The Most Anticipated Movies of 2026

No director working today commands as much fan attention as Christopher Nolan, and his $250 million adaptation of Homer’s ancient Greek epic is a lock to dominate the box office this July. With a ridiculously stacked cast that includes Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, and more, Nolan’s follow-up to 2023’s Oppenheimer is IMDb’s Most Anticipated Movie of the year. If your memory of the story is fuzzy, "The Odyssey" traces the arduous journey of King Odysseus (Damon) after the Trojan War, as he aims to reunite with his wife Penelope (Hathaway) and son (Holland). Along the way, he and his men encounter a series of perils, from deadly sirens to the cyclops Polyphemus all while navigating dangerous seas and interference from the Gods. To get a sense of how big Universal’s epic is expected to be, IMAX pre-sale tickets went on sale last summer (!).

The actor who launched the MCU returns to get chaotic with the multiverse. Robert Downey Jr. will turn from hero to villain as he dons Doctor Doom’s mask to bring big badness to the rebooted Avengers. Look for the Doomsday storyline to bend logic as the Fantastic Four, those depressed Thunderbolts, various Wakandans, the X-Men, Thor, and somehow/someway both the OG and new Captain America team up against Doom and superhero fatigue. This is Marvel’s best chance to restore the MCU to its former box office glory in a year that kicks off with the summertime release Spider-Man: Brand New Day before the Avengers come home for the holidays. But at this point, can’t we finally get the MCU/DC Universe cross-over movie?

Johnny Cage will be summoned to Outworld in the fan-service sequel to the 2021 reboot that made a brassy decision to stage a tournament without the master of the nut punch. Karl Urban will segue from the final season of "The Boys" to play Cage in Mortal Kombat II, which gathers the video game series' most popular champions and pits them against the warlord Shao Kahn. We've been hearing rumors that Cole Young, the non-canon character and protagonist of the reboot, might hear the "Finish Him!" cry not long into the movie.

Has a superhero ever been so lonely? Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a mood and mode where pretty much everyone on Earth-646 no longer associates Peter Parker with the web slinger, since the spell Doctor Strange cast is still a thing. Plenty of dish has been served about the movie already. Tuned-in fans know who’s playing the supervillain, and there are credible reports of how Tom Holland’s Spidey will stick to the upcoming Avengers sequels. Is it fair to say the story’s themes of isolation and psychological struggle are a bold decision to make in the year where the MCU is working overtime to restore its legacy?

Michael Jackson’s long-awaited big screen biopic finally lands in theaters this spring, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. As recent big-screen biopics Bob Marley: One Love, Rocketman, and Bohemian Rhapsody reinforced, fans will fill theaters to see their favorite music icons’ stories on the silver screen, and no musician has had a global impact like the King of Pop. Tracing the singer’s meteoric rise to stardom in the Jackson 5 to his unprecedented solo career, Jackson is played by real-life nephew Jaafar Jackson, whose performance dazzled attendees at Cinemacon back in April. Despite the positive buzz, Michael comes with some risk, as Lionsgate and director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) attempt to give fans a spectacle that honors the star’s legacy while also addressing the his real-life controversies.

The story of Haymitch Abernathy’s first Hunger Games has been completely eclipsed by the news that Katniss and Peeta will appear in the Sunrise on the Reaping prequel, even though the movie is set more than two decades before the original trilogy. (Suzanne Collins readers already know her fifth and maybe final Hunger Gs novel has a fast-forward section to the Team Peeta era.) The return of Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson is a gift to fans and a coup for the franchise, which we sense will continue to live on, especially if the second prequel bests the first at the box office (which still matters in instances like this). Back to young Abernathy: The role is a score for Joseph Zada, who’s set himself up nicely from “We Were Liars.”

This latest video game adaptation from Legendary and Capcom leapt up near the top of our Most Anticipated list after the teaser trailer dropped at the 2025 Game Awards. Between the hyper-90s video game aesthetics and the insane cast, it’s easy to see why "Street Fighter" fans and action movie-goers alike were eager to learn more. Starring everyone from Noah Centineo and Jason Momoa to 50 Cent and Orville Peck, the movie will reboot the franchise by bringing together the game’s infamous characters to face a deadly conspiracy that must be stopped, or else it’s GAME OVER.

Isn't it crazy that Emerald Fennell invented yearning? The Saltburn director's take on Emily Brontë's classic novel will shine a new light on Catherine and Heathcliff's love story — one that Fennell hopes will be "this generation's 'Titanic.'" Margot Robbie said that some scenes with co-star Jacob Elordi made her "weak at the knees," and if the trailers are any indication, we can assume fans will feel the same way. An epic romance sure to break our hearts, perfectly timed to Valentine's Day ... what's not to love?

Based on Andy Weir's 2021 novel, Project Hail Mary is pretty much what it sounds like: Earth's got one shot at survival, and a high school science teacher-turned-astronaut has to "science the s**t out of this" to save the planet. There's a lot to get excited about with this one: Drew Goddard (who penned The Martian, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and "Daredevil") wrote the screenplay, and Lord and Miller (who brought us The Lego Movie and The Spiderverse) are jumping back in the director's chair after more than a decade to helm this one. Ken Leung, Sandra Hüller, and Lionel Boyce round out the cast.

If you're old enough to remember the Saturday animated "He-Man: Masters of the Universe" or watched the recent Netflix series "Masters of the Universe: Revolution," you might wonder if the live-action update is going to lean more action or camp. But from behind-the-scenes photos, it looks like ParaNorman director Travis Knight might be taking a page from the Barbie playbook with classic "He-Man" characters appearing in the modern world for shenanigans. We're thrilled Nicholas Galitzine is at least sporting the hair and can't wait to see what Jared Leto does with Skeletor.

Milly Alcock stars as Kara Zor-El, the far more antihero-than-hero cousin of Superman in the second film in James Gunn's DC Universe. Being raised on a destroyed Krypton and losing everyone around her explains her baggage, and director Craig Gillespie looks like he's leaning into it. Gunn noted from the trailer premiere, "So many times female superheroes are so perfect. She's not that at all." Based on the comic book miniseries "Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow," Supergirl explores Kara's darker side as she teams up with a young girl seeking revenge for her planet's destruction. Jason Momoa, Eve Ridley, Emily Beecham, and David Krumholtz also star.

Would Woodsboro be as fun without half of the Core Four? The Carpenter sisters, who were played by Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barerra in the last two Scream movies, were conjoined hearts of the truly revitalized franchise; without them, it’ll be curious to see what Scream 7 delivers. Will it be enough for fans to have Sidney Prescott back home again? The movie generated headlines due to the snafus that led to Barerra and Ortega’s departures, and the potentially related pre-production dramas that caused the Radio Silence director team to bail. It seems like Kevin Williamson, the man who started it all, is paying the best fan service he can in the director’s seat again, going so far as announcing that Dewey (David Arquette) will return in some form.

Long before the Backrooms, "Silent Hill" reigned supreme as the big daddy of liminal video game horror. The games’ central story about a fictional Maine town where nightmares manifest was a no-brainer for a movie adaptation, but after two early 2000s features, the franchise went dormant, leaving fans to wonder if they’d ever see the series on the big screen again. So it’s no wonder the third installment in the franchise is among your most anticipated of the year. Releasing 20 years after the first film, Return to Silent Hill draws on the second game’s narrative to tell a dark love story filled with mystery and death.

It’s about to get even more terrifying on the English mainland as Jimmy Crystal makes like A Clockwork Orange and brings his wild bunch to the doorstep of Dr. Kelson’s bone temple. The 28 Years Later sequel, which wisely arrives less than a year after the first movie, picks up right where 28YL left off, with the promise that Cillian Murphy’s Jim will make a “surreal” appearance – that’s how director Nia DaCosta describes it – to set up the third movie in the trilogy, which has been greenlighted by the studio.

The answer is yes. Yes, we need another "Frankenstein" movie already. Director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s take on the Bride of Frankenstein’s story might be the increasingly rare kind of film that gets audiences of all ages to buy movie tickets, from young goths to your parents, who may have been goths too. Have you watched either of the trailers? The romance between the Bride (Jessie Buckley) and Frankenstein (Christian Bale) feels like it shares DNA with Joker (the good one) and maybe Bonnie and Clyde? We’re sensing Gyllenhaal has harnessed the spark of life for her second feature as writer-director and is set to deliver the year’s next no-boundaries romance after Wuthering Heights.

Horror fans hit the search bar hard when they learned about this new horror flick from Sam Raimi, and for good reason. This satisfying satire about survival of the fittest lampoons office culture by giving the under-appreciated Linda (Rachel McAdams) the upper hand after she and a toxic colleague (Dylan O’Brien) are stranded on a tropical island. It’s been well over a decade since Raimi has directed a horror movie, and we’re excited to see the living legend return to the genre that kick-started his career more than 40 years ago. Oh, and yes, you saw that right. Raimi bestie Bruce Campbell looks likely to make a cameo appearance. To that, we say “Groovy.”

Steven Spielberg's next film was another late-breaking addition to our 2026 Most Anticipated list. Although the news of an upcoming sci-fi flick from the legendary director was first reported in spring 2024, not much was known about the alien movie until the trailer dropped in mid-December. Starring Emily Blunt and Josh O’Conner, with a script from David Koepp, the film’s premise will likely remain a mystery until its release — or should we say disclosure — on June 12, 2026.

All of the major players will return for the fifth movie in this Pixar mainstay. This time Woody, Buzz, Jesse, and the gang must contend with Bonnie’s new favorite entertainment: a tablet named Lillypad. Every Toy Story movie has a philosophical question simmering under the surface, and that remains true here. Writer-director Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, WALL-E) says the film is “not even really about a battle so much as the realization of an existential problem: that nobody’s really playing with toys anymore.”

If you’re a betting person, it’s probably safe to put your money down now on this live action adaptation winning the box office when it releases during blockbuster season this summer. The original animated feature was a critical and box office success, and its 2024 follow-up grossed a billion dollars worldwide. With Dwayne Johnson reprising his role as Maui and musical theater veteran Thomas Kail behind the camera, we wager this flick will be fun for the whole family.

Of course you folks are excited for a big screen adventure with this beloved duo. John Favreau and Dave Filoni's series “The Mandalorian” breathed new life into the galaxy far, far away by showing that Star Wars contained more stories than just the ever-expanding Skywalker saga. Now, three seasons in, Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin and his cuddly animatronic companion are headed out on a classic Star Wars adventure to help the New Republic protect everything the Rebellion fought for. Expect Mando and the Child to meet some familiar faces (or voices) along the way, including Sigourney Weaver and Jeremy Allen White as Rotta the Hutt.