Top 10 Most Anticipated Movies of 2026

After a global pandemic, a prolonged writer’s strike in 2023, and continued massive shifts in streaming economics and distribution models, the last five years have felt...let's just say "fragmented" when it comes to the moviegoing business. But 2026 looks like it could (finally?) be the year that the movies start to feel like "the movies" again. Between highly anticipated franchise tentpoles, auteur-driven passion projects, and various different creative swings that actually look to be taking genuine risks, there’s a lot to be excited about this year on both a storytelling level and a pure experiential one.

Below are ten of the films this year that I’m most excited to check out. Some of these movies will absolutely crush; others won’t fully stick the landing. But, to my mind, they’re all aiming for something interesting — and right now, in an era where the movie business feels increasingly like it's designed by an algorithm rather than artistic intent, that counts for a lot.

10. Avengers: Doomsday

Okay, so maybe “excited” is the wrong word here… maybe more like “curious”? Or “nervously expectant”? Or perhaps even just “morbidly fascinated?” Regardless of the verbiage, one thing is for sure: “Avengers: Doomsday” very much represents a make-or-break moment for Marvel Studios, which has struggled in the years since “Avengers: Endgame” to reignite the magic it once so effortlessly wielded, both amongst fans and at the box office.

Bringing back the Russo Brothers to direct and both Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans to star as Doctor Doom and Captain America, respectively, are pretty clear signs that a.) Marvel is well-aware that the new creative swings they’ve attempted since “Endgame” haven’t exactly panned out, and b.) they know they need to course-correct in a big way – namely, by returning to old formulas that they know have worked well in the past. Whether or not the gamble pays off or not remains to be seen, but admit it: you’re 1000% going to be there opening night to see for yourself.

9. Werwulf

Between “The Witch,” “The Lighthouse,” “The Northman,” and “Nosferatu,” director Robert Eggers has more or less spent the last 10 years cementing himself as one of the most singular new auteurs on the film landscape. His newest film, “Werwulf,” is set to take a mythic, period-authentic approach to the werewolf mythos, of all things…and if it’s an Eggers movie, that’s almost certain to mean no shortage of bleak atmosphere, psychological dread, historical grime, and/or era-specific dialogue that basically requires subtitles to understand. So yeah - consider me beyond psyched.

Really, Eggers could direct an adaptation of the phone book, and I’d be there on day one, so the fact that he’s chosen to tackle lycanthropy of all things – ESPECIALLY coming off his spectacular vampire stint with “Nosferatu” - has me more than  little intrigued. Christmas 2026 can’t get here soon enough.

8. Madden

It’s easy to forget, considering both how bad his last movie, 2022’s “Amsterdam,” and how forgettable his film prior to that, 2015’s “Joy,” were…but there was a time when director David O. Russell’s name on a project meant that you were almost guaranteed a certified cinematic banger. Between 2010-2013, the man gave us “The Fighter,” “Silver Linings Playbook,” and “American Hustle”…and let’s not forget his earlier works, like “Three Kings,” “I Heart Huckabees,” and “Flirting with Disaster,” all of which were smart, actor-driven crowd pleasers, the kind of which we don’t get nearly enough of nowadays.

So the fact that Russell is taking on the larger-than-life story of iconic NFL coach/broadcaster/videogame namesake John Madden, with Nicolas Cage in the title role, and Christian Bale playing Raiders owner Al Davis…well, my ticket is already bought. Will this be the comeback that Russell has been seeking? We’ll know here soon enough.

7. Behemoth!

Director Tony Gilroy has spent the better part of the last 10 years in “Star Wars” land, famously coming aboard “Rogue One” late in production to essentially salvage the entire film; he would then go on to create and showrun the acclaimed “Andor,” which just wrapped up last year. But now, he’s back in drama-land, directing a film centered on a cellist (that’s literally all we know, plot-wise), and he’s brought a cast of heavy-hitters – including Pedro Pascal, Matthew Lillard and Olivia Wilde – to back it up.

Gilroy’s directorial debut “Michael Clayton” is, for my money, one of the best films of the last 25 years, and his follow-up “Duplicity” wasn’t half-bad either (let’s all just agree to forget “The Bourne Legacy” happened). Here’s hoping that “Behemoth!” represents a return to the smart, adult-skewing dramas that made Gilroy so essential in the first place.

6. Digger

Since about 2011, Tom Cruise has been, more or less, in “blockbuster mode”: after his infamous coach-jumping//Katie Holmes divorce/contentious Matt Lauer interview/all-around weirdness (I could go on, but suffice to say – the man had a rough couple of years there), Cruise has spent the better part of the last two decades trying to get audiences to forget said tabloid drama by dutifully reminding us that he is, above all else, a genuine, bonafide movie star…one who will do literally anything to entertain. The result has been a slew of mega-hits, from various “Mission: Impossible”'s to a couple of “Jack Reacher”'s to sci-fi excursions like “Edge of Tomorrow” and “Oblivion” – all entertaining, all (mostly) pretty good pieces of cinematic spectacle.

But I can’t be the only one who misses Tom Cruise in “dramatic” mode – it’s been way too long since we’ve seen Tom peel back the layers of a character like he did in the likes of “Magnolia,” “Born on the Fourth of July,” or (my favorite) “Collateral.” “Digger,” from director Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu, promises to be exactly that, detailing “a powerful and influential individual [who] races to convince the world that he can save it from a disaster that he himself set in motion.” It’s a vague logline, but that’s part of what’s so intriguing here: is it a satire? A character study? A deep morality play? All of the above? Of course, the most important question here is - can Tom successfully act his way back to the types of complex roles that he once so easily inhabited, after spending years in franchise overdrive? I honestly have no idea…but like he does with literally everything, I can’t wait to watch him give it his all.

5. Disclosure Day

Like peanut butter and chocolate or movies and popcorn “Steven Spielberg” and “aliens” just go together perfectly. Believe it or not, it’s been nearly 20 years since he last tapped into the genre, with 2005’s “War of the Worlds”; before that, “E.T.,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” and even “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” (remember that one?) all helped cement Spielberg as the undisputed “king” of the alien flick.

So to see him returning to his roots, so to speak, with “Disclosure Day”…well, there’s just a lot to be excited about here. Add in a who’s who of top-tier talent including Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, and Colman Domingo, and a script by David Koeep – who previously paired with Spielberg on “Jurassic Park” - and you’ve got what is, for my money, one of the year’s must-see events.

4. Dune: Part III

Let’s face it: this is the blockbuster to beat this year. Since 2021, director Denis Villeneuve has essentially crafted what is the sci-fi equivalent of “Lord of the Rings,” taking a sprawling, oft-called “unfilmable” book and injecting it with a degree of visual poetry and cinematic energy that has been nothing if not inspiring to absorb. The result has been an exceedingly satisfying couple of movies, and “Part III – which promises to cap off the story of Paul Atreides by adapting elements of “Dune: Messiah” and “Children of Dune” – is no less of an enormously ambitious undertaking.

Whether or not Villenueve can stick the landing is, obviously, up for debate - the last few years have seen no shortage of disappointing trilogy-enders. But if anyone can break the curse, it’s ol’ Denis. Time to spice things up.

3. The Adventures of Cliff Booth

On paper, the idea of a movie directed by David Fincher and written by Quentin Tarantino that ALSO functions as a sequel to Tarantino’s own “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”…well, it kinda sounds like a pipe dream. And yet, real it is – here, Fincher reunites with Brad Pitt for the fourth time (following “Seven,” “Fight Club,” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”) in a neo-noir that is set 8 years after the events of Tarantino’s film, and finds Cliff Booth navigating 1970’s Hollywood in a story that, per Fincher, promises to be significantly grimier and grittier than Tarantino’s sun-drenched original.

Honestly, anything that Fincher touches is automatically a must-watch for me, and the idea of him adapting a script by Tarantino is nothing if not tantalizing. Bring it on.

2. Remain

I’m a die-hard M. Night Shyamalan fan – I make no apologies for it. As someone who was basically raised on “The Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable,” “Signs,” and “The Village” (all four masterpieces, IMO), I’ve long held out hope that Shyamalan might attain the heights of those early-career triumphs once again. And despite some (admittedly major) stumbles along the way, the last few years have been marked by a nice comeback, of sorts, for Shyamalan, with “Split” and “Knock at the Cabin” in particular being strong genre exercises.

But “Remain” – which Shyamalan developed and co-wrote in conjunction with Nicholas Sparks, who also wrote a concurrent novel adaptation that was published in 2025 – sounds like it might potentially be something special, centering around a depressed architect who heads to Cape Cod to design a summer home, only to meet a young woman who disrupts his plans. Romance and supernatural hijinks, naturally, ensue. The cast is great – Jake Gyllenhaal and Phoebe Dyvenor lead the charge here – the premise is intriguing, and Shyamalan is working with a co-writer , something I’ve long advocated he would do well to consider. Maybe I’m a sucker for still holding out hope after all of these years, but I don’t know…this one feels like it could be a real return to form for Shyamalan. And by golly, I’ll never stop believing in the man.

1. The Odyssey

Christopher Nolan adapting the book that we were all forced to read in high school English was, admittedly, not on my bingo card this decade. And yet, here he is, doing precisely that, and with an absolutely stacked cast in tow, including the likes of (deep breath) Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Tom Holland, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong’o, and Jon Bernthal.

Honestly, anything Nolan touches nowadays automatically launches itself to the top of my most anticipated list – the man is very much the modern heir apparent to Steven Spielberg, directing big budget spectacle films for adults that are both thoughtful and technically dazzling. Coming off the phenomenal success of “Oppenheimer,” Nolan could have directed literally anything. The fact that he chose to adapt a mythic epic that most consider to be untouchable is a testament to his ambition as well as his considerable talent.

It’s not even a question – this is THE movie I’m most stoked to see in 2026.

What movies are you excited to see in 2026? Sound off in the comments below.