Last year was, by all accounts, a cinematic year filled with wall-to-wall bangers. A quick glance at Empire‘s best movies of 2025 throws up the likes of Sinners, Weapons, 28 Years Later, Flow, and One Battle After Another to name just a few. But here’s the crazy thing: we reckon 2026 may just be even better. Yes, with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, DC Studios’ Supergirl, and Destin Daniel Cretton’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day all set to blow up the summer box office, Avengers: Doomsday and Dune both set to face-off in cinemas this Christmas, and new movies from Steven Spielberg, Greta Gerwig, Boots Riley, M. Night Shyamalan, and more well on their way, it’s shaping up to be one hell of a year at the movies.
And so, with an absolute smorgasbord of cinematic delights heading our way in 2026, Team Empire is here to guide you through 41 of the movies we can’t wait to see over the next twelve months. So crack open your notebook, your notes app of choice, or trusty ol’ Letterboxd, and get ready to fill your watchlist with the films we’re all going to be talking about in the weeks and months ahead. See you at the cinema, folks!
41 Must-See Movies Coming Out In 2026
Send Help
(8 February)
Per the genre maestro’s own words, Sam Raimi’s long-awaited return to horror with Send Help is ‘really outrageous’. The movie, penned by Baywatch writing duo Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, sees Rachel McAdams’ downtrodden Linda get to turn the tables on horrible boss Bradley (Dylan O’Brien) when the pair wind up stranded on a desert island together. Eyes peeled for a volleyball called Wilson making a cameo, folks!
Scarlet
(8 February)
Having served up a tech-infused take on Beauty & The Beast with his last movie, Belle, anime auteur Mamoru Hosoda returns this year with a fresh, gender-swapped twist on Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In this telling, a medieval princess finds herself caught in a realm between life and death while questing to avenge her father’s brutal murder.
The Moment
(20 February)
Considering the fact 2026 could be a pivotal moment in Charli XCX’s transition from global pop megastar to global movie megastar, it’s somehow apt that the ‘Brat’ singer’s kicking off the year with an A24 movie called, well, The Moment. A meta cinematic take on the music industry, filmed in and around Charli’s Brat tour, Aidan Zamiri’s film not only stars Charli XCX herself, but a whole host of her famous pals — including Alexander Skarsgård, Rachel Sennott, Rosanna Arquette, Jamie ‘Stath Lets Flats’ Demetriou, and more.
In The Blink Of An Eye
(27 February)
Andrew Stanton movies are, it seems, like buses — you wait a decade for one and then two come along at once. Not only will the Pixar veteran’s hotly anticipated Toy Story 5 be hitting our screens in 2026, but also Disney+ bound In The Blink Of An Eye, an Interstellar, 2001, and Magnolia inspired sci-fi exploring the history of the world through three interconnected (presumably non-toy) stories.
Hoppers
(6 March)
We Bare Bears creator Daniel Chong is saying “Sequels be dammed” with his Pixar feature filmmaking debut, Hoppers, in which a 19-year-old woman transfers her consciousness into the mind of a mechanical beaver in order to infiltrate the animal kingdom and save the local ecology. Sounds barmy, no? It looks nuts, too. And for that reason, we are seated.
The Bride!
(6 March)
Hot on the heels of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein comes Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride!, a genre-bending 30s Chicago-set caper primed to revivify horror cinema’s most iconic bride. Starring Jessie Buckley in the titular role and Christian Bale alongside, this one promises “Murder! Possession! A wild and radical cultural movement! And outlaw lovers in a wild and combustible romance!” She’s alive! Again!
Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man
(6 March)
Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby is back in the saddle, by order of Netflix, in Tom Harper and Steven Knight’s eagerly awaited Peaky Blinders movie, The Immortal Man. Boasting a stacked cast (Rebecca Ferguson! Barry Keoghan! Tim Roth!) and the promise of a cinematic debut that feels ‘like the end of a novel’, prepare for an explosive return to the cobbled streets of Brum.
Project Hail Mary
(20 March)
Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s first directorial outing in 12 years (!) is a buzzy, Ryan Gosling led adaptation of The Martian author Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary. If you’ve read the book, seen the somewhat spoilerific trailer, or watched The Martian, then you’ll already get the hype for this lonely-astronaut-on-an-Earth-saving-mission movie. And even if you haven’t, a Lord and Miller x Ryan Gosling team-up should have us all seated.
They Will Kill You
(27 March)
Zazie Beetz in a chaotic, kinetic, splatty action horror-comedy, pitched somewhere between House Of The Devil, Ready Or Not, and You’re Next? Yes please! Hailing from Why Don’t You Just Die! director Kirill Sokolov, They Will Kill You sees Beetz star as a woman who finds herself fighting for survival in a satanic hotel where she has been offered up as a ritual sacrifice. Suffice it to say, Beetz has other ideas — and they all look like gnarly, wackadoodle, fist-pumping fun!
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
(3 April)
The last Super Mario Bros. Movie grossed a billion dollars at the box office while arguably barely even breaking a sweat. But it seems like someone at Illumination really said “Let’s a-go!” with its sequel, an ambitious-looking adaptation of two of the all-time greatest Mario games that’s set to introduce Brie Larson as fan favourite Princess Rosalina and Benny Safdie as Bowser Jr.
Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come
(10 April)
Forgiving the fact it should just be called Ready Or Not: Here I Come, Radio Silence’s inbound horror comedy sequel — which is set to see Samara Weaving’s final girl Grace team up with sister Faith (Kathryn Newton) to take on more of the murderous Le Domas clan — has us very excited, indeed. Not least because the Sarah Michelle Gellar is in it. Ready Or Not? Here we come!
California Schemin’
(10 April)
James McAvoy makes his directorial debut this year with music biopic California Schemin’, which tells the darkly comic, remarkably true story of Dundee-born rap duo Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd who, under the name Silibil N’ Brains, tricked the world into believing they were Californian hip-hop savants (and childhood pals of one Marshall Mathers — as you do.)
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy
(17 April)
There’s no Rick or Evelyn O’Connell — no Jonathan or Ardeth — to be seen in Lee Cronin’s chilling new take on The Mummy. Framed around the disappearance — and subsequent return some eight years later — of a journalist’s young daughter, Cronin’s twisted reimagining of the horror classic looks set to be a truly gnarly affair. Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, May Calamawy, and Natalie Grace star.
Normal
(17 April)
Bob Odenkirk is a sheriff in a shady town in Ben Wheatley’s deceptively titled action-thriller Normal, which may best be described as looking like a chimeric hybrid of John Wick, Nobody, and the Coen Brothers’ Fargo. And honestly, that sounds like a pretty cool cinematic chimera to us. In Wheatley we trust.
The Devil Wears Prada 2
(1 May)
With sequels in vogue just now, seeing Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway), and Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt) back in high fashion dramedy action always seemed somewhat inevitable. And if the 181 million views The Devil Wears Prada 2’s first teaser racked up on release is anything to go by, then this follow-up could (ce)rule(an) the pre-summer box office, yet.
The Mandalorian & Grogu
(22 May)
Almost seven years since our last big-screen Star War, Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian & Grogu is finally taking us back to that galaxy far, far away in May for a cosmic joyride with everyone’s favourite space-dad-and-adoptive-son duo. Sigourney Weaver’s Star Wars debut, Jeremy Allen White as a Hutt, high-octane New Republic missions, and lots of Anzellans await. Wahey!
Masters Of The Universe
(5 June)
Nicholas Galitzine has the power! To play He-Man, in Travis Knight’s long-gestating, finally almost here Masters Of The Universe live-action movie, that is. Yes, this summer we’re all heading to Eternia as the Bumblebee director — alongside a cast boasting Idris Elba, Morena Baccarin, Alison Brie, Jared Leto, and Kristen Wiig — gives the iconic 80s animated series the blockbuster treatment.
Disclosure Day
(12 June)
Steven Spielberg. Sci-fi blockbuster. Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Wyatt Russell, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, and Colman Domingo. Possibly aliens (hopefully aliens). Honestly, nuff said.
Jackass 5
(26 June)
As the great Johnny Knoxville himself once said, well a wang dang and a hot damn doodle! Turns out Jackass Forever wasn’t a goodbye after all: it was a promise. And sure enough, this summer we’ll be seeing Knoxville, Steve-O, Danger Ehren, Dave Englund, Chris Pontius, Wee Man, and co back on our screens, sacrificing their dignity — and bodies — for our cringing and lols once again in Jackass 5. Bring. It. On.
Supergirl
(26 June)
Cruella director Craig Gillespie is the man in charge — and Milly Alcock is the Kryptonian girl in the cape — in Supergirl, the second movie from James Gunn’s burgeoning new-look DCU. Adapted from the fan-beloved Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow comic run, this True Grit-in-space cosmic caper has all the makings of a banger… and Jason Momoa as badass bounty hunter Lobo. What more could you possibly need?
The Odyssey
(17 July)
In a year that’s set to see The Russos return to the MCU for a big ol’ Avengers ding-dong, it’d take nothing short of an Odyssean epic to rival Doomsday as 2026’s most-hyped blockbuster. Enter Christopher Nolan’s literal Odyssean epic, The Odyssey. Shot entirely in IMAX, Nolan’s latest — starring Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, and many, many more — is primed and ready to deliver a big-screen spectacle of mythic proportions. It’s got an actual Trojan Horse in it, people. An actual. Trojan. Horse. *Squee*
Evil Dead Burn
(24 July)
Upon Evil Dead Burn’s announcement, French filmmaker Sébastien Vaniček (Infested) shared that “I told the studio that I wanted to make a nasty movie, a movie that hurts, from which you come out tested.” And even though we still have no idea what Souheila Yacoub and Hunter Doohan starrer Burn is about, that’s still enough to have us fully in the tank for whatever deadite devilry Vaniček has in store.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
(31 July)
Five months before the Multiverse Saga’s ending begins with Doomsday, Destin Daniel Cretton’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day will be thwipping into cinemas, bringing with it the return of Tom Holland’s friendly neighbourhood web-slinger for a ‘street-level’ blockbuster featuring *checks notes* Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk, Jon Bernthal’s Punisher, Marvin Jones III’s Tombstone, Michael Mando’s Scorpion, and mysterious newcomers played by Sadie Sink, Tramell Tillman, and Liza Colón-Zayas. Yup, super street-level Destin…
Flowervale Street
(14 August)
It Follows and Under The Silver Lake director David Robert Mitchell is back back back this summer with Flowervale Street, a fresh new feature that’s shrouded in near-total mystery. Reportedly centred around a family in the eighties who start noticing ‘bizarre happenings’ in their neighbourhood, Mitchell’s movie stars Ewan McGregor, Anne Hathaway, Christian Convery, and Maisy Stella. *Whispers* It also might have dinosaurs in it. Lots of dinosaurs.
Clayface
(11 September)
Clayface wasn’t even on DC Studios head honcho James Gunn’s radar until genre master Mike Flanagan turned in a script he immediately fast-tracked into production. And now we’re just months out from Speak No Evil director James Watkins’ movie, which follows a B-movie actor (Tom Rhys Harries) who starts taking a mysterious formula to maintain relevance and subsequently finds himself undergoing a monstrous transformation. Clearly somebody never watched The Substance. Sheesh!
Resident Evil
(18 September)
©Getty Images
After the one-two punch of Barbarian and Weapons, for Zach Cregger’s next trick he’ll be tackling iconic survival horror franchise Resident Evil. Taking its cues from the tone of Resident Evil 3 and 4 in particular, Cregger’s movie — a full reboot for the film franchise — is set to see Austin Abrams, Paul Walter Hauser, Zach Cherry, and Kali Reis taking on zombie hordes in an original Resi story.
Digger
(2 October)
After (seemingly) signing off as Ethan Hunt with Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning last year, Tom Cruise is back this October in Alejandro G Iñárritu’s ‘comedy of catastrophic proportions’, Digger. If the reported premise of Cruise playing the world’s most powerful man as he tries to avert self-made disaster had our curiosity, then the teaser for the movie — which sees our man TC dancing (and digging) in a fetching pair of cowboy boots — got our attention.
Other Mommy
(9 October)
Right on time for Halloween, Rob Savage (Host, Dashcam) is here to scare our pants off again with Other Mommy. Based on Josh Malerman’s 2024 book Incidents Around the House, Savage’s latest – starring Jessica Chastain, Jay Duplass, Karen Allen, and Arabella Olivia Clark — follows a young girl and her family as their home comes under threat from a supernatural entity.
The Social Reckoning
(9 October)
If you’d have told us this time last year we’d be getting a sequel to The Social Network written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, then… well, actually, in the current climate we’d probably believe it, honestly. Still, we are very intrigued to see how Sorkin’s movie — led by Jeremy Strong, Jeremy Allen White, Mikey Madison, and Betty Gilpin — tackles The Wall Street Journal’s 2021 ‘Facebook Files’.
Remain
(23 October)
M. Night Shyamalan and Nicholas Sparks may seem like a bit of an odd pairing on paper, but Remain — the duo’s ambitious multimedia supernatural romantic mystery thriller — may wind up being the cinematic equivalent of hot honey… a sweet treat with a twist and a kick. Jake Gyllenhaal and Phoebe Dynevor star in the movie, which explores the strange connection a grieving architect forms with a mysterious woman staying at the same B&B as him.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping
(20 November)
Ever since we first learned that Hunger Games prequel novel Sunrise On The Reaping would be getting the Francis Lawrence adaptation treatment, anticipation has been building to see Haymitch Abernathy’s infamously brutal Games play out on screen. And with a constellation of stars assembled, from newcomer Joseph Zada’s Haymitch, to Ralph Fiennes’ Coriolanus Snow, to Jesse Plemons’ Plutarch Heavensbee, we reckon the odds may ever be in Lawrence’s favour here.
Hexed
(27 November)
Josie Trinidad (Zootropolis+) and Jason Hand (Moana 2) share the directors’ hotseat on Hexed, an original animation that follows an awkward teenage boy as he and his mother “discover that what makes him unusual might just be magical powers that will turn their lives and a secret world of magic, upside down.” If the Mary Blair inspired concept art is anything to go by, this may be a sleeper banger.
Avengers: Doomsday
(18 December)
The Russo Brothers. Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom. A cast so insane it took a five-hour livestream to reveal it. The beginning of the Multiverse Saga’s grand finale, Avengers: Doomsday is aiming high, gunning for a cinematic event the likes of which we haven’t really seen since Infinity War and Endgame. And based on the Steve Rogers, Thor, X-Men, and Fantastic Four/Wakanda teasers dropped already, those crazy guys may well pull it off. Avengers fans… assemble!
Dune: Part Three
(18 December)
Unless slates shift, 18 December won’t just be Doomsday — it’ll also be _Dune_sday. Yes, Denis Villeneuve’s time on Arrakis is set to come to a head with the Quebecois filmmaker’s adaptation of Dune: Messiah, which will continue to tell the story of Timothée Chalamet’s Paul “Muad’Dib” Atreides, now Emperor, as he navigates a Holy War and seeks to consolidate power across the universe. Oh, and Robert Pattinson is playing a shapeshifting transhuman Face Dancer baddie called Scytale, so there’s that too.
Godzilla Minus Zero
(2026 TBA)
With 2023’s Godzilla Minus One, writer-director Takashi Yamazaki gave everybody’s favourite atomic lizard a grounded, humanist reboot that took the legendary kaiju back to his post-war Japan roots. It was, by all metrics, a monster-sized — not to mention Oscar-winning — success. And this is the sequel to that, so we can’t bloody wait to see it.
Greta Gerwig’s Narnia
(2026 TBA)
Officially, all we actually know about Greta Gerwig’s Narnia is that it’s releasing in IMAX cinemas on 26 November and due to start streaming on Christmas Day — which, in fairness, is enough to have us seated already. We also are however fairly sure that Emma Mackey, Carey Mulligan, Daniel Craig, and Denise Gough will star in Gerwig’s take on C.S. Lewis’ first Chronicle of Narnia, The Magician’s Nephew, with rumours of Meryl Streep voicing magical lion Aslan still not officially debunked just yet. So, again, very much seated. Turkish Delight, anyone?
I Love Boosters
(2026 TBA)
Boots Riley’s latest provocation — a sci-fi comedy about a band of shoplifters with a ruthless fashion guru in their crosshairs — will be dropping in 2026. And while we know very little else about the Sorry To Bother You filmmaker’s latest, its banging ensemble has us all kinds of locked in. Demi Moore! Keke Palmer! Naomi Ackie! Lakeith Stanfield! Will Poulter! You get the gist… we love I Love Boosters already.
Mayday
(2026 TBA)
Dungeons & Dragons duo Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley are switching gears for Apple Original action-adventure Mayday. Led by Ryan Reynolds (and co-starring Kenneth Branagh and Maria Bakalova), the duo’s movie centres around an American soldier who, while flying over Soviet Russia, crashlands and finds himself fighting for survival. If this comes anywhere close to Reynolds’ last survival movie, Buried, then we’ll be in for a treat.
Ray Gunn
(2026 TBA)
For over thirty years, Ray Gunn has been little more than a dream — an unblinking twinkle in writer-director Brad Bird’s eye. But this year, finally, the Incredibles and Ratatouille auteur’s passion project — a hardboiled, animated sci-fi noir centred around the world’s last human PI, Raymund Gunn — is finally coming to our screens courtesy of Skydance and Netflix. Dreams do come true, folks… they really do.
The Adventures Of Cliff Booth
(2026 TBA)
Talking of dreams coming true courtesy of Netflix, 2026 is also about to deliver David Fincher’s Quentin Tarantino penned The Adventures Of Cliff Booth, which — you guessed it! — continues the adventures of Brad Pitt’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood stuntman. Elizabeth Debicki, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Carla Gugino, and Holt McCallany are among the stars aligned for Fincher’s 70s-set caper.
Wildwood
(2026 TBA)
Laika is heading back to Portland this year with Wildwood, the Oregon-based animation studio’s self-proclaimed ‘hardest film yet’ An adaptation of Colin Meloy’s wildly popular YA fantasy book, a sort-of American Narnia in which a plucky teen heads into an enchanted forest to save her kidnapped baby brother, Travis Knight’s Wildwood could be a real stop-motion gamechanger. Also! Its voice cast is remarkable, featuring the likes of Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett, and actual Tom Waits!
