Hollywood might be broke, or in disrepair, streaming is wobbling, the franchise machine feels like it’s eating its own tail and the looming fears of consolidation and A.I. have the entire industry wracked with anxiety —but 2026 is quietly stacked with movies that still make the idea of sitting in the dark feel electric. Or at least, a good distraction from the doomsdaying (synergy!) Across the board, it’s a year where busy auteurs are sprinting—Luca Guadagnino, Denis Villeneuve, Christopher Nolan, Greta Gerwig, David Fincher, Asghar Farhadi, Tony Gilroy, Nia DaCosta, and more—while studio IP keeps mutating in strange directions, from superhero epics and monster revivals to video-game brawlers and long-gestating sequels nobody thought would actually happen.
READ MORE: PART TWO: The 150 Most Anticipated Films Of 2026
This year, we’ve expanded the list to 150 picks and divided it into two installments: you’re reading Part One now, with Part Two arriving tomorrow (*nervous laughter*, most likely, anyhow). What follows isn’t a box-office prediction sheet or a franchise worship service (or even necessarily our personal most anticipated list); it’s a temperature check. These are the projects where the cast lists are ridiculous, the directors are swinging hard, and the loglines are already starting arguments in your group chats. Some are giant studio bets, some are nervy mid-budget gambles, some are our twitchy arthouse fare, some are deeply weird passion projects that might never exist in this form again. Taken together, they sketch out what 2026 could look like at the movies: messy, overextended, occasionally absurd—but still, somehow, hopefully, impossible to resist.
The Fall & Winter Film 2025 Preview: 61 Movies To Watch
150. “Scream 7”
Spyglass Entertainment f*cked up so badly with “Scream VI” and the Melissa Barrera–firing debacle that it lost its two stars, Barrera, Jenna Ortega—who walked in solidarity, she was so disgusted—and the film’s director, Christopher Landon, who was scheduled to write and direct the next chapter, but bailed after he lost his franchise star. Original writer Kevin Williamson is back to pick up the pieces, re-recruiting Neve Campbell back into the process. Will the betrayed fans who loved the new franchise direction let them recover after this fiasco? Isabel May, Anna Camp, Joel McHale, McKenna Grace, and Michelle Randolph, along with deceased franchise characters played by Matthew Lillard and Scott Foley, are back. Good luck.
Release Date: February 27, 2026, via Paramount.
149. “Primate”
Johannes Roberts turns to primal horror with “Primate,” a creature feature about a family terrorized by their infected pet chimp. Troy Kotsur, Johnny Sequoyah, and Jessica Alexander star alongside Victoria Wyant and Benjamin Cheng. Shot with Roberts’ trademark close-quarters intensity, it’s a stripped-down survival story of fear, captivity, and chaos in domestic space.
Release Date: January 9, via Paramount Pictures.
148. “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie”
Nintendo and Illumination expand their blockbuster animated universe with “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” a sequel to “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” inspired by games of the same name. Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic return to direct, with a screenplay by Matthew Fogel. The voice cast again features Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, and Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong. Brie Larson and Benny Safdie are the latest additions to the voice cast.
Release Date: April 3, via Universal Pictures / Nintendo / Illumination.
147. “Street Fighter”
Hadouken-level casting and a complete reboot of one of gaming’s most storied brawlers put “Street Fighter” firmly on the 2026 radar. Noah Centineo and Andrew Koji headline as Ken and Ryu, joined by Callina Liang, Jason Momoa, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Joe “Roman Reigns” Anoa’i, David Dastmalchian, Cody Rhodes, Vidyut Jammwal, Orville Peck, Andrew Schulz, and Eric André. Directed by Kitao Sakurai (the hilarious “Bad Trip”) from a script by Dalan Musson, the film is set in 1993, following estranged fighters Ryu and Ken as Chun-Li recruits them into the World Warrior Tournament, where Shadaloo, M. Bison, and a larger conspiracy lurk in the shadows. Co-produced by Legendary Pictures and Capcom, it’s pitched as a tournament movie with big, game-faithful character turns and IMAX-scale spectacle.
Release Date: October 16, via Paramount Pictures.
146. “Mortal Kombat II”
Karl Urban steps into the franchise as Johnny Cage in “Mortal Kombat II,” joining returning fighters Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks, Chin Han, Tadanobu Asano, Joe Taslim, and Hiroyuki Sanada, with Adeline Rudolph, Tati Gabrielle, Martyn Ford, Desmond Chiam, Ana Thu Nguyen, Max Huang, and CJ Bloomfield expanding the roster. Directed again by Simon McQuoid from a script by Jeremy Slater, the sequel finally dives into the tournament proper, pitting Earthrealm’s champions against one another as they try to resist the rise of Shao Kahn and the collapse of their world.
Release Date: May 8, via Warner Bros. Pictures.
145. “Archangel”
William Eubank directs “Archangel,” an upcoming American action film written by Chris Papasadero and Randall Wallace. Starring Jim Caviezel, Olivia Thirlby, Garret Dillahunt, and Shea Whigham, the film centers on a covert military operation that pushes its operatives into morally volatile territory. Produced for Sony Pictures, it continues Eubank’s interest in tension-driven, boots-on-the-ground storytelling, shifting his precision from sci-fi environments to a more grounded tactical arena.
Release Date: November 6, via Columbia Pictures.
144. “OBEX”
Written and directed by Albert Birney, “OBEX” is a lo-fi sci-fi oddity about Conor Marsh (Albert Birney), a recluse whose quiet life with his dog, Sandy, is disrupted when he starts playing a new state-of-the-art computer game called OBEX. When Sandy goes missing, the line between reality and the game blurs, and Conor is forced to venture into the strange world of OBEX to bring her home. Callie Hernandez and Frank Mosley co-star.
Release Date: January 9, via Oscilloscope.
143. “The Magic Faraway Tree”
Enid Blyton’s classic gets a modern family-film overhaul in “The Magic Faraway Tree,” directed by Ben Gregor from a screenplay by Simon Farnaby (“Paddington 2”). A contemporary family is forced to relocate to the British countryside, where the children discover a gigantic, enchanted tree that transports them to a rotation of fantastical lands, each with its own rules and dangers. The ensemble includes Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy, Rebecca Ferguson, Nonso Anozie, Nicola Coughlan, Jessica Gunning, and Jennifer Saunders. Produced by Neal Street Productions, Ashland Hill, and Elysian Film Group, the movie aims for the same emotional, effects-driven sweet spot as Paddington-adjacent U.K. family fare.
Release Date: March 27 in the U.K., no U.S. distribution yet.TBA.
142. “Mercy”
Timur Bekmambetov directs “Mercy,” a near-future courtroom thriller starring Chris Pratt as a man accused of murdering his wife and forced to plead his case before an A.I. judge: RebeccaFerguson, Annabelle Wallis, Kali Reis, and Chris Sullivan co-star. Built as a real-time pressure cooker, the film pits human fear against algorithmic “truth,” turning a trial into a technological trap where every second and decision matters.
Release Date: January 23, via Amazon MGM Studios.
141. “Whalefall”
Brian Duffield, who broke out with the genre-bending “Spontaneous” and followed it with the alien survival thriller “No One Will Save You,” directs “Whalefall,” based on the novel by Daniel Kraus, who co-wrote the screenplay with Duffield. Austin Abrams stars as Jay Gardiner, a scuba diver searching for his father’s remains (Josh Brolin) when a sperm whale swallows him, and he must find a way out before time runs out. The supporting cast includes Elisabeth Shue, John Ortiz, Jane Levy, and Emily Rudd.
Release Date: October 16, via 20th Century Studios.
