2026 is shaping up as a blockbuster year dominated by sequels, prequels, remakes, and adaptations drawn from established IP. The lineup spans horror, sci-fi, superheroes, and fantasy, with the industry leaning heavily on franchises and crossovers. Only a handful of standalone original titles are tucked among more than 50 titles, underscoring a year defined by brands and familiar worlds.
At the top of the marquee, the MCU appears ready to go supermassive with Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday, while the DCU's push includes Supergirl and Clayface. Pixar's slate is anchored by Hoppers and Toy Story 5, and Disney is placing its bets on Hexed alongside a live-action Moana. Adult-leaning directors—Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan, Sam Raimi, and M. Night Shyamalan—each have new projects, ensuring a mix of prestige and popcorn thrillers. The horror landscape remains crowded with Primate, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, Evil Dead Burn, Lee Cronin's The Mummy, Zach Cregger's Resident Evil, and Robert Eggers' Werwulf. The animation/genre lineup also glitters with The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Coyote vs. Acme, alongside Hexed and Hoppers, while live-action and animation continue to blend across Disney and its partners.
Streaming originals are also mapped out, with Netflix inviting audiences to The Rip in January, Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician's Nephew heading to streaming later in the year, and a slate of projects from Apple TV and Netflix such as 11817, Enola Holmes 3, Animals, The Whisper Man, The Dink, Being Heumann, and Outcome. The emphasis on high-profile franchises sits alongside a handful of high-concept streaming titles that aim to diversify the year’s rhythm.
January opens the year with Greenland 2: Migration, as Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin return to a ruined Earth in search of a safe haven across Europe, followed by Primate, a fiercely talked-about horror-tinged chimpanzee tale, and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which continues the post-apocalyptic thread with a return to Ralph Fiennes's Dr. Kelson and key players from the original, including Cillian Murphy returning as Jim and Aaron Taylor-Johnson back as Spike. Mercy places a dystopian lens on a detective story framed around an AI judge, while Return to Silent Hill brings Christophe Gans back to the franchise that helped define psychological horror in the early 2000s. Send Help, from Sam Raimi, shifts from the MCU to intimate scares about an abused office worker stranded with a tyrannical boss, headlined by Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien.
February’s slate leans into dense genre fare and prestige property, with Cold Storage pairing Liam Neeson, Joe Keery, and Georgina Campbell against a parasitic fungus in a facility built atop a former military base. Crime 101 follows a jewel thief under a stringent code, based on a Don Winslow novella, while Wuthering Heights reimagines the Brontë tragedy for Valentine’s week with Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi under Emerald Fennell’s direction. Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die, a satire on future tech and human frailty, reunites Gore Verbinski with Sam Rockwell for a dinner-table-to-global-threat narrative, and Psycho Killer spins a road-trip murder mystery with Georgina Campbell again in the cast. Scream 7 returns the franchise to its iconic roots under original scribe Kevin Williamson, with a cast reshuffle that nods to the series’ enduring legacy.
March brings a pair of certainties on the calendar: The Bride! reimagines the Frankenstein myth in 1930s Chicago with Maggie Gyllenhaal at the helm, while Hoppers arrives from Pixar’s We Bare Bears universe, centering a teen who uses technology to become a robotic beaver to defend an endangered habitat. Project Hail Mary, directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller from Drew Goddard’s adaptation, charts a tense, buoyant space odyssey as Ryan Gosling leads a team to avert a solar catastrophe.
April sharpens the balance between big franchises and adventurous experimentation. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie returns for a cosmic excursion with Chris Pratt and Anya Taylor-Joy among the returning voice cast, while Ready or Not 2: Here I Come promises another high-energy horror romp from Radio Silence. The Mummy, directed by Lee Cronin, revisits the classic cursed-city premise with a modern thriller sensibility, and Michael—a biopic centered on Michael Jackson—puts Jaafar Jackson in the iconic role with a screenplay by John Logan.
The May slate deepens cross‑genre appeal: The Devil Wears Prada 2 reunites the original cast for a modern update on fashion-world power, Mortal Kombat II hits martial-arts-smashing scale, and Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu brings Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni’s galaxy-ranging storytelling to the big screen. June’s calendar widens the lens further with Animal Friends, a live-action/animation buddy comedy; Masters of the Universe, a live-action return to Eternia led by Nicholas Galitzine and Idris Elba; Disclosure Day, a Spielberg extraterrestrial thriller with John Williams returning to score; Scary Movie 6 as a meta-horror return; Toy Story 5 reuniting the toy-verse for Bonnie’s latest adventure; and Supergirl anchoring a soft DCU shift with a big-screen presence.
August adds Insidious 6 and Coyote vs. Acme, the latter continuing the live-action/animated dialogue that has fueled streaming debates about production and performance. September pivots toward darker tonalities with Clayface, Resident Evil under Zach Cregger’s renewed gaze, and Practical Magic 2, a mid-September Halloween alternative that leans into witchcraft and sisterhood. October features The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender, a long-awaited expansion of the live-action universe that follows Aang and friends years after the original series, alongside The Social Reckoning, a Fincher-Sorkin collaboration revisiting a watershed moment in tech and privacy, Street Fighter’s 1990s reboot energy, and Remain, M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller about a man confronting personal and spectral turmoil.
November gathers a mix of family-friendly, festival-ready, and franchise-capitalization efforts: The Cat in the Hat introduces a new voice cast for a fresh Seuss-inspired adventure, Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol reimagines Dickens with Johnny Depp in the lead, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping expands the prequel arc, Focker In-Law revisits a beloved comedy universe, and Hexed adds another animation-to-live‑action cross-check in the year’s calendar. December closes with Violent Night 2 delivering holiday mayhem, an Untitled Jumanji Sequel ready to close the Rock-Hart era arc, Avengers: Doomsday enforcing a Kang-era multiverse showdown, Dune: Part Three wrapping Villeneuve’s epic trilogy, and Werwulf bringing Robert Eggers’s signature mythic horror to a medieval England poised between myth and terror.
Alongside the feature slate, streaming originals map a complementary edge to 2026. The Rip on Netflix opens the year with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in a crime drama about turning cash into consequence. Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician's Nephew plans a high-profile Netflix release later in the year, with other titles like 11817, Enola Holmes 3, Animals, The Whisper Man, and The Dink rolling out across Netflix, Apple TV, and related platforms across the year. These titles broaden the year’s footprint, signaling a dual strategy of blockbuster megahits and streamer staples.
The year’s lineup, as assembled here from multi‑source notes, is a deliberate blend of mega-franchises, bold reimaginings, and a few original experiments designed to push box office and streaming into new directions. It’s a calendar built on expectations of spectacle, crossovers, and the enduring appeal of familiar worlds—indeed the name of the game is IP. What are you most looking forward to? Vote in our poll above, and let’s talk in the comments!