Tom Cruise’s Days of Thunder co-star is angry about the casting of Anne Hathaway in the long-awaited sequel to the 1990 racecar movie hit.
Cruise and Paramount Pictures on Saturday announced that Days of Thunder 2 was going into production for a 2028 release. Joining Cruise for the announcement was Hathaway, who has been featured in three films this summer: The Devil Wears Prada 2, The Odyssey and The End of Oak Street.
Quaid, who starred as a rich car dealership and race team owner, Tim Daland, in the 1990 original, took to social media on Saturday to blast the decision to cast Hathaway in the movie, saying it won’t work with NASCAR fans who support MAGA.
“Anne Hathaway is a leftist, woke, horrible choice for DAYS OF THUNDER NASCAR audience who are MAGA,” Quaid wrote in a post on X in response to Saturday’s announcement. “The sexy older chick for Tom in this film needs to be Nicole. That’s the casting that would sell the idea. It’s interesting because when we made the first one there was also a rush to get it out; editors slept in the cutting room on shifts. This is a weird thing, like they want it to come out and tank.”
Nicole, of course, is Cruise’s ex-wife and Days of Thunder co-star Nicole Kidman. Cruise and Kidman were married in 1990 and divorced in 2001, and also starred together in the 1992 epic adventure drama Far and Away, as well as in director Stanley Kubrick’s 1999 erotic thriller Eyes Wide Shut.
Anne Hathaway Told Tom Cruise That She Will Have Her Baby Before Making ‘Days Of Thunder 2’
News of Days of Thunder 2 broke on Saturday when Paramount Pictures and Tom Cruise released a video of him and Hathaway walking back to a race car that sported the film’s movie logo.
Standing in front of the car, Cruise asks Hathaway— who is pregnant with her third child — “Now what?” to which the Les Misérables Oscar-winning actress responds, “Now what? Let’s make the movie — now what. I’m gonna have this baby, and we’re gonna make this movie.” Cruise countered by saying, “That’s a good idea.”
Cruise also added, “We’re coming out summer of 2028. Don’t be late!”
In the original Days of Thunder, Cruise starred as racing champ Cole Trickle. In addition to Nicole Kidman and Randy Quaid, the film starred Robert Duvall, Cary Elwes and Michael Rooker. Days of Thunder was directed by Tony Scott, who also directed Cruise in the 1986 classic Top Gun.
No major plot details have been released about Days of Thunder 2, other than that Cruise is reprising Cole and Hathaway will play a racecar team owner and engineer, according to Variety.
Days of Thunder 2, which will be released on June 2, 2028, will be directed by Jonathan Levine.