With the movie F1 winning numerous awards, including Best Sound at the Academy Awards, and raking in over $633 million worldwide at the box office, rumors surrounding a Days of Thunder sequel are starting to heat up.
Last week, various sources reported that a film writer had been meeting with NASCAR teams and drivers to help develop a plot for a sequel to the 1990 Tom Cruise-led film. This week, two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch has confirmed that he was one of those drivers.
Kyle Busch sheds light on possible ‘Days of Thunder’ sequel
“I don’t know how much NASCAR’s involvement is, if they’re the ones calling for it or not, but obviously I think it would be something cool,” Motorsport reports Busch told the media in Las Vegas over the weekend. “It would be special. You’ve got to be careful with it, right? Because the first one was so good, you don’t want to screw up the second one. It’s always hard to come back with a better second chance at making a movie.
“But no, it’s awesome. “I’ve had a chance to speak with the writer a couple times about some of the ideas and what not, so that’s been pretty fun and interesting to see what the concept may be or may not be. But yeah, we’re certainly looking forward to it and seeing it come to fruition.”
The star of Days of Thunder, Tom Cruise, is no stranger to taking a popular film from 30 to 40 years ago and turning it into a hit sequel. Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel to the 1986 original he starred in, grossed almost $1.5 billion worldwide.
Will a sequel to ‘Days of Thunder’ actually get made?
Last year, Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced the F1 film and also produced Days of Thunder, told The Rich Eisen Show flat out that “Tom wants to do another Days of Thunder.”
NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon, who is friends with Cruise, echoed that sentiment, saying, “I’ve known Tom for many years, and was on set this past year for Mission: Impossible. I went to the premiere, and the first word out of his mouth is, ‘We’re doing it. We’re doing Days of Thunder 2.‘”
A Days of Thunder sequel might wipe the bad taste out of many fans’ and drivers’ mouths created by Talladega Nights.
“Yeah, it would be really cool,” NASCAR driver Christopher Bell said about the possibility. “I think anytime you get more exposure for our sport, and just getting more eyes on it, would be huge. One thing I appreciate about Days of Thunder was it was taken a little bit more serious. As a kid growing up, I loved Talladega Nights, and I thought it was hilarious, but then the older I got, and the more into the sport I got, I realized that the general public kind of took that as reality and not the comedy than it was. I think if you could get more serious footage of it and showing how amazing our sport is, is a great, great thing.”