Here Are The 15 Most Exciting Movies Of 2026
Keep these upcoming releases on your radar.
This past year was huge for films of every genre. Marvel came back in a major way, the new DC Universe took flight, horror fans were spoiled with instant classics, and international dramas delivered nihilism and heart in equal measure. That upward trend is set to continue in 2026, with Hollywood’s biggest franchises hoping to continue their winning streak. The MCU will deliver its first Avengers movie in half a decade, while box office-dominating directors like Steven Spielberg and Christopher Nolan are debuting new projects. We’ll also get the first Star Wars movie since the sequel saga came to a shaky close, plus a few original epics to help counteract franchise fatigue.
The new year will have something to offer movie fans of any persuasion. Here are Inverse’s 15 most anticipated movies set to debut in 2026.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Behold Jimmy — he is coming with the clouds.
Predicting the future may be “a hazardous occupation,” but that’s exactly what Danny Boyle and Alex Garland are doing by delivering a sequel to 28 Days Later. 2025 marked a triumphant return for the director-writer duo, with 28 Years Later standing tall as one of the year’s best blockbuster horrors. Next year, they’ll pass the baton to Nia DaCosta, who helms The Bone Temple, the second film in a planned trilogy. The adventures of Spike (Alfie Williams) continue, with the young hero reckoning with a murderous cult of Jimmy Savile fans on top of the zombie apocalypse raging all around him. The Bone Temple will further bridge the gap between future and past with the return of Cillian Murphy, making this a must-see for fans of the original film.
Release date: January 16, 2026
Project Hail Mary
Ryland puts the “not” in astronaut.
Realistic space adventures have been few and far between since The Martian, but author Andy Weir is making a comeback with Project Hail Mary. Starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the upcoming film is poised to tell a slightly more comedic (but no less scientifically accurate) story about space travel. Gosling is Ryland Grace, a molecular biologist who mostly puts his expertise to use in the classroom. When he’s selected as the only man capable of solving a galaxy-wide emergency, chaos ensues: Hail Mary follows his misadventures as he navigates space, encounters a benevolent alien, and tries to save the world.
Release date: March 20, 2026
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come
The le Domas family was just the bloody beginning.
Grace McCaullay (Samara Weaving) just can’t catch a break. Sure, it’s been five years since she had to fight for her life against her newlywed husband’s family in Ready or Not, but Ready or Not 2: Here I Come reveals that her ordeal was just the first twisted game of many. The sequel picks up hours after Grace survives her wedding night with the le Domas family, pitching the final girl into another fight for her life. This time, she has to team up with her estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton) and face off against every family in the “High Council,” a cabal that may have made its own deal with the devil. Another game of hide and seek, with “double or nothing” stakes, awaits.
Release date: March 27, 2026
Mortal Kombat II
This franchise is just getting started.
The sequel to New Line Cinema’s Mortal Kombat reboot was originally set to premiere in 2025, but the studio made the call to push Mortal Kombat II to next summer. It’s a strategic move that demonstrates New Line’s trust in this franchise, as audiences are looking forward to seeing fan favorite Johnny Cage reappear in live-action. This time around, The Boys alum Karl Urban is stepping into the shoes of the self-absorbed B-list star. With Cage at the center of a bloody battle royale, Mortal Kombat II is poised to deliver plenty of comedy alongside the carnage.
Release date: May 15, 2026
The Mandalorian & Grogu
Can Din Djarin and Grogu make it on the big screen?
Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu (the moppet formally known as Baby Yoda) have come a long way in the five years since their debut. Their adventures in The Mandalorian began as episodic, small-screen endeavors, but after three seasons on Disney+, they’re headed to theaters. Directed by Jon Favreau, The Mandalorian and Grogu will take the duo on their biggest journey yet. There’s no telling what that adventure will truly entail — aside from the return of Rotta the Hutt, now inexplicably buff and voiced by Jeremy Allen White — but as the first Star Wars film to hit theaters since 2019, it’s a huge milestone.
Release date: May 22, 2026
Disclosure Day
People have a right to know the truth.
From E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind to A.I. and Minority Report, Steven Spielberg’s contributions to sci-fi are unforgettable. That said, it’s been 20 years since he explored the subject of aliens, making his latest film, Disclosure Day, a highly anticipated return. Josh O’Connor and Emily Blunt star in the mysterious project as two of a handful of characters grappling with the arrival of aliens to Earth. The question of how the truth should be revealed to the public seems to be the crux of the conflict here, but plenty of mystery still surrounds the film, making Disclosure Day one of the most intriguing projects on the 2026 slate.
Release date: June 12, 2026
Supergirl
Look out.
James Gunn’s DC Universe kicked off with a bang in 2025, with Superman and Peacemaker establishing a more hopeful tone for the franchise. But 2026 belongs to Supergirl, with Milly Alcock’s Kara Zor-El swooping in to hijack the DCU. Based on the beloved series by Tom King, Supergirl will take DC fans on a sprawling space odyssey, reintroducing the franchise’s other famous Kryptonian as a take-no-prisoners warrior. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows for the Super Family, and Supergirl will show us just how chaotic things can get.
Release date: June 26, 2026
The Odyssey
Christopher Nolan is set to tackle one of humanity’s oldest adventures.
After nearly 30 years behind the camera, Christopher Nolan can do no wrong. His projects have only grown bigger and more complex, and The Odyssey is poised to be the director’s greatest saga yet. Most assumed that the Oscar-winning Oppenheimer would be Nolan’s magnum opus, but his adaptation of the classic Greek epic will challenge that notion. Matt Damon is Odysseus, a legendary warrior fighting to return home after the Siege of Troy. With a ruthless cyclops, sirens, and the entire Greek pantheon to contend with, Nolan’s Odyssey will be the director’s most heightened film, and one of the year’s most exciting projects.
Release date: July 17, 2026
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
After five years, Spider-Man will return.
Where Marvel’s Cinematic Universe gained three new blockbusters in 2025, 2026 will have a slightly slimmer schedule. First, Tom Holland will return for his fourth outing as Spider-Man in Brand New Day, a film that was originally set to premiere in the shadow of Avengers: Doomsday. With scheduling shake-ups pushing Doomsday to the end of the year, Brand New Day now has a lot of heavy lifting to do. By all accounts, it’s set to be a standalone adventure for New York’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, but it’s got plenty of questions to answer about the hero’s new status quo since No Way Home... and how (or if) Spidey will factor into Doomsday.
Release date: July 31, 2026
Clayface
The DCU is giving an underrated villain the spotlight.
The DCU doesn’t yet have a Batman, but one of his oldest villains is still taking center stage. Tom Rhys Harries has been chosen to play Clayface, a B-list stage actor who becomes a shapeshifting entity after a tragic accident. His DCU origin story, written by prolific horror creator Mike Flanagan, is said to take cues from Clayface’s debut in Batman: The Animated Series, but with so much mystery surrounding the project, there’s no telling what plotline or tone it’ll take on. But one thing’s for certain: in James Gunn’s DC Universe, the misfits are slowly stealing the spotlight.
Release date: September 11, 2026
Digger
Tom Cruise stars in his first standalone project in years.
Tom Cruise has spent the better half of the decade keeping two of his biggest action franchises alive. Though the Mission: Impossible saga is seemingly at its end, and there’s no definitive release date for his next aviation adventure, he’s putting his weight behind another worthwhile story by teaming up with an underrated filmmaker. Cruise will next appear in Digger, the latest from Birdman and The Revenant director Alejandro González Iñárritu. The satire will see Cruise flexing his comedic chops as Digger Rockwell, “the most powerful man in the world” who “embarks on a mission to prove that he is the savior of humanity.” If anyone can make this role a meaty one, it’s Cruise, but with an ensemble cast that includes the likes of Sandra Hüller, Riz Ahmed, and Jesse Plemons, we don’t want to miss Digger either way.
Release date: October 2, 2026
Street Fighter
Select your player.
Mortal Kombat didn’t have much competition from other video game remakes when it premiered in 2021, but the same can’t be said for its sequel. Another remake of a popular fighting game is poised to hit theaters just a few months after Mortal Kombat II — fortunately, Street Fighter will deliver an entirely different tone from the heightened gorefest that MK fans are used to. Whether its gonzo, cartoonish stylings (or head-scratching casting choices) are actually what longline fans are looking for remains to be seen, but if nothing else, Street Fighter will certainly serve up some kinetic eye candy to entertain us in the fall.
Release date: October 16, 2026
Dune: Part Three
The Lisan al-Gaib will return, possibly for the last time.
Director Denis Villeneuve has been coy about the future of his Dune saga, but for now it’s safe to assume that Dune: Part Three — also known as Dune: Messiah — will be the last for a while. It will also be the biggest, with Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) embracing his potential as the Emperor of the Imperium and waging a crusade against his naysayers across the galaxy. If Villeneuve stays loyal to Frank Herbert’s novel of the same name, Dune 3 will pick up 12 years after the events of Dune 2, and follow the latest conspiracy that threatens Paul’s reign. If this is Villeneuve’s last Dune movie, it’ll end on an epic note.
Release date: December 18, 2026
Avengers: Doomsday
Avengers new and old are assembling.
Years of careful (and not-so-careful) worldbuilding have led to this. The MCU has been in major flux, but the return of the Avengers — and the rise of a semi-familiar threat — could be enough to restore the franchise to its former glory. Everything old is new again: Robert Downey Jr. is trading his Iron Man armor for Doctor Doom’s mask, while Chris Evans is taking up Steve Rogers’ shield once more to assist the new Avengers in defeating him. Doomsday will be the biggest crossover the franchise has ever taken on, uniting the multiverse against a single villain. So begins the road to Secret Wars, the film that could bring an end to the MCU as we know it.
Release date: December 18, 2026
Werwulf
Lily-Rose Depp reteams with Robert Eggers for Werwulf.
No one makes a monster movie quite like Robert Eggers. His take on Nosferatu was incredibly, delightfully weird, the product of a filmmaker who’s loath to compromise his vision. That staunch commitment to old-timey authenticity will continue in Werwulf. Eggers will reunite with Lily-Rose Depp and Aaron Taylor-Johnson to produce his own take on the werewolf movie, set in 13th-century England and told entirely in Old English (with subtitles provided, of course). It sounds like an incredible undertaking, if a little strange — but if anyone can pull it off and bring curious audiences to the theater on Christmas Day, it’s Eggers.
Release date: December 25, 2026
