44 Movies We Can’t Wait to See in 2026

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This year’s 2026 Preview consists of all the entertainment — from TV to video games to classical music — that Vulture writers and editors are excited to consume in the new year. Below, our movies list.

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28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

January 16

Release: Theatrical
Director: Nia DaCosta
Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, Erin Kellyman, Chi Lewis-Parry, and Cillian Murphy

28 Year Later’s absolutely nutso cliffhanger ending will get some resolution in the sequel, which puts Candyman’s DaCosta in the director’s chair rather than Danny Boyle. (Boyle will direct the third film in the trilogy.) The Bone Temple follows Spike (played by Williams) and the Jimmy Savile–lookin’ gang of zombie killers he encountered at the end of the last movie. Murphy will reprise his role as Jim from 28 Days Later.

The Rip

January 16

Release: Netflix
Director: Joe Carnahan
Stars: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Steven Yeun, Teyana Taylor, Sasha Calle, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Scott Adkins, Kyle Chandler, Néstor Carbonell, and Lina Esco

Matt and Ben are together again in Netflix’s January actioner. This time, the Boston boys are playing Miami cops who discover millions of dollars in an old stash house. They have to count all the loot before they leave the scene, which means sticking around in this dangerous, paranoia-inducing situation as crooks and cops alike consider taking a cut for themselves.

Sound of Falling

January 16

Release: Theatrical
Director: Mascha Schilinski
Stars: Hanna Heckt, Lena Urzendowsky, Laeni Geiseler, Susanne Wuest, Luise Heyer, and Lea Drinda

Germany’s submission for the 98th Academy Awards will see an American release in 2026. The film follows four girls who grew up on the same farmstead across four different time periods — before World War II, the end of World War II, 1980s East Germany, and the early 21st century. It’s an intricate, intimate film that will reward an audience’s patience.

The Moment

January 30

Release: Theatrical
Director: Aidan Zamiri
Stars: Charli XCX, Rosanna Arquette, Kate Berlant, Jamie Demetriou, Hailey Benton Gates, Isaac Powell, and Alexander Skarsgård

Charli XCX stars in the Brat version of This Is Spinal Tap in A24’s mockumentary about a pop star preparing to headline her first tour. The singer said she plays “sort of a hell version” of herself in the movie.

Send Help

January 30

Release: Theatrical
Director: Sam Raimi
Stars: Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien

After spending some time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s multiverse of madness, Raimi is back to doing what he does best: fun, midsize genre romps. McAdams plays a woman who turns the tables on her shitty boss (O’Brien) when the pair is stranded on a deserted island.

Wuthering Heights

February 13

Release: Theatrical
Director: Emerald Fennell
Stars: Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi, Hong Chau, Shazad Latif, Alison Oliver, Martin Clunes, and Ewan Mitchell

Fennell’s bonkers and sexy adaptation of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel is going to drive so many people insane. It rules.

How to Make a Killing

February 20

Release: Theatrical
Director: John Patton Ford
Stars: Glen Powell, Margaret Qualley, Ed Harris, Jessica Henwick, Zach Wood, and Topher Grace

A loose remake of a 1949 British black comedy called Kind Hearts and Coronets, How to Make a Killing stars Powell as Becket Redfellow, a man who was disowned by his absurdly rich family when he was born. Now, Becket has decided to get what’s rightfully his, even if that means murdering all the relatives ahead of him in line to inherit the family fortune of $28 billion.

The Bride!

March 6

Release: Theatrical
Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Stars: Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Penélope Cruz

Not a sequel to Guillermo del Toro’s Netflix movie, The Bride! is a noirish reinvention of The Bride of Frankenstein. Buckley plays a murdered woman in 1930s Chicago who has been brought back to life by a mad scientist at the request of Frankenstein’s creature, played by Bale. In the old movie, the creature and his bride die in a lab explosion moments later; the new film has romance, crime, and societal change.

Project Hail Mary

March 20

Release: Theatrical
Directors: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
Stars: Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller, Lionel Boyce, Ken Leung, and Milana Vayntrub

There’s a lot of great early buzz around this adaptation of The Martian author Andy Weir’s 2021 sci-fi novel. (Will it get a Best Picture nom just like Matt Damon’s adventure on the Red Planet?) Gosling plays Ryland Grace, a middle-school teacher turned astronaut on a mission to save Earth who encounters an alien creature with similar goals.

The Drama

April 3

Release: Theatrical
Director: Kristoffer Borgli
Stars: Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Mamoudou Athie, Alana Haim, and Hailey Gates

Pattinson and Zendaya play a couple who’ll be married in just a few days when one of them discovers a shocking truth about the other that threatens to change everything in A24’s romantic comedy-drama.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

April 3

Release: Theatrical
Directors: Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic
Stars: Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Kevin Michael Richardson, Benny Safdie, and Brie Larson

Let’s-a go back to the Mushroom Kingdom — and beyond — in the sequel to the wildly successful adaptation to Nintendo’s most iconic franchise. Largely inspired by the space-faring Super Mario Galaxy games (though there’s some Super Mario Sunshine and Odyssey in there too), the movie follows Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach as they try to stop Bowser Jr. from freeing his shrunken-down father, encountering the magical space princess Rosalina (Larson) along the way.

The Devil Wears Prada 2

May 1

Release: Theatrical
Director: David Frankel
Stars: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci, Tracie Thoms, and Tibor Feldman

Being stylish and mean is back in fashion, as Miranda Priestly has returned for a 20-years-later sequel to The Devil Wears Prada. Streep, Hathaway, Blunt, and Tucci are all reprising their roles and, one assumes, looking great. Looking less great in the time since the first movie came out? The state of the magazine industry.

Mortal Kombat II

May 8

Release: Theatrical
Director: Simon McQuoid
Stars: Karl Urban, Hiroyuki Sanada, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks, Lewis Tan, Damon Herriman Chin Han, Tadanobu Asano, Joe Taslim, Adeline Rudolph, and Tati Gabriell

A small problem with the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie was that they didn’t actually have the Mortal Kombat tournament in the dang movie! The sequel, which was supposed to come out in October 2025 but got pushed to May, fixes this and adds Urban as Johnny Cage, an action movie star turned Mortal Kombatant who is a fan favorite from the video-game series.

I Love Boosters

May 22

Release: Theatrical
Director: Boots Riley
Stars: Demi Moore, Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, LaKeith Stanfield, Eiza González, Poppy Liu, and Will Poulter

Palmer plays the leader of a gang of female shoplifters who steal luxury clothing from swanky department stores and set their sights on a fashion maven. This being a Boots Riley film, there’s going to be an absurdist sci-fi slant to the comedy’s social commentary.

The Mandalorian and Grogu

May 22

Release: Theatrical
Director: Jon Favreau
Stars: Pedro Pascal, Sigourney Weaver, Jeremy Allen White, and Jonny Coyne

The Mandalorian and Grogu is pulling the reverse of what Andor was to Rogue One and taking Mando and Baby Yoda’s Disney+ adventures to the big screen, as the pair embark on a dangerous mission on behalf of the New Republic.

Masters of the Universe

June 5

Release: Theatrical
Director: Travis Knight
Stars: Nicholas Galitzine, Jared Leto, Camila Mendes, Alison Brie, Idris Elba, Morena Baccarin, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Sasheer Zamata, James Purefoy, Charlotte Riley, and Kristen Wiig

Prince Adam, a.k.a. He-Man, returns to Eternia after spending two decades on Earth in this adaptation of the cult-classic ’80s Masters of the Universe franchise. Will he have the power to defeat Skeletor? (Leto plays Skeletor, which feels about right.)

Scary Movie 6

June 12

Release: Theatrical
Director: Michael Tiddes
Stars: Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Jon Abrahams, Lochlyn Munro, Cheri Oteri, Dave Sheridan, and Chris Elliott

The last Scary Movie came out way back in 2013, and there’s been a lot of horror ripe for parodying since then. “Elevated horror” wasn’t even a thing when Scary Movie 5 was in theaters! The Wayans brothers and Faris are returning for the reboot, thank goodness.

Disclosure Day

June 12

Release: Theatrical
Director: Steven Spielberg
Stars: Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Colman Domingo, and Wyatt Russell

Very little is known about Steven Spielberg’s 37th feature film other than the case and the fact that the David Koepp-penned script involves aliens. Are we alone in the universe? Josh O’Connor is going to try to reveal the truth to seven billion people at once. Considering that Spielberg’s other movies about aliens include Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and War of the Worlds, there’s plenty of reason to be excited. (Yes, there are aliens in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull but we don’t talk about that.)

Toy Story 5

June 19

Release: Theatrical
Director: Andrew Stanton
Stars: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Tony Hale, Anna Faris, Ernie Hudson, Conan O’Brien, Greta Lee, Blake Clark, and John Ratzenberger

Many thought Toy Story 3 was a perfect ending to the Toy Story, uh, story. Then Toy Story 4 came and stuck the landing again. Now, Pixar is opening up the Toy box a fifth time for a new movie, which has Woody, Buzz, and the gang facing off against the most diabolical foe a child’s plaything could imagine: screen time. Lee voices a tablet called Lilypad, which has taken up all of the now-8-year-old Bonnie’s time and attention.

Supergirl

June 26

Release: Theatrical
Director: Craig Gillespie
Stars: Milly Alcock, Matthias Schoenaerts, Eve Ridley, David Krumholtz, Emily Beecham

Superman’s cousin Kara Zor-El (Alcock) leads the second movie in James Gunn’s rebooted DC Universe. Rather than duking it out with Lex Luthor and fighting for truth and justice, Kara is going on a bender across the galaxy to celebrate her 23rd birthday with her dog, Krypto. She might not be a perfect hero like her cousin, but when she encounters a tragedy, she’s prompted to become a do-gooder … in her own bad sort of way. Supergirl is the first of two DCU films coming out next year. The second, Clayface, a body-horror movie about a lesser Batman villain, arrives on September 11.

Moana

July 10

Release: Theatrical
Director: Thomas Kail
Stars: Catherine Laga’aia, Dwayne Johnson, John Tui, Frankie Adams, Rena Owen

How far will Disney go with the live-action remakes? Moana is getting one just a decade after the original animated movie came out. Johnson reprises his role as the demigod Maui, this time in the flesh, while newcomer Laga’aia plays the title character.

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Cut Off

July 17

Release: Theatrical
Director: Jonah Hill
Stars: Jonah Hill, Kristen Wiig, Bette Midler, Nathan Lane, Adriana Barraza, Camila Cabello, Langston Kerman, and Chelsea Peretti

In this comedy, Hill and Wiig play wealthy adult siblings whose parents (Midler and Lane) cut them off. Suddenly, these two louts are forced to support themselves for the first time. Presumably, it all goes fine and there are no shenanigans whatsoever.

The Odyssey

July 17

Release: Theatrical
Director: Christopher Nolan
Stars: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, and Jon Bernthal

How else could Nolan follow up his Oscar-winning biopic of a man called the “American Prometheus” than with a star-studded epic literally from Greek mythology? Damon leads as Odysseus in this retelling of Homer’s iconic tale, which was filmed entirely with IMAX’s 70mm-film cameras.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

July 31

Release: Theatrical
Director: Destin Daniel Cretton
Stars: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Sadie Sink, Liza Colón-Zayas, Jon Bernthal, Mark Ruffalo, Michael Mando, Tramell Tillman, and Marvin Jones III

Holland’s Spidey will web-sling through the MCU at least one more time in Brand New Day, which picks up after Peter Parker made the whole world forget he existed at the end of No Way Home. He’ll be joined by Bernthal’s dangerous, deadly vigilante, The Punisher, and Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner.

Flowervale Street

August 14

Release: Theatrical
Director: David Robert Mitchell
Stars: Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Maisy Stella, and Christian Convery

A family living in 1980s suburbia suddenly notices strange happenings in their neighborhood. The exact plot details of this sci-fi movie are under wraps, but it sure does seem like it might involve Hathaway fighting dinosaurs.

Coyote vs. Acme

August 28

Release: Theatrical
Director: Dave Green
Stars: John Cena, Will Forte, Lana Condor, P. J. Byrne, Tone Bell, Martha Kelly, Eric Bauza

Despite David Zaslav’s best efforts, Coyote vs. Acme will see the light of day! The live-action-animation hybrid, which was shelved as a tax write-off in 2023 before being saved by another distributor, Ketchup Entertainment, stars Forte as a lawyer representing the ill-fated Looney Tunes character in court when he decides to sue the company that kept selling him products that led to comical injuries.

How to Rob a Bank

September 4

Release: Theatrical
Director: David Leitch
Stars: Nicholas Hoult, Anna Sawai, Pete Davidson, Zoë Kravitz, Rhenzy Feliz, John C. Reilly, and Christian Slater

Leitch’s first movie after The Fall Guy tracks a crew of bank robbers who aren’t just content stealing money; they’ve also got to up those follower counts. After their heists, the thieves post details of their exploits on social media, giving the police who are trying to catch them some infuriating clues.

Sense and Sensibility

September 11

Release: Theatrical
Director: Georgia Oakley
Stars: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Esmé Creed-Miles, Caitríona Balfe, Frank Dillane, Herbert Nordrum, Bodhi Rae Breathnach, George MacKay, and Fiona Shaw

Wuthering Heights doesn’t have a monopoly on period-romance adaptations in 2026, and Sense and Sensibility will (probably) be a lot more normal than Emerald Fennell’s flick. In this take on Jane Austen’s classic novel, Edgar-Jones plays Elinor Dashwood, while Creed-Miles is her younger sister, Marianne.

Practical Magic 2

September 18

Release: Theatrical
Director: Susanne Bier
Stars: Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Stockard Channing, Dianne Wiest, Joey King, Xolo Maridueña, Maisie Williams, and Lee Pace

Bullock and Kidman return as the witches of 1998’s Practical Magic in this sequel, which is based on The Book of Magic author Alice Hoffman’s 2021 follow-up to her original ’90s novel.

Resident Evil

September 18

Release: Theatrical
Director: Zach Cregger
Stars: Austin Abrams, Paul Walter Hauser, Zach Cherry, and Kali Reis

Video-game adaptations may be getting better, but they’re still hardly a sure thing, and Resident Evil’s track record isn’t especially amazing. So why is there reason to be optimistic about this latest take on the iconic zombie-horror video-game series? Weapons director Cregger is behind the camera.

Digger

October 2

Release: Theatrical
Director: Alejandro Iñárritu
Stars: Tom Cruise, Jesse Plemons, Sandra Hüller, Riz Ahmed, Sophie Wilde, Emma D’Arcy, Robert John Burke, Burn Gorman, Michael Stuhlbarg, and John Goodman

For his first role in nearly a decade playing someone other than Ethan Hunt or Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, Cruise is partnering with The Revenant director Iñárritu. Plot details are scarce, but it’s suggested that the film will be a black comedy and involve a frantic race to save the world. (So maybe it’s not that unlike Mission: Impossible.)

Verity

October 2

Release: Theatrical
Director: Michael Showalter
Stars: Dakota Johnson, Anne Hathaway, and Josh Hartnett

Colleen Hoover’s quiet takeover of the box office continues with 2026’s second film adaptation of one of her novels. (Reminders of Him, starring Maika Monroe, comes out in March.) Verity is a psychological thriller starring Johnson as Lowen Ashleigh, a writer who gets a gig ghostwriting the conclusion of a popular book series after the author, Verity (Anne Hathaway), has a mysterious accident. However, Lowen finds a manuscript that has disturbing implications about Verity.

The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender

October 9

Release: Paramount+
Director: Lauren Montgomery
Stars: Dave Bautista, Eric Nam, Dionne Quan, Jessica Matten, Román Zaragoza, Steven Yeun, Taika Waititi, Geraldine Viswanathan, Dee Bradley Baker, Freida Pinto, and Ke Huy Quan

Fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender only got a brief, tantalizing glance of the grown-up Gaang during a flashback in The Legend of Korra, the sequel series to the beloved Nickelodeon fantasy-adventure show. The Legend of Aang, a feature-length animated film, will explore that era for real.

The Social Reckoning

October 9

Release: Theatrical
Director: Aaron Sorkin
Stars: Jeremy Strong, Jeremy Allen White, Mikey Madison, Bill Burr, Wunmi Mosaku, Billy Magnussen, Betty Gilpin, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Anna Lambe, Sierra Capri, Portia Doubleday, and Tehmina Sunny

The Social Network screenwriter Sorkin directs this follow-up (though, unfortunately, without David Fincher’s or Jesse Eisenberg’s involvement) about just how knowingly Facebook made the world a worse place. Oscar winner Madison plays Frances Haugen, a young engineer at Facebook who helped leak some of the site’s most damning secrets. Strong plays Zuck.

Street Fighter

October 16

Release: Theatrical
Director: Kitao Sakurai
Stars: Noah Centineo, Andrew Koji, Callina Liang, Roman Reigns, David Dastmalchian, Cody Rhodes, Orville Peck, Andrew Schulz, Eric André, Vidyut Jammwal, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, and Jason Momoa

The second of two movies based on popular fighting video-game series of the ’90s distinguishes itself from Mortal Kombat II by having a frankly wild cast. Koji and Centineo play Ryu and Ken, respectively, but Momoa plays Blanka, Reigns plays Akuma, 50 Cent plays Balrog, and Peck plays Vega.

Whalefall

October 16

Release: Theatrical
Director: Brian Duffield
Stars: Austin Abrams, Josh Brolin, Elisabeth Shue, John Ortiz, Jane Levy, Emily Rudd

Sometimes the premise of a movie comes along and it just takes your breath away, for better or worse. In Whalefall, a scuba driver is searching for his father’s remains when he is swallowed whole by a sperm whale. Can he find a way to escape from within the belly of the leviathan before his oxygen runs out?

Remain

October 23

Release: Theatrical
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Phoebe Dynevor, Ashley Walters, and Julie Hagerty

Shyamalan came up with the idea for this supernatural romantic thriller with Nicholas Sparks, a collaboration that already feels like something of a twist. (Though, fun fact: Shyamalan nearly wrote the screenplay for The Notebook’s film adaptation.) In Remain, Gyllenhaal plays New York architect Tate, who takes a job on Cape Cod after a personal tragedy. Things take a turn when he meets Wren (Dynevor).

Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew

November 26

Release: Theatrical (and then Netflix)
Director: Greta Gerwig
Stars: Emma Mackey, Carey Mulligan, Denise Gough, and Daniel Craig

Gerwig used her considerable post-Barbie clout to adapt The Chronicles of Narnia for Netflix — and she got the streaming service to agree to an unprecedented theatrical release. It will be in theaters and on IMAX screens on Thanksgiving and won’t hit streaming until Christmas. Although The Magician’s Nephew was the sixth book C. S. Lewis wrote, it’s the first in the series chronologically, which is why Gerwig is starting here rather than with lions, witches, or wardrobes.

Avengers: Doomsday

December 18

Release: Theatrical
Directors: Anthony and Joe Russo
Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Vanessa Kirby, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Letitia Wright, Paul Rudd, Wyatt Russell, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Simu Liu, Florence Pugh, Kelsey Grammer, Lewis Pullman, Danny Ramirez, Joseph Quinn, David Harbour, Winston Duke, Hannah John-Kamen, Tom Hiddleston, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn, James Marsden, Channing Tatum, Pedro Pascal, and Robert Downey Jr.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been on the back foot for a while; perhaps a huge, epic Avengers movie can get fans excited again? For Doomsday, the MCU has brought back the directors of Avengers: Endgame and Downey (though he’s playing the Fantastic Four’s archnemesis Doctor Doom rather than Tony Stark), along with an absurd number of characters from past movies and Fox X-Men films.

Dune: Part Three

December 18

Release: Theatrical
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Stars: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Rebecca Ferguson, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Robert Pattinson

There are a lot more Dune books after Dune: Messiah, the second installment in Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novel series and the basis for Villeneuve’s third film. However, this will be the last movie he’s making, because anybody who has read the Dune books knows this is when things start to get really weird. The story sees Paul “Muad’Dib” Atreides successfully extending his rule as emperor over the known universe, but there are several shadowy factions trying to bring him down — and maybe they’re kind of right to do so.

Werwulf

December 25

Release: Theatrical
Director: Robert Eggers
Stars: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Lily-Rose Depp, Willem Dafoe, and Ralph Ineson

What Eggers did for vampires with Nosferatu he’s doing with the Wolf Man for Werwulf, his latest genre period piece. Set in 13th-century England, Werwulf has Depp, Dafoe, and Ineson — all of whom look pretty gnarly according to some set photos — dealing with Taylor-Johnson’s titular lycanthrope.

The Adventures of Cliff Booth

TBA

Release: Netflix
Director: David Fincher
Stars: Brad Pitt, Timothy Olyphant, Scott Caan, Elizabeth Debicki, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Carla Gugino, Holt McCallany, and JB Tadena

If you predicted that Fincher was going to make a sequel to Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, based on a script by QT himself, for Netflix, then congratulations to you. Pitt reprises his role as Cliff Booth, a stunt double turned personal assistant turned studio fixer making his way through 1977 rather than the late-’60s setting of the original film.

Alpha

TBA

Release: Theatrical
Director: Julia Ducournau
Stars: Tahar Rahim, Golshifteh Farahani, Mélissa Boros, Emma Mackey, Finnegan Oldfield, and Louai El Amrousy

Raw and Titane director Ducournau is back with a new body-horror flick about a teen girl living on the coast of France who may have been infected with a blood-borne disease after getting a tattoo at a party. The disease turns those who are infected into marblelike statues, and her mother is freaked out that her daughter will go the way of her heroin-addicted brother.

Godzilla Minus Zero

TBA

Release: Theatrical
Director: Takashi Yamazaki
Stars: TBA

Godzilla Minus One, the first Godzilla movie ever to win an Oscar, is getting a sequel, with Yamazaki once more directing, writing, and overseeing the special effects. It’s unclear what exactly the King of the Monsters is going to be up to; perhaps he’ll have another kaiju to fight this time around.

Correction: An earlier version of this list included Shrek 5, which has been delayed until 2027.