Director Jonathan Levine is reportedly in talks to direct Days of Thunder 2, the long-mooted sequel to the 1990 NASCAR drama, with Tom Cruise attached to reprise his role as driver Cole Trickle and to produce alongside Jerry Bruckheimer. The Hollywood Reporter says the project is intended to be Cruise's next production, arriving amid renewed appetite for motorsport films following the success of F1 and Cruise's own hit legacy sequel Top Gun: Maverick.

A script has already been written by Will Staples, whose past credits include Call of Duty 3: Modern Warfare and Without Remorse, and who previously worked with Cruise on a Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation rewrite. No plot details have been revealed. The original Days of Thunder reunited Cruise with director Tony Scott after Top Gun, starred Robert Duvall and Nicole Kidman, and featured a score by Hans Zimmer; Bruckheimer produced it with the late Don Simpson. The sequel joins another Cruise project already in motion, after Paramount confirmed in April 2026 that a further Top Gun: Maverick follow-up was underway.