After a pitch-black 2025, audiences approach 2026 with fresh eyes. All the better to watch movies with. Media consolidation continues apace as Netflix and Paramount vie for control of 2025’s hottest and oldest studio, Warner Bros. But before the typical tune of Hollywood nihilism becomes an earworm, let us look forward to a host of new, exciting, and original movies coming to theaters this year. 2026 has no shortage of cinema worth getting excited about. Sure, there are the franchises. New Star Wars, Marvel, and DC movies on the way, but also a refresh of Narnia courtesy of Greta Gerwig, Homer’s Odyssey from Christopher Nolan, and a matter of a Bone Temple that still needs clearing up. Plus, the theatrical returns of Sam Raimi, Steven Spielberg, Gore Verbinski, and Boots Riley? Maybe 2026 will be the year everything turns around. Here are 15 of our most anticipated films of 2026.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (January 16)
The first of two 28 Years Later sequels, The Bone Temple picks up where director Danny Boyle left off. He passes the baton to Candyman filmmaker Nia DaCosta for the latest trip to Zombie Island, which follows up on the previous movie’s gonzo cliffhanger. Spike (Alfie Williams) takes up with the sinister Jimmy Savile enthusiast, Sir Lord Jimmy (Jack O’Connell), as Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) unlocks the secrets of the Alpha (Chi Lewis-Parry). Last year’s legacy sequel overdelivered on terror and surprised with humor, beauty, and grace. Working from another script by series screenwriter Alex Garland, this new film should be a similarly idiosyncratic post-apocalyptic safari.
Send Help (January 30)
A new Sam Raimi horror movie is always cause for celebration, and based on the trailer, he’s bringing the same mean-spirited humor and relentless horror of Evil Dead and Drag Me To Hell to his latest, Send Help. Rachel McAdams plays Linda Liddle, a stinky but capable office drone, unfortunately stranded on a desert island with her awful, useless boss (Dylan O’Brien), who seems to think he’s still in charge. The survival story comes complete with grim irony, plenty of bloodshed, and a Rachel McAdams comedic performance. Who says January is a dumping ground?
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (February 13)
Speaking of directors making an overdue return, Gore Verbinski is back on the big screen for the first time in nearly a decade. Verbinski hopes to wash the lingering taste of The Lone Ranger from his viewers’ mouths with a time-travel-based, AI-battling zombie movie starring Sam Rockwell. Rockwell plays a time-traveler who lands in a L.A. diner hoping to recruit fighters in the war against braindead ChatGPT obsessives. The stylish, kinetic, and satirical trailer looks unlike anything Verbinski has ever made.
Wuthering Heights (February 13)
The trailer for Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights has annoyed the Brontë-heads online, but have they seen what this movie looks like? Each frame of the trailer looks like the cover of a romance novel, shot on sumptuous VistaVision and with plenty of squishy, flesh-like walls for sets. Margot Robbie plays Catherine, and Jacob Elordi is her Heathcliff in the timeless tale of romance and revenge. Fennell appears intent on making the novel’s subtext text with this steamy new take on the classic, but there might not be a better way to spend Valentine’s Day.
The Canadian mockumentary series, which survived the late-’00s webseries boom and late-’10s streaming boom, improbably hits the big screen this year. Directed by and starring Blackberry‘s Matt Johnson, Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie catches up with Matt (Johnson) and Jay (Blackberry composer Jay McCarrol), two best friends who share one dream: to play their beloved Toronto performance space, The Rivoli, with the help of a time-traveling RV. Things go wrong, and they’re transported to 2008, where their mix of man-on-the-street pranks and antagonistic, unhinged humor still reigns supreme.
The Bride! (March 6)
She’s alive! Again! The second major Frankenstein adaptation to come along in six months, director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! has a much juicier concept than Dr. Frankenstein’s daddy issues. (And, hey, this one’s actually coming to theaters.) Transported to 1930s Chicago, The Bride (Jessie Buckley) and The Monster (Christian Bale) hit the road for a Bonnie And Clyde take on the classic with “big dance numbers.” The Bride! has an ambition that cannot be ignored and offers a chance to finally see the monstrous romance the way Mary Shelley intended, sort of.
I Love Boosters (March 12)
The long-awaited sophomore feature from Sorry To Bother You director Boots Riley pits a crew of shoplifters against a fashionista. Little is known about the project, but given it’s been eight years since Riley’s unforgettable filmmaking debut, we’re more than ready for whatever he’s got. So is his cast, which includes Demi Moore, Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, LaKeith Stanfield, Eiza González, Poppy Liu, Will Poulter, and Don Cheadle.
Disclosure Day (June 12)
Steven Spielberg’s long-awaited return to invasion-based science fiction, Disclosure Day recalls his early-2000s Tom Cruise duology, War Of The Worlds and Minority Report. It’s also his first sci-fi story credit since Close Encounters. Despite the latest trailer, what Disclosure Day is exactly about remains undisclosed, save for Emily Blunt playing a meteorologist who becomes a beatboxing conduit for an alien message. Adding to the excitement, Josh O’Connor co-stars, and Spielberg has convinced his longtime collaborator and (briefly retired) composer, John Williams, to return for one final job. Full disclosure: Disclosure Day can’t come soon enough.
The Odyssey (July 17)
Coming off his Oppenheimer Oscar sweep and near-billion-dollar box office haul, Christopher Nolan attempts to outdo himself with the ambitiously practical and appropriately epic The Odyssey. Reportedly the first movie ever shot entirely on IMAX film, Nolan was given the loose leash and unmatched budgets of James Cameron—and by the looks of the trailer, he spared no expense, setting ships on the water and a shadowy cyclone on his warriors. Odysseus’ (Matt Damon) infamous journey home from the Trojan Wars is well documented in Homer’s centuries-old epic, but Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya, and Charlize Theron co-star to make Nolan’s siren call as loud as possible.
Coyote Vs. Acme (August 28)
We’ll continue to put Coyote Vs. Acme on our most anticipated lists until this movie finally comes out. After David Zaslav shelved the movie indefinitely several years ago, the Looney Tunes saviors at Ketchup Entertainment bought it and scheduled it for an August release. (We really hope we’re not jinxing it.) Coyote Vs. Acme follows Wile E. Coyote’s lawsuit against the ACME company after—get this—one of their devices blows up in his face. Will Forte plays Coyote’s lawyer, while a perfectly cast John Cena is the ultimate company man, ACME attorney Buddy Crane. At this point, we don’t care how good or bad this movie is. We just want to see it before an anvil falls on our heads.
Clayface (September 11)
Look, we know Supergirl also opens this summer, and while we’re excited for a new take on Kara—and even more excited for Krypto—this year’s other entry in the new DCU is even more intriguing: Clayface. Co-written by horror maestro Mike Flanagan and Oscar-nominated Hossein Amini, and inspired by the classic Batman: The Animated Series episode, “Feat Of Clay,” the film follows an up-and-coming actor (Tom Rhys Harries) whose career prospects are dimmed after a gangster turns him into a hideous blob man. Harries has big clay shoes to fill, considering how successful Alan Tudyk’s Harley Quinn take on the character has been.
Resident Evil (September 18)
Zach Cregger’s Weapons follow-up feels like a one-for-the-them, a franchise play that can keep Cregger’s original ideas afloat at major studios. But there’s something exciting about one of horror’s biggest names taking on a video game series that’s never been properly adapted to the big screen. Paul W.S. Anderson’s series is distinctly its own thing, and while the other two reboots failed with little notice, Cregger’s involvement has us wondering if this could end up being a real movie. Cregger knows how to make an original horror movie and has a healthy respect for Resident Evil 4. We can only hope that this long-running series is finally in good hands.
Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew (November 26)
Like Clayface, we’re filing Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew under morbid curiosity. Of course we’re excited to see writer-director Greta Gerwig’s Barbie follow-up. We just didn’t expect it to be a series of C.S. Lewis adaptations for Netflix. It’s a passion project for her, and Netflix has committed to giving this Nephew a proper theatrical release to celebrate. Surprisingly, rather than starting with the first book in the series, The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, Gerwig kicks things off with Lewis’ 1955 prequel, which tells of how Aslan created Narnia. At least Gerwig is following Sean Parker’s edict: drop the “The Chronicles Of,” it’s cleaner.
Avengers: Doomsday (December 18)
Speaking of morbid curiosity, there’s a new Avengers coming out in 2026 that’s supposed to bring balance to the shaky Phases Four and Five. The once-untouchable cultural behemoth never recovered from the post-Endgame slump and has spent six years eking out a few hits but mostly misses. Doomsday is a Hail Mary for producer Kevin Feige, who called in favors from (or wrote massive paychecks to) standbys Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, the Russo Brothers, and pretty much anyone who has ever said a word in an MCU film. Let’s just hope they finished the script, because Doomsday is unsurprisingly a Part One of Two.
Dune: Part Three (December 25)
Dune: Part Three sends director Denis Villeneuve and stars Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Robert Pattinson, and Jason Momoa back to Arrakis for some more palace intrigue and revolutionary uprisings. Though technically based on Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah, nothing about how Dune: Part Three has come together suggests that Villeneuve is following the book too closely. Presumably picking up the pieces from Dune: Part Two‘s twist ending, we’re ready to see Chani get Paul’s ass once and for all.
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