Tom Cruise finally green-lit the Days of Thunder sequel fans waited 36 years for, and within hours the original film’s team owner had a casting note for him: fire the Oscar winner, hire your ex-wife.
The Texas native, 75, who played racing boss Tim Daland in the 1990 original, erupted on X Saturday after Cruise announced Days of Thunder 2 from Daytona International Speedway with Anne Hathaway cast as a race team owner and engineer opposite his returning Cole Trickle. Quaid’s verdict was immediate: Hathaway is a “horrible choice,” and the fix is obvious. “We need Nicole back,” he wrote, addressing Cruise directly. “You need the original girl. It’s not personal; it’s filmmaking.“
He kept pitching. “If I were in control of production, a real sequel worth watching for DAYS OF THUNDER would be seeing Tom and Nicole together on screen again,” Quaid wrote. “We don’t need a new girl; we need a new race car!” The Nicole in question is Nicole Kidman, who played Dr. Claire Lewicki in the original, fell in love with Cruise on the set, and was married to him from 1990 to 2001. Quaid’s dream sequel is a reunion of Hollywood’s most famous divorced couple, staged at 200 miles per hour.
Then the posts turned ugly. Quaid dismissed Hathaway by pointing to her pregnancy (she is expecting her third child), argued the casting was a political mismatch with the film’s fan base, and capped it with a crude taunt daring Cruise to make the switch. Deadline called the thread a “problematic diatribe,” and the internet’s response was swift and lopsided.
“Randy doesn’t know how long women stay pregnant for,” read the thread’s sharpest reply, pointing out the obvious about a 2028 release, while another handled the Kidman fantasy in five words: “You have 2 chances of her doing it with her ex..NONE AND NONE.” A third kept it simpler: “Pregnant or not, Anne Hathaway is sexy as hell.” Even the many fans who wanted Quaid himself back in the sequel were not buying the rest. Hathaway’s role, a team owner and engineer, is not even described as a romantic one. She has not responded. Neither has Cruise, whose “Hell yeah! Fasten your seat belts, folks” announcement post is exactly what set Quaid off.
Buried in the rant was one interesting industry claim. Quaid compared the sequel’s timeline to the original’s frantic production, writing that “editors slept in the cutting room on shifts,” and suggested the new film is being rushed as well: “This is a weird thing, like they want it to come out and tank.” Paramount has slated Days of Thunder 2 for June 2, 2028, shot for IMAX, nearly four decades after Tony Scott’s original starred Cruise alongside Robert Duvall, Kidman, and Quaid himself.
The Original Girl Isn’t Coming Back
Nothing in the announcement suggests Kidman has any involvement, and that era ended a quarter century ago. Hathaway has the role, the Oscar, and the studio behind her.
Quaid wants a new race car. Paramount hired a driver.
