Hollywood actor Randy Quaid, who co-starred with Tom Cruise in Days of Thunder in 1990, has gone on an extraordinary rant against Anne Hathaway being cast in the upcoming sequel.
Cruise, 64, will reprise his role as Nascar driver Cole Trickle and will be joined by Hathaway, 43, who is set to play a team owner and engineer in the follow-up film, first rumoured in 2024.
But Quaid, 75, has slammed her inclusion, calling it ‘a leftist, woke, horrible choice’ and Cruise ‘a p***y’ for not bringing back his ex-wife Nicole Kidman instead.
Digger star Cruise and Hathaway – who continues to line up projects after a busy 2026 – revealed the news together at Daytona International Speedway in a video posted to social media on Saturday, stepping back to show off a bright green and yellow car with the words ‘Days of Thunder coming 2028’ emblazoned on it.
The original film was directed by the late Tony Scott and followed Cruise’s young stock car driver as he gets recruited by retired racing star Harry Hogge, played by Robert Duvall, to a new Nascar team for the chance to compete at the top level.
The star-studded cast also included Kidman, Randy Quaid and John C. Reilly.
Cruise and Kidman met during her audition for the role of neurosurgeon Dr. Claire Lewicki, who develops a relationship with Cole, and the pair then married on Christmas Eve in 1990 before later divorcing in 2001.
‘We need Nicole back. Don’t be a p***y, @TomCruise. You need the original girl,’ Quaid tweeted shortly after the announcement.
He insisted that ‘it’s not personal; it’s filmmaking’, before adding: ‘Anne isn’t sexy, because and if you haven’t noticed, she’s pregnant.’
In the trailer video, Hathaway – who is pregnant with her third child – had confirmed, ‘I’m gonna have the baby, and then we’re gonna make the movie,’ with Cruise responding: ‘That’s a good idea. You have the baby, then we’ll go make the movie.’
But Quaid, who played Tim Daland in the first film, the Nascar team owner who hires Cruise’s character, wasn’t finished.
He later tweeted: ‘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. We don’t need a new girl; we need a new race car!’
Quaid then posted once more, coming out to say that the Devil Wears Prada 2 actress was ‘a leftist, woke, horrible choice for DAYS OF THUNDER NASCAR audience who are MAGA’.
Doubling down, he continued: ‘The sexy older chick for Tom in this film needs to be Nicole. That’s the casting that would sell the idea.’
He also claimed that when Days of Thunder was made ‘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,’ he added.
Neither Cruise, Hathaway nor Kidman have yet responded to his remarks
The movie will be directed by Warm Bodies filmmaker Jonathan Levine and co-produced by Cruise and Top Gun’s Jerry Bruckheimer, with Tommy Harper, and written by Will Staples. It will also be filmed for IMAX screens.
Hathaway’s role is the latest in a back-to-back year for the actress who also stars in Sir Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey, The Devil Wears Prada 2, The End of Oak Street, Mother Mary and the upcoming film adaptation based on Colleen Hoover’s 2018 psychological thriller, Verity.
She is also known for her Oscar-award winning performance as Fantine in the film adaptation of Les Misérables.
Cruise is best known for starring as naval aviator Lieutenant Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell in the Top Gun films as well as his role as secret agent Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible franchise.
He is renowned for his action-packed blockbusters where he performs his own stunts which have included hanging off a plane, scaling Dubai’s Burj Khalifa skyscraper and riding a motorcycle off the edge of a cliff.
Metro has contacted reps for Tom Cruise, Anne Hathaway and Nicole Kidman for comment.
Days of Thunder 2 is scheduled to hit cinemas on June 2, 2028.