchise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Cruise<\/a> will be back on the big screen driving race cars for the Days of Thunder sequel, but this time with a different leading lady. <\/p>\n

Cruise, 64, will reprise his role as NASCAR driver Cole Trickle in the Days of Thunder sequel, with Anne Hathaway<\/a>, 43, slated to play opposite him as leading lady. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tom Cruise and Anne Hathaway announce days of thunder sequel\u00a0Instagram\/@tomcruise<\/p>\n

The original film, released in 1990, featured Cruise and his ex-wife, Aussie actress Nicole Kidman<\/a>, who will (unsurprisingly) not be returning for the sequel. <\/p>\n

In the original, Kidman plays neurosurgeon Dr Claire Lewiki, who treats Trickle after a serious crash. The pair fall in love while she\u2019s treating him. <\/p>\n

Ironically, Kidman and Cruise first met on the set of Days of Thunder, leading to their romance and marriage in 1990 before they later divorced in 2001<\/a>. They have been notoriously estranged since, so it\u2019s no surprise that Kidman won\u2019t be returning. <\/p>\n

Instead, Hathaway will join the cast in a new role, playing a team owner and engineer. It marks the first time Cruise and Hathaway will work together. <\/p>\n

The pair announced the news with a lighthearted Instagram video. <\/p>\n

It starts with Cruise tapping the camera and saying \u201cI think it\u2019s on, Annie, it looks on to me?\u201d before panning the camera to Hathaway. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat looks on,\u201d she says before waving at the camera. \u201cWhat should we do?\u201d she asks, looking to Cruise. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe show them!\u201d Cruise replies, with the pair walking back and standing next to a race car, with the words \u201cDays of Thunder. Summer 2028\u2033 written on the side. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow what,\u201d Cruise asks. \u201cWe make the movie! That\u2019s what. I\u2019ll have this baby and then we\u2019ll make the movie,\u201d Hathaway chimed in while rubbing her bump. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tom Cruise and Anne Hathaway announce days of thunder sequel\u00a0Instagram\/@tomcruise<\/p>\n

Hathaway is pregnant with her third child, but she\u2019s clearly got no plans of slowing down even with a newborn. <\/p>\n

The actress has starred in some of the biggest films of the year, including The Devil Wears Prada 2,\u00a0The Odyssey\u00a0and\u00a0The End of Oak Street. <\/p>\n

She also just wrapped up filming the screen adaption of Coleen Hoover\u2019s book Verity, which comes out in October. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Cruise is fresh from filming his upcoming satirical black comedy Digger, where he plays the \u201cmost powerful man in the world\u201d who must save the planet from an ecological disaster of his own making. <\/p>\n

Of course, while Kidman won\u2019t be returning to the sequel, she\u2019s booked and busy in her own right, with a long list of projects she\u2019s got on the go, including the Practical Magic sequel and the Amazon series Scarpetta. <\/p>\n

The Days of Thunder sequel has not started filming yet, with the release date set for 2028. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Cruise will be back on the big screen driving race cars for the Days of Thunder sequel,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":["post-873678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}