The 22 Best Movies of 2026 So Far (and 79 More We Can’t Wait For)

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AS A HUGE fan and follower of both movies and sports, the former has one major advantage: There’s always something to look forward to. As a fan of the New York Jets, I don’t always have that luxury. As a fan of watching films, though, not only is there always something worth my time on the big screen or streaming, but there’s always several flicks down the line that will sound great or intriguing for one reason or another. Will they all turn out great? Of course not. But with sports and movies alike, excitement tends to be all about hope.

After a particularly strong 2025—movies like One Battle After Another and Sinners proved to be true standouts—how does 2026 pick up? With strength and energy, that’s how. While January is traditionally a dumping ground for sub-par movies and silly schlock, this year we were treated by an absolute banger of a post-apocalyptic sequel (in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple), a super fun silly slasher about a killer chimpanzee (Primate), and a return-to-form for one of our favorite directors doing exactly what he does best (Sam Raimi’s Send Help). And that’s not even counting an expansion in theaters for some of our favorite movies of late 2025 like No Other Choice and The Testament of Ann Lee. Believe it or not, January 2026 is a great time for the movies.

And if January is looking that good, the rest of the year should hopefully be able to follow suit. February comes with a number of blockbusters of its own (including the Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi-led Wuthering Heights) and the return of another one of our favorite directors, with the great Pirates of the Caribbean helmer Gore Verbinski returning with Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, his first movie since 2016’s A Cure for Wellness. Again—this is really good stuff for the movies.

We always like to start the year looking at everything coming out in the year to come. That includes everything: Stuff on the calendar already, stuff we suspect will come out this year, and even stuff making noise in places like the Sundance Film Festival. This list will eventually evolve into our list charting the year’s best movies, and, inevitably it will look quite different by the end of the year compared to how it looks now.

For now, we’ve got quite a lot to look forward to. Below, we’ve listed nearly 100 movies on our radar that we think you’ll be really interested in seeing. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll get lucky and they’ll turn out to be as great as they already might be in our minds.

Primate

If you’re interested in a killer chimpanzee B-movie slasher, then Primate is for you. The movie delivers what it promises. Ben the chimpanzee does some very terrible things on screen but it makes for quite an enjoyable experience.

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28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is a direct sequel to last year’s 28 Years Later. And while the great Danny Boyle doesn’t return to direct, the movie is helmed by the more-than-capable Nia DaCosta and once again counts Alex Garland as its screenwriter. The real assets, though, are the movie’s leads: Ralph Fiennes and Jack O’Connell are sensational, magnetic every minute they’re on screen amidst all sorts of post-apocalyptic chaos. Bring on part three.

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The Rip

Here’s a quick pitch for The Rip: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The longtime friends team up once again for The Rip, a cop thriller in the vein of movies you’ve probably seen several times before… but done particularly well. This twisty crime story involves a police team finding a ton of money in a stash house (the titular rip), and figuring out who may or may not be corrupt. In addition to our beloved duo, the cast is shockingly stacked: Steven Yeun, Kyle Chandler, Scott Adkins, and One Battle After Another Academy Award nominee Teyana Taylor are all on board.

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Send Help

SAM RAIMI FANS, ASSEMBLE! For the first time since 2009, the master of gross effects and frenetic cameras is back with an original horror story in Send Help. Rachel McAdams plays a Survivor superfan who gets stuck on an island with her dickhead boss (Dylan O’Brien), and then the antics begin. Think Cast Away meets Misery meets Drag Me to Hell. It’s great stuff.

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The Wrecking Crew

Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista are a pair of cool dudes who, with The Wrecking Crew, set out and did exactly what they intended to do: Make a badass buddy action comedy. The movie finds the pair playing estranged brothers who reunite in Hawaii to investigate their father’s mysterious death; From there, we get lots of jokes, and a lot of (very violent!!!) action. It’s a good time! Honestly, if they want to make a couple sequels to this, I’d be her for it.

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The Moment

Part This Is Spinal Tap, part Josie and the Pussycats, and part Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Moment is Charli XCX’s movie for anyone who enjoys her music, persona, or both. A really fun movie about music, stardom, and celebrity in 2026.

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Pillion

Pillion was technically released initially in 2025 (and was also included on our list of favorite movies of that year), but we didn’t want to miss an opportunity to recommend it to people once again. This unique film follows a man (Harry Melling) who engages in an unexpected BDSM relationship with a biker he meets at random (Alexander Skarsgård). The movie is quite the tonal balancing act, at times funny, intense, raunchy, and heartbreaking, but it all comes together by the end. A delightful movie, and a great showcase for both leads.

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Screened at NYFF63

‘Wuthering Heights’

The classic novel comes to life on the big screen once again, this time from Promising Young Woman and Saltburn director Emerald Fennell, and with Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in the lead roles. Fennell, an Academy Award winner for her work on Promising Young Woman, has both big fans and big detractors at this point—but her take her, while book purists haven’t been thrilled, is a big, visually stunning epic romance. Robbie and Elordi are both up to the task as well, bringing a charged energy to roles that really need it. Alison Oliver, who recently shined on HBO’s Task, is another major highlight in a supporting role. An original soundtrack from Charli XCX helps to set the anachronistic mood and feels like a real cherry on top.

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Crime 101

This action-thriller, based on a book by Don Winslow, looks like a very solid entry in the genre that we’re going to call “Somewhat Resembles a Michael Mann Film.” And reviews have confirmed as much—the movie has often been compared to Heat, and while its tough to compare to Mann’s 1995 masterpiece, we’ll take just about anything in that vein. Look: If someone tells you there’s gonna be a crime thriller in the vein of Heat with Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Halle Berry, and Barry Keoghan leading the cast, how could you not be on board?

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Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die

One of our coolest directors, Gore Verbinski, makes his grand return with Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die—his first movie since 2016’s A Cure For Wellness. If you don’t know Verbinski by name, you should know several of his movies: the original Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, The Ring, and Rango are among the standouts. Good Luck follows Sam Rockwell as a man who claims to be from the future and fighting off a rogue artificial intelligence. While the movie takes some pretty tough and labored tangents into on-the-nose satire, Rockwell’s performance and the practical effects keep the movie afloat as a fun sci-fi romp.

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Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie

Despite the title, you don’t need to know anything else about Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie before going to see it. Sure, this story of two inept dudes in a band who just want to play music at a bar—and go through all sorts of ordeals, including time-travel, to do it—has existed before in both web series and television series form. But you can just go in and laugh and the absolute madness of the movie. Trust us—you’ll have a good time with this one if you’re into “madness that makes you laugh.” This is a long-term passion project of Matt Johnson, who became well known recently for directing the underrated BlackBerry. His brash talent is again on display here.

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How to Make a Killing

We’re always in on Glen Powell, and How to Make a Killing marks his first foray into A24’s world as a leading man. This black comedy neo-noir comes from Emily the Criminal director John Patton Ford and follows Powell as a man who decides to take out a few members of his family in order to increase his chance at making a whole bunch of money via inheritance. The supporting cast joining Powell isn’t too shabby: Margaret Qualley, Jessica Henwick, Ed Harris, and Topher Grace are all along for the fun.

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The Napa Boys

The Napa Boys is a very specific cut for comedy fans. Remember when all those nondescript American Pie direct-to-video sequels were coming out? “American Pie Presents:..”? The Napa Boys imagines itself as one of those: self-impressed raunchy comedy with little tact—crossed, naturally with the wine bro nature of 2004’s Sideways. As a result, we get a movie that presents as a sequel to a franchise that both has long been running out of juice, and, in our world, never was. If you get the truly absurd brand of parody being presented here, you’re going to get a real kick out of it.

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Hoppers

Hoppers feels like a throwback to the golden age of Pixar. Not only is it an original story (at a time when the legendary animation studio has often been leaning into sequels, prequels, and more), but it’s a sweet and funny one at that. Following an animal-lover who uses Avatar-style technology to transfer her consciousness into a robotic beaver body that can discover what animals are thinking and saying, Hoppers actually turns into something of a conspiracy mystery story. With a voice cast that includes Jon Hamm, Dave Franco, and Meryl Streep among others, it’s a fun one for the whole family.

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War Machine

Look. This is one of those movies that you really don’t have to overthink. It’s Alan Ritchson—Reacher himself—taking on a giant alien robot monster thing. This is as much of a throwback to ’80s-style action filmmaking as we’re ever going to get, and it delivers as promised. The fact that the rest of the cast includes staples like Jai Courtney, Esai Morales, and Dennis Quaid is just a bonus.

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Undertone

Undertone has been positioning itself as A24’s next huge horror hit—and we’ll see how it lands. The film follows a supernatural podcaster who gets sent some particularly spooky recordings; Its soundscape has brought tons of hype, with many calling it the scariest experience of the year. A simple premise like that sometimes makes for the best-executed horror movies.

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Project Hail Mary (3/20)

Based on the novel by Andy Weir (who also wrote The Martian), Project Hail Mary is a story of space exploration and a regular guy (played by Ryan Gosling) who gets involved. Phil Lord and Chris Miller (who are responsible for the Spider-Verse movies and directed 21 Jump Street) are behind the camera for this one, which has already proven to be a big, big hit. Gosling is basically on his own out in space for most of this, but it also includes a fun little alien guy named Rocky and a nice supporting performance by Anatomy of a Fall star Sandra Hüller. The visuals here are worth seeing on the biggest screen you can find.

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Ready or Not 2: Here I Come

2018’s Ready or Not was one of the most fun horror films of the last decade, and now eight years later we get to see Samara Weaving’s lead sucked back into the same twisted, bloody, violent games. The supporting cast—including David Cronenberg (!!!), March MH Flex star Elijah Wood, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and The Pitt‘s Shawn Hatosy—is fantastic. The movie kind of keeps with the form of the first Ready or Not, so if you liked that one, you’ll certainly have a fun time with this one.

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Forbidden Fruits

Forbidden Fruits follows a secret coven of witches operating in a shopping mall. Like, guys, some premises you just have to accept for how good they are and see them out. The movie is a campy, fun, twisty turny ride. Understand what you’re getting into—a little bit of horror, a little bit of satire, and some fun twists—and it’s going to be a good time.

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They Will Kill You

Zazie Beetz (Atlanta, Deadpool 2) gets to lead her own horror/thriller movie with They Will Kill You, where she plays a woman who answers a help-wanted ad for a housekeeper in a luxury apartment building, only to find herself fighting for her life. The movie is pretty similar in tone to fellow horror/comedy Ready or Not 2, which we just talked about. But They Will Kill You leans more into its John Wick-style action and Kill Bill style plot, which sets it apart. The supporting cast, which includes Patricia Arquette, Heather Graham, and Industry star Myha’la, make it extra worth it.

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The Drama (4/3)

Robert Pattinson and Zendaya will star together in three films this year, the first of which is A24’s mysterious The Drama. We don’t really even know what this is about, outside of a newly-engaged couple coming into… some problems. The teaser is perfect—it barely tells us anything but is super intriguing—and A24 has already planted some very fun viral marketing. Director Kristoffer Borgli (Dream Scenario) has shown a knack for making weird, darkly funny movies, and this one seems to be just that.

Outcome (4/10)

Outcome stars Keanu Reeves as an actor living a sober lifestyle for five years who comes to realize he’s being blackmailed. Jonah Hill directs and is himself part of a cast that also includes Cameron Diaz, Matt Bomer, David Spade, and more.

The Christophers (4/10)

Steven Soderbergh is, quite frankly, a genius mastermind of cinema. For someone to work as often and as well as he does just speaks volume to how one-of-a-kind talented he is. After releasing two movies in 2025, he’s back once again with The Christophers, a movie about a family who hires a forger to complete their estranged father’s art in order to sell it. Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel lead this one.

In The Grey (4/10)

Talk about working a lot… let’s mention Guy Ritchie. Ritchie’s output the last few years (on both the big and the small screen) has been undeniable, and In The Grey marks his latest major action adventure flick. The movie is about a couple extraction specialists on an adventure, but we’re enticed by the cast, which finds Ritchie reunited with Henry Cavill and Eiza Gonzalez to go along with Jake Gyllenhaal and Rosamund Pike.

Faces of Death (4/10)

A new take on the infamous/iconic 1978 horror film comes to us this April from How to Blow Up a Pipeline director Daniel Goldhaber. The story will now fit into the YouTube video sharing age… which feels ripe for this kind of sick and twisted story. Euphoria star Barbie Ferreira and Stranger Things‘s Dacre Montgomery lead the cast, while Charli XCX also plays a role.

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (4/17)

Another take on The Mummy! Sure! Why not. Lee Cronin’s last effort on Evil Dead Rise was a fun time. If this doesn’t work out, Mummy fans, don’t worry—another entry in the Brendan Fraser-led series is finally in the works too.

Fuze (4/24)

A WWII-era bomb appears in the middle of London, and a frenzy begins in Fuze, the latest movie from Hell or High Water director David Mackenzie. Our hero is played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and he’s working against a team of bank robbers played by Theo James and Sam Worthington. The movie sounds fun and we will certainly be checking it out.

The Devil Wears Prada 2 (5/1)

Well, it’s The Devil Wears Prada 2. Just based on the title alone, you probably know what you’re getting into. This sequel to the beloved 2006 movie will include the whole gang: Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci are all returning. Is this the most Men’s Health movie in the world? No, it most certainly is not. Are we interested in watching it, like the rest of the world? Yes, yes we are.

Hokum (5/1)

Hokum finds Adam Scott in Ireland as an author spreading the ashes of his deceased parents, only to discover that he might be in a haunted house. Scott is on such a heater with Severance that we cannot wait to see how this goes.

Obsession (5/15)

Keep an eye on the name Curry Barker. Barker has been something of a behind-the-scenes rising star in horror movie circles ever since his short film Milk & Serial came out in 2024, and now, his debut feature film, Obsession, is arriving to rave reviews. In short, it follows a guy who finds a supernatural device that will grant him any wish—which he uses to make his lifelong crush fall in love with him. And, well, this is a horror movie, so of course things do not go according to plan.

Poetic License (5/15)

Does the comedy gene run in the family? Maude Apatow (star of Euphoria and daughter of Judd) directs Poetic License, a college movie/academia movie/love triangle movie that finds a pari of college seniors (Cooper Hoffman and Andrew Barth Feldman) fighting for the love of a former therapist played by Leslie Mann (who happens to be Maude Apatow’s real-life mother).

The Mandalorian & Grogu (5/22)

You know what this is. The Star Wars series returns after three seasons in movie form for The Mandalorian & Grogu. It’s the first Star Wars movie since 2019’s not very good The Rise of Skywalker, and we’ll just have to see how things turn out.

I Love Boosters (5/22)

Between his first feature film Sorry to Bother You and his Prime Video series I’m a Virgo, Boots Riley has proven himself to be one of the most unique voices in modern cinema, bringing a really striking style, a unique voice, and a political edge to very specific stories. I Love Boosters focuses on a group who target and shoplift from businesses in order to sell them to others at discounted prices. The cast is sensational, with Keke Palmer, Naomie Ackie, Taylor Paige, LaKeith Stanfield, Don Cheadle, and Demi Moore all on board. This could be one of the year’s coolest movies.

Backrooms (5/29)

The concept of Backrooms began online, with posters and meme lovers just creating creepy ideas about these endless, minimalist, plain liminal spaces. Now, director Kane Parsons—who at 20 is A24’s youngest filmmaker ever—is behind the camera for a feature-length adaptation of the concept, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and newly-minted Oscar nominee Renate Reinsve. He’s an expert on the topic, having created several shorts for his KanePixels YouTube channel, and cultivated a huge following in the process.

Pressure (5/29)

Pressure finds Andrew Scott in one of his most major roles to date, playing a meteorologist named James Stagg—a real guy who delivered a vital weather report ahead of WWII’s D-Day. The movie is based on a 2014 play of the same name, and also stars Brendan Fraser as Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Masters of the Universe (6/5)

This live-action take on Masters of the Universe finds Nicholas Galitzine as Prince Adam/He-Man; In this version of the story, he’s been banished to Earth, and eventually needs to return to Eternia to stop Skeletor and his evil plan. The cast features a number of enjoyable people, including Camila Mendes, Idris Elba, Morena Baccarin, and Kristen Wiig. It does, however, also include Jared Leto as Skeletor—and he has not been part of a successful movie in a while. We will have to see how this one goes!

Power Ballad (6/5)

Power Ballad comes from director John Carney (who was behind the wonderful Once and Sing Street) and is about a conflict between a fading rock star and an also-fading wedding singer. The two leads are Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas, who play the wedding singer and the rock star, respectively.

Scary Movie 6 (6/5)

Scary Movie is actually the sixth film in the Scary Movie series, but in true spoof fashion, it’s following the reboot patterns of Scream (2022), Halloween (2018), and I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) and just going with Scary Movie. Clever! The film’s first trailer gave us what we mostly expected: A lot of goofy, fun humor being thrown around in all directions. But there’s also the most important part: Anna Faris, Marlon Wayans, and Regina Hall (fresh off her turn in One Battle After Another) all return. The last Scary Movie was all the way back in 2013, and so there’s a lot to catch up on; We can tell just from the trailer that the time for movies like The Substance and Sinners to be spoofed has arrived.

Disclosure Day (6/12)

BLOCKBUSTER ALERT! Steven Spielberg returns to his sci-fi mystery roots with Disclosure Day, a totally awesome-seeming blockbuster epic with a script from David Koepp (who last year wrote Black Bag, Presence, and Jurassic World Rebirth, so two out of three being good ain’t bad) about some kind of mysterious visitors on earth. The cast includes Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colman Domingo, Eve Hewson, and Colin Firth. Spielberg is one of the true masters of cinema, and this is right in his wheelhouse—we expect this one to be great.

The Death of Robin Hood (6/19)

A24 has been teasing The Death of Robin Hood, with Hugh Jackman as an old, Logan-style take on the titular character, as one of their big 2026 releases. With Pig and A Quiet Place: Day One director Michael Sarnoski on board, we can expect this to be both fun and exciting but with quite a bit of melancholic depth.

Supergirl (6/26)

James Gunn’s rebooted DCU continues to unfold on the big screen this year with the release of Supergirl, starring Milly Alcock as the titular hero, Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl. The film is directed by Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya) and is at least loosely based on Tom King’s beloved Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow comic. We met Kara at the end of Superman, and she seems like a fun time—and here she’ll run into Jason Momoa, now playing a bounty hunter named Lobo (and not playing Aquaman any longer).

The Invite (6/26)

The Invite, which made its debut at Sundance 2026 and ignited a bidding war among studios (which was eventually won by A24), is Olivia Wilde’s first movie since the drama of Don’t Worry Darling. She sharply shrinks things down here for a single-location story about two couples (Wilde and Seth Rogen along with Edward Norton and Penelope Cruz) having a wild night that starts with a diner party. That’s one hell of an acting quartet, and we’re excited to see what this one is all about.

The Odyssey (7/17)

The movie event of the year will almost certainly be The Odyssey. Christopher Nolan’s film, based on Homer’s ancient greek epic of the same name, comes after the director’s Oppenheimer was both a massive box office smash and basically swept the Oscars. He’ll have free reign with The Odyssey to do basically whatever he wants, and he’s starting with a cast that includes [deep breath] Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, Benny Safdie, John Leguizamo, Himesh Patel, Mia Goth, Elliot Page, Corey Hawkins, Jovan Adepo, and Logan Marshall-Green. Tickets for this movie went on sale a year in advance. There’s no question that 2026 in film revolves around The Odyssey.

Cut Off (7/17)

Jonah Hill is co-writing, directing, and starring in Cut Off, a comedy about a pair of wealthy siblings who need to find their way in the world after their parents cut them off from the family’s funds. Hill has been pretty quiet of late, but his co-star in this is Kristen Wiig, and that seems like a promising combo to us.

Evil Dead Burn (7/24)

Another Evil Dead movie! We’ll watch them all, even if Sam Raimi isn’t directing (though he is still involved as a producer, which is a good sign).

Spider-Man: Brand New Day (7/31)

Spidey is back in 2026 for his first adventure since 2021’s universe-altering No Way Home. Brand New Day picks up where No Way Home left off: No one remembers Peter Parker, and he’s living kind of a raggedy life as Spidey in New York city, working alongside The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) and with Professor Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo, seemingly in a Dylan Baker/Curt Connors type of role from the old Sam Raimi movies). Zendaya and Jacob Batalon return as MJ and Ned respectively, while a pair of TV stars in Stranger Things’s Sadie Sink and Severance Emmy winner Tramell Tillman are joining the fun as well.

One Night Only (8/7)

Will Gluck (Easy A, Anyone But You) is back with another rom-com in One Night Only, although this one is pretty darn high-concept: There’s only one night per year where pre-marriage intercourse is legal, and so a pair of people (Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro) try to find someone. So it’s like The Purge for having sex.

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (8/7)

This trippy take on a slasher film is in the very talented hands of Jane Schoenbrun, who was behind We’re All Going to the World’s Fair and I Saw the TV Glow. The story follows a filmmaker (Hannah Einbinder) who wants to make a new version of her favorite old Friday the 13th-esque slasher movie, and decides she needs its original star (Gillian Anderson) to be in her version. And then things start getting trippy. Schoenbrun’s movies are always compelling and uniquely cool to look at, so we can’t wait to see this dive into a slasher horror and character study hybrid.

Super Troopers 3: Winter Soldiers (8/7)

If the Super Troopers guys want to make us laugh, we’ll never say no.

The End of Oak Street (8/14)

Formerly known as Flowervale Street, this movie has been floating around the ether for a while now, and, after years of talk, it’s finally coming out. And now that a teaser trailer has finally been released, we have an idea of what’s going on: A family (with parents played by Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor) find their entire street transported back to the time of dinosaurs, somehow. Director David Robert Mitchell (It Follows, Under the Silver Lake) is behind this one, but it looks pretty clearly influenced by a certain subgenre of Steven Spielberg film (Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds, etc). We’re very excited to see how this one shakes out.

Coyote vs. Acme (8/28)

What is dead may never die! After Coyote vs. Acme was halfway into its grave and buried after being marked as a tax write-of by Warner Bros., it was saved and set for release by Ketchup Entertainment when they bought the film for a record fee. Coyote vs. Acme is a live-action/animated blend film (think Space Jam) that includes Will Forte and John Cena among its human cast and, well, Wile E. Coyto and Bugs Bunny among its animated cast. Hopefully it lives up to the hype!

The Dog Stars (8/28)

Not only will Jacob Elordi lead an epic romantic drama in February with Wuthering Heights and go to the Oscars in March as a nominee for Best Supporting Actor for Frankenstein, but he’ll also lead a post-apocalyptic thriller directed by Ridley Scott in August. The Dog Stars is based on a book of the same name by Peter Heller, and also includes Margaret Qualley, Josh Brolin, Guy Pearce, and Benedict Wong in its cast. We are very pro-Ridley Scott here at Men’s Health, so we’re going to be in on The Dog Stars.

Cliffhanger (8/28)

This reboot of the Sylvester Stallone mountain climbing flick stars Lily James and Pierce Brosnan, and comes from master of the B-movie Jaume Collet-Serra, who helmed House of Wax, Non-Stop, and Orphan, among others. We expect to be quite entertained, and, at the end of the day, when you go to the movies to watch a mountain climbing heist, what more do you want?

How To Rob A Bank (9/4)

David Leitch (Bullet Train, The Fall Guy) is behind How to Rob a Bank, which follows a group of bank robbers who post about their exploits online—and draw attention from the authorities as a result. The cast is led by a blonde-haired Nicholas Hoult, Pete Davidson, Anna Sawai, Zoë Kravitz, Christian Slater, and John C. Reilly.

Mayday (9/4)

Mayday, which stars Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh as a Navy pilot and the ex-KGB agent who needs to help him survive, comes from Game Night duo John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, and those guys haven’t steered us awry yet. Whatever this is, expect it to be funny and clever.

Clayface (9/11)

One of the year’s most intriguing movies is Clayface, which has a script from horror master Mike Flanagan and is directed by James Watkins. Of course, Clayface is best known as a villain of Batman—this is yet another entry in James Gunn’s rebooted new DCU. The titular character is played by relative unknown Tom Rhys Harries, and we hope that means he’s absolutely knocked it out of the park in the early goings. The movie could be really, really cool.

Resident Evil (9/18)

A little more than a year after the release of his horror masterpiece Weapons, writer-director Zach Cregger will return to theaters to put his spin on Resident Evil. We don’t know just yet how or to what degree the movie will engage with the game or its lore, but we do know that he’s bringing along his old pal Austin Abrams (who also starred in Weapons)to lead the cast—and we couldn’t be more excited.

Digger (10/2)

For the first time in well over a decade, Tom Cruise is leading an original, non-action movie, and it’s Digger, directed and co-written by Birdman and The Revenant‘s Alejandro G. Iñárritu. All we really have to go on for this movie is the short teaser, and the tagline that calls it “a comedy of catastrophic proportions.” Could Tom Cruise be on early Oscar watch? Or will this just be a good time? Who’s to say. But we’ll probably want to be there as soon as possible.

The Social Reckoning (10/9)

16 years later, and The Social Networkis getting a sequel. The Social Reckoning, however, won’t return any of its cast members, and Aaron Sorkin himself will take on directing duties from David Fincher (who will show up a little later on this list). The cast, however, is still strong: Jeremy Allen White, Mikey Madison, and Jeremy Strong (as Mark Zuckerberg) lead the way. The story will follow another fraught period in Facebook’s rocky history, and is based on the book Broken Code by Jeff Horwitz.

Whalefall (10/9)

Weapons reunion! Josh Brolin and Austin Abrams play father and son in Whalefall, a movie about a son (Abrams) looking for his father (Brolin) in the ocean… only to get swallowed by a whale and have to figure out how to escape. Based on a very loved book by Daniel Krause.

Street Fighter (10/16)

We’re doing another Street Fighter movie! If it embraces being campy and fun, it could be a good one—and based on some of the early images released (see attached), it feels like it might be doing just that.

Wild Horse Nine (11/6)

Wild Horse Nine is the newest movie from Martin McDonaugh—known for The Banshees of Inisherin and In Bruges. This film—which clearly maintains the writer/director’s signature blend of dark comedy and thrills—follows a pair of CIA agents (John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell) on a mission to Chile gone wrong. They’re joined by Tom Waits, Steve Buscemi, and Parker Posey, making up an excellent cast in what should be one of the year’s best movies.

The Great Beyond (11/13)

J.J. Abrams is back as the writer and director of his first movie in a while with The Great Beyond, which will star Glen Powell, Jenna Ortega, Emma Mackey, and Samuel L. Jackson. While his last movie was not what we wanted, Abrams is a pretty established master of blockbuster, mystery, and sci-fi storytelling—and this could be a great combination of all of that.

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (11/20)

The Hunger Games franchise will return for its sixth film, Sunrise on the Reaping, based on the novel of the same name. This story follows a young Haymitch (played here by Joseph Zada and by Woody Harrelson in the original films) competing in the games; The movie’s cast is absurd, including the likes of Elle Fanning, Jesse Plemons, Glenn Close, Kieran Culkin, and Ralph Fiennes.

Focker-in-Law (11/25)

The Meet the Parents series returns for the fourth time with Focker-in-Law, the first movie in this series since 2010’s underwhelming Little Fockers. But the spin here is interesting: Greg Focker’s son (Superman‘s Skyler Gisondo) is getting married (to a woman played by Ariana Grande). With Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, and most of the main crrew all returning, this should be a really fun time. Remember how funny Parents and Meet the Fockers were?

Narnia (11/26)

Greta Gerwig’s first project after the massive success of Barbie is a Narnia movie that’s being made for Netflix (and will supposedly have a release in theaters and on IMAX screens as well). Not too much more to get into outside of the fact that it’s said to be based on the novel The Magician‘s Nephew and will have Emma Mackey, Daniel Craig, and Meryl Streep among its cast. After Lady Bird, Little Women, and Barbie, you kind of just have to be on board to check out what Gerwig is doing next.

Dune Part Three (12/18)

After the first two Dune movies adapted the original novel in its entirety, the third (and presumably final) movie of the big-screen Dune trilogy will adapt the second book in the series, Dune: Messiah. Timothée Chalamet will lead the cast once again with Josh Brolin, Anya Taylor-Joy, Florence Pugh, Zendaya, Jason Momoa and Rebecca Ferguson among those returning, while Robert Pattinson joins the cast as the villain. It’s probably worth noting that the title of the film is Dune: Part Three and not Dune: Messiah—Messiah is a pretty cerebral story that jumps forward into the future of Arrakis; It’s quite possible that some significant changes and adjustments are made to the story here.

Avengers: Doomsday (12/18)

In December, we’ll finally get to see how all of this ‘Robert Downey Jr. is back in the Marvel Cinematic Universe but playing Doctor Doom instead of Iron Man’ business will play out. Marvel has already gestured toward the film with a few post-credits scenes (in Thunderbolts and Fantastic Four) and a couple teasers, but outside of that we’re still mostly in the dark. Marvel fans (us included) have fingers crossed that this will be a good one.

Werwulf (12/25)

Director Robert Eggers (Nosferatu, The VVitch, The Lighthouse) is bringing his meticulous period horror approach to Werewolf stories with his newest movie, Werwulf. Just to be pretty straightforward and blunt, it feels very likely that this movie is going to fucking rule as long as you’re someone who likes Eggers’s whole thing. The cast is led by mostly returning Eggers players: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Lily-Rose Depp, Willem Dafoe, and Ralph Ineson. Let’s go.

Jack of Spades (2026 TBA)

Jack of Spades is the next film from Joel Coen (of The Coen Brothers fame), and while we don’t know much about it, it’s said to be a gothic mystery starring Josh O’Connor and Frances McDormand. Sold! Also, look at this photo of O’Connor from the set. How could you not be sold?

The Adventures of Cliff Booth (2026 TBA)

The trailer for Cliff Booth (title still unknown to this point) debuted during the Super Bowl, and it looks like a blast. This quasi-sequel to Once Upon a Time In Hollywood is working with an abandoned script by Quentin Tarantino that will instead be directed by David Fincher. All-in!

Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother (2026 TBA)

With the MCU’s Blade movie inexplicably still on ice, we’re super excited that this year we’ll get to see Mahershala Ali in an action movie called Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother. The movie will be directed by Bassam Tariq, who was the original pick to direct Blade before he parted ways from the project. In a way, this movie kind of feels meant to be—and we hope it’s great.

Paper Tiger (2026 TBA)

Director James Gray (who most recently was behind space drama Ad Astra and period drama Armageddon Time) returns to his crime drama roots with Paper Tiger, a movie about a pair of brothers (Adam Driver and Miles Teller) in pursuit of the American dream who wind up getting involved with the Russian mafia. Scarlett Johansson is another of the movie’s leads.

Good Sex (2026 TBA)

Good Sex is a romantic comedy from writer/director Lena Dunham that centers on a love triangle between Natalie Portman, Mark Ruffalo, and singer Role Model. We are rooting for the rom-com revival!

I Want Your Sex (2026 TBA)

Director Gregg Araki has always been known for his subversive films and their sexual energy—and he’s back at it with I Want Your Sex, which premiered at Sundance 2026. The movie follows an artist (played by Olivia Wilde) who draws a Gen Z dude (Cooper Hoffman) into her web as a sexual muse.

October (2026 TBA)

We don’t have official word, but we’re assuming that October—the latest horror/thriller from director Jeremy Saulnier, who brought us Green Room and Rebel Ridge—will come out in October. The A24 movie will also mark the first leading role for Cory Michael Smith, who played a tremendous supporting role in May December and always delivers when he shows up.

Klara and the Sun (2026 TBA)

Klara and the Sun, based on the Kazuo Ishiguro novel of the same name, is the latest movie from Taika Waititi and stars Jenna Ortega, Natasha Lyonne, Amy Adams, and Steve Buscemi. The movie follows a robot named Klara (Ortega) whose role is to make life easier for the humans she lives with.

Her Private Hell (2026 TBA)

Her Private Hell marks Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn’s first movie since 2016’s The Neon Demon (he’s made television series Too Old to Die Young and Copenhagen Cowboy in the meantime), and it stars Charles Melton, Sophie Thatcher, and Havana Rose Liu in the lead roles. We don’t know much more than that, but given Winding Refn’s involvement, we can assume it will be stylish, sleek, and probably very strange and out there.

Enemies (2026 TBA)

Austin Butler and Jeremy Allen White play a contract killer and a detective on his tail in Enemies, a movie that comes from writer/director Henry Dunham. Dunham isn’t a household name, but he showed a real knack for crime dramas with his underrated 2018 film The Standoff at Sparrow Creek (which is worth checking out if you haven’t seen it). Between Butler and Allen White, we don’t even know who is playing which role, between the killer and the detective; It doesn’t matter, we’re in!

Onslaught (2026 TBA)

We don’t know much about Onslaught, which will mark writer/director Adam Wingard’s return to his The Guest/You’re Next horror-thriller roots after he spent a few years in Godzilla x Kong land. But he is remarkably good at these kinds of movies, and Adria Arjona—who’s had a great run with projects like Hit Man and Andor—is said to be in the lead role. If you saw Blink Twice, you know she can kick ass too. Plus, the always great Dan Stevens is among those also in the cast.

The Young People (2026 TBA)

Oz Perkins has been a workhorse the last few years, with movies Longlegs, The Monkey, and Keeper all releasing since 2024. He’s back again in 2026 with The Young People, which will star Lola Tung, Nico Parker, and Nicole Kidman among others.

The Wrong Girls (2026 TBA)

Kristen Stewart co-writes and stars in The Wrong Girls, a stoner comedy directed by her real-life wife Dylan Meyer. Stoner comedy with Kristen Stewart sounds solid enough on its own, but the movie also includes LaKeith Stanfield, Alia Shawkat, Kumail Nanjiani, and Stoner Comedy Mastermind Seth Rogen among its cast.

Animals (2026 TBA)

Ben Affleck directs, co-writes, and stars in Animals, a movie about a mayoral candidate (Affleck) whose son gets kidnapped, setting an entire thriller plot into motion. It sounds pretty similar to High and Low/Highest 2 Lowest, but with a political thriller angle thrown in. We support Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in their entirety here, and Affleck is usually a damn solid director. So this firmly makes our list.

The Uprising (2026 TBA)

Paul Greengrass—best known for his work on The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum and his shaky camera work—is behind the camera for a movie called The Uprising, which is about the 1381 Peasants Revolt against King Richard II, who was a child king. The stacked cast includes Andrew Garfield, Thomasin McKenzie, Cosmo Jarvis, and Jaime Bell.

Wicker (2026 TBA)

In this movie—which debuted at Sundance 2026—Olivia Colman plays a woman who gets herself a husband (played by Alexander Skarsgård) made out of wicker. Peter Dinklage and Elizabeth Debicki are also part of the cast for this movie that should be quite weird, and with that cast, we hope quite good.

Behemoth! (2026 TBA)

Behemoth! is a drama about a musician (Pedro Pascal) that comes from writer/director Tony Gilroy in the aftermath of his staggering success with the Star Wars series Andor. Pascal is joined in the cast by Will Arnett, Eva Victor, and Olivia Wilde among others. But the sheer combination of Pascal and Gilroy (who was also behind great films like Michael Clayton) has us thinking this could be one of 2026’s very best.

Tony (2026 TBA)

Dominic Sessa has popped up here and there in the time since his breakout role in The Holdovers, but his first real test will come in Tony, an Anthony Bourdain biopic from A24. Normally this kind of thing would seem likely to be generic and even a little craven, but considering this is being helmed by Matt Johnson of BlackBerry fame, it’s promising that this will be unique, interesting, and probably pretty weird.

Fjord (2026 TBA)

Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve are two of the most exciting actors working today, and they have an A Different Man reunion going with their upcoming film Fjord. Quite frankly at this point we’d watch these two in anything.

The Entertainment System Is Down (2026 TBA)

Remember Triangle of Sadness? That surprise Best Picture nominee put the satirical spotlight on rich people aboard a luxury cruise liner, and now director Ruben Östlund likely puts the same lens on… well, seemingly all sorts of regular people. The Entertainment System Is Down follows a bunch of people aboard a long-distance flight when, well, the entertainment system totally stops working. The cast includes Keanu Reeves, Kirsten Dunst, Daniel Brühl, Nicholas Braun, Tobias Menzies, Julie Delpy, and more.

Here Comes The Flood (2026 TBA)

It’s a totally stacked heist movie from City of God director Fernando Meirelles that stars Denzel Washington and Robert Pattinson. I mean, duh!

Ink (2026 TBA)

This timely period drama looks back at when Rupert Murdoch (Guy Pearce) first bought The Sun newspaper—and decided to lean into sensationalism rather than just hard news. Jack O’Connell plays the paper’s editor-in-chief, and Danny Boyle directs. Think Boyle in Steve Jobs mode for this—and it should be really cool.

The Weight (2026 TBA)

Another Sundance 2026 standout is said to be The Weight, starring the one-and-only, never-stopping, Ethan Hawke. Hawke is always busy and tends to pick projects pretty well; The Weight is a Depression-era story about a man on a journey to reunite with his family that involves a gold smuggling situation. It’s drawn early comparisons to movies like William Friedkin’s Sorcerer, which should tell you exactly the kind of gritty, dirty, badass movie we’re dealing with here. Hell yeah.

Artificial (2026 TBA)

Artificial, meanwhile, would seem to be the exact opposite of ‘gritty and dirty. This movie, which reunites Andrew Garfield and director Luca Guadagnino after last year’s After The Hunt brought mixed results, is a bio-drama about Open AI leader Sam Altman. It’s interesting that this movie will come out in a year when a literal Social Network sequel is also on the calendar, because Artificial (which is written by the brilliant and very funny Simon Rich) feels more Social Network-y than anything else. Without any further comment, let me also tell you one bit of casting in this movie: Ike Barinholtz as Elon Musk. Yeah.

Motor City (2026 TBA)

Motor City finds our good friend Alan Ritchson (Reacher) in a revenge thriller that has no dialogue. Intriguing, even though John Woo’s Silent Night with Joel Kinnaman just did the same thing a year and change ago. Ben Foster and Shailene Woodley are also among the cast.

Judgment Day (2026 TBA)

Zac Efron takes Will Ferrell hostage live on television. Good hook, right? Judgement Day finds Ferrell playing a TV judge who gets taken hostage live on the air by an angry man played by Zac Efron. Nicholas Stoller, who was the director of Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Neighbors, is behind the camera on this one.

Famous (2026 TBA)

Efron will also appear in A24’s Famous, from director Jody Hill (Observe and Report, several other projects with Danny McBride). Famous is based on a novel by Blake Crouch and finds Efron playing dual roles: a movie star, and a man who looks shockingly similar to the movie star, and decides to use it to his advantage.

Misty Green (2026 TBA)

Chris Rock directs Misty Green, which he stars in alongside Adam Driver, Anna Kendrick, and Topher Grace, among others. Perhaps most intriguingly, though, Misty Green marks Daniel Kaluuya’s first on-screen role in a while—and we’re excited to see him again.

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass (2026 TBA)

I have a personal rule. If you made Wet Hot American Summer, you will be on any ‘Most Anticipated Movies’ list I ever make. David Wain did, indeed, make Wet Hot American Summer, and so his latest movie, Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, about a woman (Zoey Deutch) who discovers her fiancé used his celebrity sex pass and goes on a journey to get even, makes the list. Jon Hamm and John Slattery playing comical versions of themselves only makes things sound more enticing.

The Shitheads (2026 TBA)

This comedic thriller follows a pair of guys at rock bottom (O’Shea Jackson Jr. and Dave Franco) who are paid to get a rich kid to rehab. Peter Dinklage, Mason Thames, Kiernan Shipka, and Nicholas Braun also star.

The Only Living Pickpocket In New York (2026 TBA)

John Turturro leads The Only Living Pickpocket In New York, which just sounds like an old-fashioned NYC-set thief story, but in our modern technology-centered world. The movie is directed by Rian Johnson regular Noah Segan (and counts Johnson as a producer), and also counts heavy hitters like Giancarlo Esposito, Steve Buscemi, and Tatiana Maslany in its cast.

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