Turns out you still can't stop the thunder. As Tom Cruise continues to airy up our screens well into his sixties, submarine diving in Mission: Impos
Turns out you still can’t stop the thunder. As Tom Cruise continues to airy up our screens well into his sixties, submarine diving in Mission: Impossible, flying fighter jets in Top Gun: Maverick, and — very soon — giving a (possibly dead) cat a bath in upcoming satire Digger, it seems as if Mr. Movies himself is only gaining in power as he ages. Now, after years of whispers and rumours, THR has today confirmed that the star is set to reprise the role of hotshot NASCAR driver Cole Trickle in long-awaited sports drama sequel Days Of Thunder 2, which is officially in the works at Paramount Pictures. And, what’s more, we also know who’s in pole position to direct.
Per THR‘s reporting, Long Shot and Warm Bodies director Jonathan Levine — whose upcoming David Corenswet vehicle Mr. Irrelevant, itself a sports drama, has been scoring raves with test audiences and hits Prime Video this Christmas Day — is in talks to helm the sequel to Tony Scott’s original 1990 classic. While the OG movie, which reunited Cruise with his Top Gun director, didn’t perhaps come in for the same love as the duo’s first team-up on release, its dirtrags-to-Victory-Lane-riches tale has endured as a favourite among petrolheads and film buffs in the decades since its release. And with Joseph Kosinski’s critically acclaimed and commercially massive Top Gun Maverick having shown the voracious appetite among Cruise fans for legacy sequels to his adrenalinised early-career fare, a sequel to Days Of Thunder has felt inevitable for some time now.
Plot details on Days Of Thunder 2 are being kept well under wraps for the time being, as is whether or not we can expect to see the returns of any of the original movie’s ensemble (Nicole Kidman, Cary Elwes, and Randy Quaid most notably.) Still, with this expected to be Cruise’s next feature and shooting potentially set to get underway as early as next year, expect to hear more about this one over the weeks and months to come. The journey back to Victory Road begins here…
