Hollywood had a saying in 2024: it was survive until ’25. Now on the other side of that promise, some might wonder if the whole industry will be content to persist through ’26?
Things are definitely in a state of flux right now, with various streaming services and investors vying for different legacy studios and their coveted libraries, as well as a fixation on what the future of cinema itself is when studies show young people are actually going to the movies more than they used to. But even then, the only reliable genre for “original” hits remains horror. Beyond box office trends and expectations, though, is the hope for a clean slate of movies to anticipate, indulge, and debate. As William Goldman famously said, nobody knows anything, so each of the movies in our survey holds the potential for massive success or catastrophic failure. Whatever happens, we hope to be there for each one, alongside yourselves.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
January 16
After taking (ahem) 23 years off between installments, Danny Boyle and Alex Garland are continuing 28 Years Later‘s sordid legacy in faster succession, albeit this time with fresh blood. Candyman and Hedda helmer Nia DaCosta picks up the directorial reins in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, a movie which filmed simultaneously with last June’s zombie showdown. The new movie continues the story of Ralph Fiennes’ enigmatic good(ish?) doctor obsessed with memento mori and what happens to young Spike (Alfie Williams) when he falls into a band of “Jimmies,” led by Jack O’Connell’s eerily chipper and self-christened St. Jimmy.
In an exclusive preview with Den of Geek, DaCosta hinted, “You have these two trains on a track, essentially, that are going to collide. They’re going to end up with these two worlds in a clash, because you kind of feel that Spike and Kelson are going to interact again.”
Send Help
January 30
Sam Raimi is back and, from the looks of the trailer, he’s as nasty as ever. After gleefully killing off famous guest stars in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the madman behind Evil Dead returns to his full horror roots for the Send Help. Rachel McAdams stars as meek office drone Linda Liddle, who spends her work days under the thumb of her bro-tastic boss, played here by Dylan O’Brien. When the two crash land on a deserted island, Liddle has the chance to reverse the corporate dynamics.
With its exotic location and revenge premise, Send Help feels more like a mid-2000s torture film in the vein of Hostel or Turistas. As demonstrated by 2009’s Drag Me to Hell, Raimi can certainly match that era’s mean spirit, but he’s always had a playfulness that better recalls Wile E. Coyote than, say, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. So really, we aren’t worried about the fun we’ll have watching Send Help. Instead our only question is how Raimi will manage to work in a Delta 88, the car that appears in all of his films, into a movie mostly set on an island.
The Moment
January 30
Pop stars have been ubiquitous in cinemas lately, sometimes successfully (see: Tyler the Creator in Marty Supreme or Taylor Swift’s Eras film) and sometimes a bland disaster (see: Opus or Hurry Up Tomorrow). Not content to simply do music for Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, Charli XCX takes the screen as, well, Charli XCX. Or rather she plays a fictionalized version of herself for the mockumentary The Moment, directed by music video pro Aidan Zamiri.
Shot during the singer’s brat tour, The Moment presents a heightened look at the demands of a 21st century arena tour. The movie’s trailer features the requisite freak outs about rehearsal schedules, promotional products, and clingy fans, but it also has moments of humor suggesting more self-awareness than some of the other big music movies. The addition of stars such as Rosanna Arquette and Alexander Skarsgård certainly helps The Moment feel more like an actual movie and less of a pop star’s indulgence.
Wuthering Heights
February 13
The always-provocative filmmaker Emerald Fennell is following up her Oscar-winning Promising Young Woman and divisive Saltburn with a splashy adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic 1847 Gothic romance, and it stars no less than Margot Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff. The castings are already raising eyebrows, with the latter earning accusations of whitewashing a literary character of famously ambiguous origin. But by working from source material that was considered scandalously edgy in its time, we can expect Fennell to welcome it all while amping up the tale’s eroticism and psychological melodrama—and with lots of heaving chests and Charli XCX songs if the trailer is anything to go by. In other words, don’t expect your high school teacher’s Wuthering Heights.
Crime 101
February 13
You don’t have to wait until next December to see a bunch of Marvel faves reunite. First there’s Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, and Barry Keoghan join together for the caper film Crime 101. Based on the novel by Don Winslow, the film follows a disciplined jewel thief (Hemsworth) who teams with an insurance broker (Halle Berry) to pull off an audacious score.
That premise may seem a bit rote, but the man behind the camera is certainly unique. Writer and director Bart Layton made his name with the documentary The Imposter and the docudrama American Animals. Crime 101 represents Layton’s first foray into fully fictional filmmaking, and the glossy Hollywood cast he’s assembled suggests that he’s jumping in with both feet. However, if Layton can follow in the footsteps of William Friedkin, who kept an eye for realism when he moved from documentaries to make The French Connection, then Crime 101 could be something special.
Scream 7
February 27
If Scream is your favorite scary movie, then the last few years have been interesting to say the least. What began as a promising reboot for the franchise with 2022’s Scream ended after the new cast took fully revitalized the franchise with some Big Apple swagger in Scream 6. Unfortunately that momentum was derailed after Spyglass Media Group’s decision to fire star Melissa Barrera for her political opinions.
What we’re left with is a movie that decidedly looks to the past instead of the future. Co-creator Kevin Williamson returns to the franchise to write and direct, and he brings along Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox as Sidney Prescott and Gale Weathers. It’s not all just playing the hits for Scream 7, though, since not only are Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding reprising their roles as Randy Meeks’ relatives but also Sidney has a daughter (Isabel May). Will the familiar faces be enough to overcome the bad press caused by Barrera’s firing? We’ll find out soon.
In the Blink of an Eye
February 27
As a member of the studio’s braintrust, Andrew Stanton has given Pixar some of its greatest films, directing Wall-E and Finding Nemo and co-writing the Toy Story franchise. Stanton’s live-action resume is a bit more spotty, which includes episodes of Better Call Saul and Stranger Things, but also the infamous flop John Carter. Stanton hopes to improve that batting average with In the Blink of an Eye, a high-concept sci-film about the history of the Earth. He’s brought along a solid cast that includes Kate McKinnon, Rashida Jones, and Daveed Diggs, but our confidence is shaken somewhat by the fact that Disney’s sending In the Blink of an Eye straight to Hulu.
The Bride!
March 6
Maggie Gyllenhaal’s second outing as a director is a wild pivot from 2021’s The Lost Daughter: it’s been described as a thriller, a satire, and an homage to The Bride of Frankenstein. Set in 1930s Chicago, the film finds Frankenstein’s Monster (Christian Bale) asking Dr. Euphronius (Annette Bening) to create a companion for him, which arrives in the form of the Bride (Jessie Buckley). What happens from there involves murder, mayhem, and, er, social change. It seems a gamble by Warners, but a bold one given the amount of talent involved, as well as the fact that Mary Shelley reworkings seem to be in season if Poor Things and Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein are anything to go by.
Hoppers
March 6
Hoppers might be an animated sci-fi movie about a human who accidentally sparks a nature rebellion after turning into a beaver, but no one will have trouble understanding the premise. As seen in the trailer that runs in front of Avatar: Fire and Ash, protagonist Mabel Tanaka (Piper Curda) explicitly describes the process of letting human minds “hop” into animal bodies “just like Avatar.” Although this is his first time helming a film since doing We Bare Bears: The Movie for Cartoon Network, director Daniel Chong, working off a script by Luca screenwriter Jesse Andrews, has been a longtime member of Pixar’s Senior Creative Team, which might mean that Hoppers will match the quality of the studio’s recent output.
Project Hail Mary
March 20
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are at last in the director’s chairs again for a live-action film after they were dismissed from Solo: A Star Wars Story in 2018. (Their last completed live-action effort, 22 Jump Street, came out in 2014.) This time, though, the newly Spider-Verse emboldened duo is adapting Andy Weir’s sci-fi bestseller. The movie stars Ryan Gosling as a man who wakes up on an interstellar ship with no recollection of how he got there. And soon he learns that he is the last hope for humanity. The marketing promises a high-concept adventure with plenty of thrills, humor, and that ol’ Gosling charm. The Weir connection also suggests this is particularly well-suited to the screen. See Ridley Scott’s adaptation of The Martian for more.
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come
March 27
With the first Ready or Not, directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, alongside writers Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy, turned frustration over economic inequality into a rip-roaring slasher. The world hasn’t gotten any better in the six years since that movie released, which makes Ready or Not 2 one of the most anticipated horror movies of 2026. The creative quartet is back again along with Samara Weaving as Grace, who learns that surviving her wedding night with the murderous Le Domas family was just the start of the game. Now Grace must face a new family of players and her sister Faith (Kathryn Newton) has to do it with her.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
April 3
After 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie became the most successful video game-based movie of all time (nearly $1.4 billion worldwide), there was no doubt that Illumination and Nintendo would immediately greenlight a sequel. And while the plot remains under wraps, any gamer with passing familiarity with the Nintendo Wii’s beloved Super Mario Galaxy is already expecting gravity-bending visuals and out-of-this-world shenanigans for the plumber brothers. Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, Charlie Day, and Keegan-Michael Key are all returning to their signature roles from the first film, while Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic are again directing.
The Drama
April 3
Zendaya and Robert Pattinson are set to become the 2026 onscreen power couple, as they’ll be appearing in no fewer than three films together. But where The Odyssey and Dune: Part 3 puts them on mythic auteur game tables, The Drama keeps things focused on the personal. Directed by Kristoffer Borgli, The Drama follows the two stars as a betrothed pair who run into some sort of trouble on their way to the big day. What sort of trouble? We don’t know yet, but if Borgli’s previous movie Dream Scenario is any indication, it’s gonna get weird.
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy
April 17
Poor Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, a throwback horror movie that originally began as a Blumhouse reimagining of the 1932 classic starring Boris Karloff over at Universal PIctures. But it seems that after Universal was able to lure Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz back for another sequel to the far more beloved 1999 iteration of the concept, Cronin’s reportedly true, blue horror flick somehow ended up at Warners. None of this makes it unwelcome though. It is, after all, helmed by the guy who gave us the absolutely sadistic Evil Dead Rise. So seeing him go ham on Egyptian mythology is intriguing even before you add in Midsommar’s Jack Reynor. Ra, Ra, Amun-Ra, eh?
Normal
April 17
Outside of Kill List and A Field in England, English filmmaker Ben Wheatley always seems to fall just slightly short of making an incredible movie. Normal might be Wheatley’s best chance yet, as he’s working off a script by John Wick co-creator Derek Kolstad and has a great cast that includes Bob Odenkirk as a stand-in sheriff for a quiet Minnesota town and Henry Winkler as the mayor. With that much talent involved, Normal’s sure to be a good time, even if it doesn’t become a cinematic classic.
Michael
April 24
Most musical biopics sanitize their subjects beyond the point of recognition, in part because fans want to believe the people who made these hit songs were genius saints, and in part because the filmmakers need the artist’s permission to use the songs. That’s posed a particular problem for Lionsgate, who has been trying to get a Michael Jackson movie into theaters since 2019.
It’s not that Jackson doesn’t deserve a biopic; he’s one of the biggest artists of all time. Nor does Michael lack talent, with Antoine Fuqua directing and John Logan writing. Rather the problem is that abuse allegations are just as much a part of the singer’s legacy as his singing and dancing, meaning that Lionsgate and the Jackson estate have spent seven years trying to figure out how to make the film at least somewhat believable and an entertaining blockbuster. We don’t know if they pulled it off, but either way, Michael might be a mess worth noticing.
Apex
April 24
Thrillers around rock climbing may be a small genre—Cliffhanger, Vertical Limit, uh… the start of Mission: Impossible II?—but they’re often satisfying. And this Netflix movie Apex adds an extra layer by giving their climbing thriller a survival element, as a sportsperson played by Charlize Theron must escape from a hunter (Taron Egerton) who has crossed her path. Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur directs from a script by Jeremy Robbins. We’re ready to grab a foothold.
The Devil Wears Prada 2
May 1
It’s time to get the devil her due, because Miranda Priestly is back in the long-rumored and hoped-for The Devil Wears Prada 2. Story details remain relatively tight-lipped, but we do know that despite having very different lanes of journalism in their purviews, Meryl Streep’s ice queen and Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs wind up in the same room again. The Dave Frankel-directed film also features the return of fan-favorite characters played by Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci.
Animal Farm
May 1
Like his longer work Nineteen Eighty-four, George Orwell’s Animal Farm remains even more urgent and misunderstood today. Orwell wrote the novella as a Trotskyist warning against leaders like Stalin, using a fable about a barnyard revolution as a way to critique the young Soviet Union.
Judging by the first trailer, the latest adaptation of Animal Farm might do little to clear things up. The dream project of Andy Serkis, who directs a script by Nicholas Stoller, Animal Farm goes heavy on celebrity voices (Seth Rogen! Gaten Matarazzo! Glenn Close!) and fart jokes. Given its middle school take on Orwell, one hopes viewers won’t come away from this version of Animal Farm thinking that the book praises free market individualism.
Hokum
May 1
The average moviegoer still associates so-called elevated horror with A24, but with outings like Longlegs and Infinity Pool, Neon has been making a name for itself. The distributor will continue that development in 2026 with the release of Hokum, the latest from Irish director Damian McCarthy. Hokum follows a writer played by Adam Scott, who goes to Ireland to fulfill a family obligation only to find himself in a haunted house. If McCarthy’s previous films Caveat and Oddity are any indication, the hauntings will involve creeping dread and a dose of the uncanny.
Mortal Kombat II
May 8
Mortal Kombat II has certainly risen in the ranks of expectations. A sequel to the pretty-looking but somewhat divisively-received 2021 reboot of the franchise, Mortal Kombat, this sequel was originally pegged to be an October release date. But after enthusiastic test screenings and buzzy word-of-mouth, WB apparently got bullish about the Simon McQuoid-directed joint and moved the fighter to May of next year. It probably helps that the intended R-rated spectacle is bringing in a lot of fan-favorite characters and setups, including Karl Urban as an over-the-hill Johnny Cage who gets recruited into the titular tournament after his career as a movie star falls on hard times.
“The point where we find Johnny in this movie is very relatable to everybody, because he’s on the back foot in life,” Urban tells us in an exclusive cover story interview. “His career is in the tank, the world’s forgotten him, and he’s at a real low point. His confidence has been knocked, and it is at this very juncture that he is called upon to be at his best and to use his skillset to defend Earthrealm.” That leads to stunt work which the star teases has both humor and dexterity. “You also see specifically Van Damme, who in my opinion, was phenomenal, and Jackie Chan, who I drew huge inspiration from for the tone of some of Johnny Cage’s fights.”
Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu
May 22
It will be nearly seven years since a Star Wars movie blasted across the big screen by the time this comes out, which is hopefully long enough for the bad taste left by The Rise of Skywalker to have disappeared. Either way, director Jon Favreau and co-writer Dave Filoni’s new film is set to answer a hard question for the franchise: will vast amounts of people come out for a story that requires viewing at least one, if not two, shows that aired on Disney+? A little Pedro Pascal charisma, even in a mask, can’t hurt. Meanwhile, the Lucasfilm braintrust appears to be betting that there’s enough good faith—and enough fans still in love with Baby Yoda—to restore this aging franchise to cinematic glory.
I Love Boosters
May 22
Even though he only has one feature film (Sorry to Bother You) and an Amazon series (I’m a Virgo) under his belt, Boots Riley has already established a unique style. The frontman for the Leftist rap outfit the Coup, Riley combines in-your-face politics with insane plot scenarios, resulting in stories that provoke laughter and anger. He’s sure to do the same with I Love Boosters, the story of a shoplifting collective that takes up arms against a fashion icon. Demi Moore stars alongside Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, and Taylour Paige.
Masters of the Universe
June 5
Transformers and G.I. Joe have both enjoyed successful film franchises, and the My Little Pony television series was a genuine phenomenon. But despite a well-received Netflix revival, Masters of the Universe has lagged behind its fellow ‘80s toy properties, unable to escape the shadow of the infamous Cannon movie starring Dolph Lundgren and Frank Langella. Laika co-founder Travis Knight is going to try to change that reputation with his take on Masters of the Universe. The 2026 take on He-Man stars Nicholas Galitzine as Prince Adam, who returns from Earth to claim his throne on Eternia. Compelling as that might be, Masters of the Universe does co-star Jared Leto as Skelator, which doesn’t bode well for its box office chances.
Power Ballad
June 5
As established by his debut movie Once, Irish musician turned director John Carney puts music on the screen better than almost anyone else. His latest movie Power Ballad seems to eschew the earnestness of Once, Sing Street, and Begin Again for something more openly comedic, as Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas play a rock star and a wedding singer who get locked in a battle of oneupmanship. That might sound like the plot of a Judd Apatow comedy from the 2010s, but Carney will certainly find some way to make the proceedings heartfelt.
Disclosure Day
June 12
After realizing two long-anticipated projects with the musical West Side Story and the semi-autobiographical The Fablemans, Steven Spielberg returns to more familiar ground for Disclosure Day. After a cryptic marketing campaign, we now have a trailer for the film, which features Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, and others responding to an alien presence, but we still don’t know much more than that. But we really don’t need to. Spielberg and aliens always go well together, and the War of the Worlds vibes of the Disclosure Day trailer only get us more excited.
Toy Story 5
June 19
What do you do when you make a near-perfect trilogy of animated films? Why, you keep going, of course! And if you thought that Toy Story 4 was a risky add-on, then you’re probably even more fretful over Toy Story 5. But Pixar, in a bit of a slump these days, is going back to its original franchise one more time with Woody, Buzz, Jessie, Forky, and all the rest returning. This time, the gang must fight for Bonnie’s attention with a tablet named Lilypad (Anna Faris)—setting up a clash between toys and tech that has no doubt gripped many households in recent years.
Supergirl
June 26
In some sense, Supergirl might be more of a test of James Gunn’s DC Studios than even 2025’s Superman. While that DCU kickoff had a lot to prove, Supergirl is the first follow-up to gauge how much audiences bought in, including to a cliffhanger of Milly Alcock’s party gal Kryptonian. Luckily, this spinoff is based on one of the best superhero stories of the decade, Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which finds a far more haunted Kara Zor-El than CW fans might remember. It also comes from director Craig Gillespie, who’s had success in left-of-center genre-benders like I, Tonya, Cruella, and Lars and the Real Girl. Together with Alcock and Jason Momoa (as… Lobo?!), this one could have a whole different vibe.
Moana
July 10
Look, what can we say about Moana, the latest live-action remake of a Disney animated movie? As indicated by every one of the previous live-action remakes (besides Pete’s Dragon), Moana will be ugly, redundant, and completely forgotten before it even hits Disney+. And it will make a ton of money at the box office, which is why Disney keeps greenlighting these things.
The Odyssey
July 17
How do you follow up a three-hour, billion-dollar-grossing, Best Picture-winning historical drama about the invention of the atomic bomb? With an epic film based on an ancient Greek myth, naturally. Fantasy and mythology movies tend to sink at the box office unless the name Tolkien is attached to them, but if anyone can turn Homer’s landmark of Greek literature into box office gold, it’s Christopher Nolan, who did the same for a tormented nuclear physicist in Oppenheimer. As usual, the cast—led by Matt Damon as Odysseus—is stacked, and Nolan is perhaps the only director aside from James Cameron whose name alone puts butts in seats. Whatever The Odyssey ends up being, we don’t expect to call it modest.
Evil Dead Burn
July 24
The Evil Dead franchise seems like a series of movies inextricable from their principal creators Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell. Yet starting with the 2013 remake Evil Dead and continuing through Evil Dead Rise, the franchise has shown the ability to go beyond the slapstick stylings of its original creators. French filmmaker Sébastien Vaniček, co-writing with Florent Bernard, hopes to continue that trend with Evil Dead Burn. Although we don’t yet know anything about the plot, it will probably involve terrible things happening someone reads from the Necronomicon, which is good enough for us.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
July 31
Following up the $1.9 billion-grossing Spider-Man: No Way Home is no easy feat, but the MCU’s Tom Holland-led iteration of your friendly neighborhood webslinger seems to be one of the few bright spots of Marvel’s post-Infinity Saga daze. The usual rumors persist about villains, storylines, multiverse variants, and the like, but all we really know is that Spidey will once again be supported by other MCU favorites like Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk and Jon Bernthal’s Punisher, while the identity and exact nature of the main antagonist remain unknown. Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) replaces Jon Watts behind the camera for this one, and Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink joins returning cast members Zendaya and Jacob Batalon. Perhaps most interestingly, it’s speculated that this is Holland’s last non-Avengers stint in the red and blue suit.
Flowervale Street
August 14
Director David Robert Mitchell became a name to watch after his sensational sophomore film It Follows. And then his follow-up Under the Silver Lake either cemented that reputation or alienated moviegoers forever with its audacious, Thomas Pynchon-like mystery. What little we know about Flowervale Street—it follows a family who notices strange things in their neighborhood, and also dinosaurs are involved—suggests that this fourth film could go either way. But even if Mitchell decides to get weird again, a cast that includes Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway can only help Flowervale Street be more palatable to general audiences.
Insidious: The Bleeding World
August 21
It may not get as much attention as Saw or The Conjuring, but James Wan’s other horror franchise Insidious remains a reliable source of scares, especially after 2023’s surprisingly good Insidious: The Red Door. That film worked in part because it refocused attention on the central Lambert family after two prequels about demonologist Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye).
The Bleeding World will try to expand things again, bringing back Shaye as Rainer but putting her with new protagonists, played by Nope standout Brandon Perea and Amelia Eve from The Haunting of Bly Manor. Newcomer Jacob Chase will direct and co-write, but he is working with Conjuring vet David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick.
The Dog Stars
August 28
No, Ridley Scott hasn’t decided to make a biopic about Keanu Reeves band from the ‘90s. Rather, The Dog Stars tells a post-apocalyptic tale about a pilot and an ex-marine navigating the world after a flu virus killed off most of humanity. Adapting a novel by Peter Heller, Scott directs from a script by Mark L. Smith and Christopher Wilkinson, with Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, and Margaret Qualley starring.
Coyote vs. Acme
August 28
Despite what some millennials might say about Space Jam, the Looney Toons have never really worked on the big screen. Yet, we can’t help but cheer for Coyote vs. Acme simply because Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav almost gave it the Batgirl treatment and buried it for a tax write-off before anyone could see it.
Based on a story by James Gunn, Jeremy Slater, and Samy Burch and directed by Dave Green, Coyote vs. Acme finally gives Wile E. Coyote his day in court. Will Forte and John Cena play opposing attorneys as the Coyote sues his infamously unreliable supplier. Will Coyote vs. Acme be as good as the Chuck Jones shorts that made the characters household names? Who knows, but people worked hard on it and deserves to be seen.
Clayface
September 11
Ever since he and Peter Safran became co-heads of DC Studios, James Gunn has said that he puts the story and script first. Nothing proves that better than the fact that B-list baddie Clayface gets his own movie before Batman. Gunn has insisted that he had no interest in making a movie about the shapeshifting Gotham City villain until writer Mike Flanagan came in with a pitch he couldn’t ignore. Directed by James Watkins and co-written by Hossein Amini, Clayface stars Tom Rhys Harries as actor Matt Hagan, who becomes titular monster.
Sense and Sensibility
September 11
Even though it came out more than 30 years ago, Ang Lee’s quiet take on Sense and Sensibility has dissuaded other directors from trying their hands at the Jane Austen classic. However, director Georgia Oakley and screenwriter Diana Reid are ready to give it a shot. Their version stars Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor Dashwood, who must navigate difficult economic waters after the death of her father. Esmé Creed-Miles and Bodhi Rae Breathnach co-star as Elinor’s sisters, Frank Dillane plays half-brother John, while Herbert Nordrum and George MacKay play love interests Colonel Brandon and Edward Ferrars, respectively.
Resident Evil
September 18
Zach Cregger’s career has been nothing but surprise after surprise. First, he worked with the sketch troupe The Whitest Kids U Know and co-directed the panned Miss March alongside late castmate Trevor Moore. Then, after appearing in a few sitcoms, Cregger directed two incredible and shocking horror films with Barbarian and Weapons.
All of which to say is that who shouldn’t be too shocked by Cregger’s pivot to helm a relaunch of Resident Evil, a video game adaptation that has already spawned several cult direct-to-video movies. Fittingly, we don’t know much about Resident Evil, other than it stars Weapons stand out Austin Abrams, Paul Walter Hauser, and Zach Cherry. Which is fine by us. We’re ready for another surprise.
Digger
October 2
Even though we now have a trailer and a title for the first collaboration between Birdman and The Revenant director Alejandro G. Iñárritu and Tom Cruise, we still don’t know anything about their movie Digger. All we see are shots of Cruise, dressed in shorts and boots, dancing to a Gorillaz track while holding a shovel, before getting the title card, which looks a lot like the Saul Bass poster for 1959’s Anatomy of a Murder. What does this mean? We don’t know, but we’re just happy to see Cruise working on an original film again, especially when he’s joining a cast that includes Jesse Plemons, Sandra Hüller, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg.
The Social Reckoning
October 9
In these dark days, it’s easy to mock the self-satisfied and whip-smart dialogue that Aaron Sorkin wrote for The West Wing and The Newsroom. But even the angriest Sorkin hater has to admit that he created something special when he teamed with David Fincher for The Social Network. Which is why we’re more than a bit worried about Sorkin’s decision to write and direct his sequel to the 2010 biopic about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. As its title suggests, The Social Reckoning plans to wrestle with Facebook’s role in modern elections, with Jeremy Strong stepping in for Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg and Mikey Madison as whistleblower Frances Haugen.
Street Fighter
October 16
Look, we freaks here at Den of Geek love the 1994 Street Fighter and we won’t apologize for it. But we do understand that gamers may resent that movie’s, we’ll say, inattentive approach to the source material. So we share their excitement for the upcoming installment by director Kitao Sakurai and writer Dalan Musson.
Judging by the first looks, Street Fighter 2026 plans to stick to the games with its accurate costumes and tournament structure. But it also seems to be following in the 1994 movie’s crazy footsteps, with a cast that includes not just Noah Centineo and Andrew Koji as heroes Ken and Ryu, but also David Dastmalchian as M. Bison, wrestlers Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes, comedian Eric André, and musicians 50 Cent and Orville Peck.
Remain
October 23
Since 2014’s The Visit, M. Night Shyamalan has been pulling a giant twist on moviegoers, bouncing back from stinkers like The Last Airbender and After Earth with a series of satisfying and surprisingly heartfelt B-movies. His latest film Remain may be his greatest shock yet, as he’s adapting a story by Nicolas Sparks, the author of audacious romance novels like The Notebook. The premise sure sounds like a Sparks story, as Jake Gyllenhaal plays an architect who returns to his beachside hometown and meets a compelling young woman. Here’s hoping M. Night will work in some of that horror movie magic to make Remain into something truly weird.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping
November 20
With the success of 2023’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Lionsgate and director Francis Lawrence adapting Suzanne Collins’ next prequel novel, Sunrise on the Reaping, is a smart bet. Set some four decades after Songbirds & Snakes, and just 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games (2012), this film stars Joseph Zada as a young Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson in the original movies) as he competes and (no spoiler) wins in the 50th Hunger Games. Yet the trials and tragedies he faces along the way have made this novel a fan favorite since its publication. Once again, the story’s young tributes will be supported by all-star veterans, including Jesse Plemons, Ralph Fiennes, Kieran Culkin, Elle Fanning, and Glenn Close. Meanwhile, Mckenna Grace plays Maysilee Donner, a young tribute who has captured the minds of millions of readers.
Hexed
November 25
The latest Disney animation project sure sounds like the makings of House of Mouse classic. Hexed focuses on a teenage boy who discovers his odd-ball behavior is actually proof that he has magic abilities, which stresses out his high-strung mother. Whether Hexed can deliver on that premise remains to be seen, but it has a pair of Disney veterans at the helm in Josie Trinidad and Jason Hand.
Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew
November 26
In the 2010s, Walden Media tried to adapt three movies from C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia and, despite their excellent casts and massive budgets, failed to match the charm of the novels or of the BBC movies from the late 1980s. Enter Greta Gerwig, hot off her massive success with Barbie, who takes a crack at the series for Netflix. Instead of starting with the first book The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Gerwig’s adapting the prequel The Magician’s Nephew, which details the creation of Narnia by the Godlike lion Aslan. David McKenna and Beatrice Campbell play the two children who arrive in the new land, while Emma Mackey portrays Jadis, the evil White Witch.
This could be the franchise-starter Netflix has been searching for.
Madden
November 26
Madden is a biopic about the famous football coach, TV commentator, and video game icon, directed by David O. Russell and starring Nicolas Cage and Christian Bale. That sentence pretty much sums up the entire appeal—and potential for disaster—that Madden poses. Russell always goes big, sometimes resulting in a glossy, overstuffed crowd-pleaser like Silver Linings Playbook and sometimes resulting in the nightmare that is Amsterdam.
Avengers: Doomsday
December 18
This is it: high noon for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is the one that features the return of Infinity War/Endgame directors Anthony and Joe Russo, Robert Downey Jr. coming back not as Iron Man but Doctor Doom, the inclusion of the OG Fox X-Men cast, the rumored appearance of everyone from Chris Evans to Ryan Reynolds… and it all adds up to either a Hail Mary pass of titanic proportions or a glorious relaunch to box office dominance. Don’t let the reports of an unfinished script or extended reshoots fool you; Marvel can pull this off—they’ve done so in the past—but the question is whether the Avengers brand still has the power to bring the MCU back from its recent decline.
Dune: Part Three
December 18
Denis Villeneuve’s first two Dune movies were arguably the most epic, visionary genre releases since Peter Jackson bestowed The Lord of the Rings on us 20 years earlier. But concluding a trilogy has been the downfall of many a filmmaker, and Villeneuve faces a formidable task here. The movie will ostensibly be based on Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah, a very different story from the original and in many ways a more difficult one to imagine as a film. But if Villeneuve keeps the core of the novel—the willful self-destruction of Paul Atreides—intact, he can stick this landing like a breaking Shai-Hulud. We’re rooting for him all the way.
Werwulf
December 25
With his four previous movies, writer/director Robert Eggers has proven himself as the master of grim, atmospheric period horror (yes, even The Northman was a horror story in its own way). He immerses us in barbaric worlds of the past like no other filmmaker currently working. Having conquered the most seminal of vampire tales with Nosferatu, he’s now turning his attention to lycanthropy with what he himself calls “the darkest thing I have ever written,” an original werewolf story set in 13th-century England. Blood, gore, mud, and disease? Sounds like Eggers is going to have us howling in terror when this thing crawls toward holiday theaters.
The Death of Robin Hood
TBD
If you’re going to give Robin Hood the Old Man Logan treatment, then you might as well get Hugh Jackman to do it, and that’s exactly what writer/director Michael Sarnoski has done with The Death of Robin Hood. Jackman plays a Robin Hood at the end of his life, coming to terms with the legend that’s built up around him, a legend that he considers at odds with his actual works. Jodie Comer co-stars as a woman who watches over the critically injured Robin as he thinks about his whole life, while Bill Skarsgård plays Little John, presumably in flashbacks. Whatever one feels about The Death of Robin Hood‘s treatment of the legend, or its running over ground already trod by Robin and Marian, we’re most excited to see what Sarnoski will do after winning our hearts forever with his excellent debut Pig.
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