Paramount Puts the Pedal Down on a Racing Revival
More than three decades after Cole Trickle first burned rubber at Daytona, Paramount Pictures is accelerating toward a Days of Thunder sequel — and it has found its driver. Jonathan Levine is in negotiations to direct Tom Cruise in the follow-up to the 1990 NASCAR drama, with Cruise also set to produce alongside original producer Jerry Bruckheimer [1][2]. The project is intended to be Cruise's next production following his upcoming slate [1].
The news arrives as one of Hollywood's most reliable star-studio partnerships continues to deepen. Cruise and Paramount previously reunited on Top Gun: Maverick in 2022, a film that grossed just shy of $1.5 billion globally and earned six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, winning for Best Sound [2]. A Days of Thunder sequel represents a similar bet — a beloved IP, a returning superstar, and a franchise-minded studio looking to repeat that formula at the multiplex.
What We Know About the Story
Plot details are being kept tightly under wraps, but the script has been written by Will Staples, a writer whose credits span interactive and cinematic storytelling — he contributed to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and co-wrote the Michael B. Jordan action film Without Remorse [1]. Whether any cast members from the original — which featured Robert Duvall, Nicole Kidman, Cary Elwes, and Randy Quaid alongside Cruise — will return remains unconfirmed [1][2].
The original film, directed by the late Tony Scott, followed Cruise's Cole Trickle, a scrappy racer recruited to a new NASCAR team by a retired legend played by Duvall [2]. It was also the set where Cruise met Kidman, to whom he was married for eleven years [2]. Levine's sequel will have to honor that legacy while carving out a story compelling enough to justify the long wait — news that Cruise was in talks to reprise the role first broke in November 2024 [2].
Why Levine?
Paramount's confidence in Levine appears rooted in early returns on Mr. Irrelevant, his upcoming sports drama starring David Corenswet as John Tuggle — the last player selected in the 1983 NFL draft, chosen by the New York Giants — which is set for a Christmas Day wide release [1][2]. According to The Hollywood Reporter, test screenings of the film earlier this spring hit "stratospheric highs," and Paramount's decision to hand Levine the keys to a major franchise sequel reads as a direct reward for that performance [1].
Levine's filmography is notably eclectic, a quality that may serve a sequel tasked with blending action spectacle with character drama. He has moved fluidly between slasher horror (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane), Sundance-friendly indie drama (The Wackness), cancer-themed comedy (50/50), zombie romance (Warm Bodies), and broad studio comedies including The Night Before and Long Shot, the latter starring Charlize Theron [1]. More recently, he stepped into prestige television, directing episodes of Hulu's Nine Perfect Strangers — a drama that happens to star Kidman [1][2].
That Kidman connection is a small but notable thread linking Levine to the original film's world, even if her involvement in the sequel has not been confirmed.
Cruise's Broader Moment
The announcement arrives at a busy juncture for Cruise. Before Days of Thunder 2 gets underway, the actor is set to appear in Alejandro G. Iñárritu's dark comedy Digger, which Warner Bros. will release on October 2 [2]. That project marks a notable departure — Cruise working with an auteur director at a rival studio — before presumably returning to Paramount's orbit for the racing sequel.
The Days of Thunder follow-up fits a broader pattern in Cruise's late-career strategy: revisiting iconic roles with upgraded production values, contemporary filmmakers, and the full weight of modern blockbuster marketing behind them. Top Gun: Maverick proved that formula could work at an extraordinary scale. Whether a NASCAR drama can generate the same cultural electricity is the open question Paramount is betting on.
What to Watch Next
Levine's deal is still being finalized, so the negotiation's outcome will be the first meaningful signal of how quickly this project moves [1]. After that, casting announcements — particularly whether any original cast members return — will shape early audience expectations. The performance of Mr. Irrelevant when it opens on Christmas Day will also function as a real-world audition for Levine's ability to handle a prestige sports narrative at scale. And Cruise's October outing in Digger will offer a reminder of his range just as the Days of Thunder 2 machinery begins to warm up in earnest.