Days of Thunder star Randy Quaid goes on bizarre tirade against Tom Cruise for not having his ex-wife Nicole Kidman in remake of the movie after couple fell in love while filming original

Tom Cruise has been slammed by one of his former co-stars after Nicole Kidman was conspicuously absent from the newly announced sequel to Days of Thunder.

The Hollywood star, 64, will reprise his role as NASCAR driver Cole Trickle nearly four decades after the original movie - with Anne Hathaway confirmed as his new leading lady.

But Randy Quaid, who played team owner Tim Daland in the 1990 racing drama, reacted furiously to the announcement and demanded that Cruise reunite on screen with his ex-wife.

'We need Nicole back,' Quaid, 75, wrote on X before directing a crude challenge at Cruise.

'Don't be a p***y, Tom Cruise. You need the original girl. It's not personal; it's filmmaking,' he declared.

Quaid then launched a personal attack on Hathaway, who is expecting her third child with husband Adam Shulman.

'Anne isn't sexy, because - and if you haven't noticed - she's pregnant,' he wrote.

In a follow-up post, the actor branded Hathaway a 'leftist, woke, horrible choice' and claimed the audience for the sequel was 'MAGA.'

Quaid insisted Kidman, 59, should return as Dr Claire Lewicki, the neurosurgeon who treated Cole after a serious crash and later became his love interest in the original film.

'The sexy older chick for Tom in this film needs to be Nicole,' he wrote. 'That's the casting that would sell the idea.'

Kidman has not been announced as part of the new cast. However, there has been no official confirmation that her character has been removed from the story or that Hathaway is directly replacing her.

The provocative outburst came after Cruise and Hathaway revealed their collaboration with a promotional photograph and playful video filmed at Daytona International Speedway in Florida.

The stars were shown leaning against a green and yellow race car in a nod to the distinctive vehicle Cruise drove in the original blockbuster.

Cruise wore blue jeans and a pale blue button-down shirt with its sleeves rolled up, while Hathaway coordinated with him in denim, a beige shirt and matching cowboy hat.

Her pregnancy bump was covered as she leaned into the camera and greeted viewers with an enthusiastic: 'Hey!'

The pair then walked towards the parked car, which displayed a decal reading: 'Days of Thunder 2: Summer 2028.'

'Now what?' Cruise asked.

Hathaway echoed the question before declaring: 'Let's make the movie!'

She then joked: 'I'm gonna have this baby, and then we're going to make this movie.'

Cruise approved of the plan, replying: 'That's a good idea. You have the baby and then we're gonna make the movie.'

'We're coming out summer of 2028,' he added. 'Don't be late!'

Hathaway teased him over the warning before the two stars burst into laughter.

Paramount Pictures has scheduled the sequel for a theatrical release on June 2, 2028.

Cruise will return as the daring Cole, while Hathaway is expected to play the owner and engineer of a racing team.

The production will be filmed for IMAX screens and released in premium formats including Dolby Cinema, 4DX and other large-screen venues.

Cruise is also producing the project alongside Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced the original, and Tommy Harper.

Will Staples is writing the screenplay, while Long Shot filmmaker Jonathan Levine has signed on to direct. Details of the plot remain under wraps.

The sequel will bring Cruise back to the role that changed his personal life as well as his career.

He met Kidman while making the first Days of Thunder, in which their characters fell in love after Claire helped Cole recover physically and emotionally from a frightening racetrack collision.

Cruise and the Australian actress soon began a real-life romance, marrying in December 1990 and adopting two children, Isabella and Connor.

Their marriage ended in 2001 after more than a decade, and the former couple have rarely spoken publicly about one another since.

Kidman previously recalled being swept up in the relationship while still in her early twenties.

She said they had fallen 'madly in love' and that warnings about the marriage potentially affecting her career did not concern her at the time.

Her absence from the sequel's first cast announcement is particularly striking given the romantic history attached to the original movie - although Paramount could still reveal further returning stars as production moves forward.

The late Tony Scott directed the 1990 film, which earned $82.6million at the North American box office and $157.9million worldwide.

Its cast also included Robert Duvall, Cary Elwes, Michael Rooker, Caroline Williams and John C. Reilly.

Elwes, who played Cole's rival Russ Wheeler, recently revealed just how seriously Cruise took the driving sequences.

The actors performed much of the high-speed work themselves, and Cruise reportedly crashed one of the expensive race cars into a wall on his first day behind the wheel.

'Tom put a car in the wall, actually, on his first day of driving, and these things are not cheap,' Elwes recalled in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.

According to Elwes, Cruise spotted the looming impact and dryly said: 'Hello, wall.'

The British actor also praised his co-star's conduct behind the scenes, describing him as fun, supportive and thoroughly professional.

Cruise has since become famous for performing increasingly elaborate stunts throughout the Mission: Impossible franchise.

His latest return to an early role follows the phenomenal success of Top Gun: Maverick, which transformed his 1986 fighter-pilot movie into a new global blockbuster more than three decades later.

Hathaway, meanwhile, is enjoying another busy period in her career, with major roles including Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey and the highly anticipated The Devil Wears Prada 2.

The sequel will mark the first time she and Cruise have starred together.