The 36 Most Anticipated Movies of Summer 2026

First off, it’s nice to know that the Prince of Darkness still has great taste in designers. Second, this sequel to the beloved 2006 rom-com — in which Anne Hathaway dealt with a demanding boss who is definitely not based on anyone in real life, nope, not at all or even a little bit — reunites the Les Mis Oscar-winner with her old co-stars Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, and Stanley “the Tooch” Tucci for more misadventures in the fashion-mag industry. Plus, the original’s director and screenwriter, David Frankel and Aline Brosh McKenna, respectively, are back in the fold as well. Joining the veterans: Lucy Liu, Justin Theroux, Kenneth Branagh, Rachel Bloom, Lady Gaga, and Donatella Versace. Let’s find out if details of an assistant’s incompetence still don’t interest Miranda Priestly, shall we?

A haunted house movie set in Ireland, starring Severance‘s Adam Scott? You have our attention, Neon. We know the who and where; details are scarce on the what, how, and why of this horror film from writer-director Damian McCarthy (Caveat, Oddity). But the production company that gave us that cryptic, crazy-successful marketing campaign for Longlegs a few years ago is back to its old ballyhoo tricks, and this unnerving trailer does indeed do a good job selling this scary movie while giving away exactly nothing.

Did you miss Billie Eilish’s 2025 Hit Me Hard and Soft tour? Not to worry, the “What Was I Made For?” singer has got your back, releasing a feature-length concert movie from her Manchester stop last summer. Bonus: It’s in 3-D. Bonus to the bonus: No less than James Cameron (!) is directing it, which means this is definitely not going to be your usual point-and-shoot rock doc, and that the chance that we may get some Na’vi cameos during “Birds of a Feather” just increased a hundredfold.

The big headturner out of last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, writer-director Curry Barker’s debut feature is a spin on the old when-you-wish-upon-a-monkey’s-paw chestnut: A boy (Michael Johnston) is head over heels for a girl (Inde Navarrette). Worried that he’s stuck in the friend zone, he buys an item at a curio shop that will apparently make his dream of true love come true. It works not wisely but too well. Way, way too well. Barker takes his time with the wind-up, which only makes the eventual shift into high gear that much more of a jolt.

Writer, director, musician, and overall Renaissance man Boots Riley drops his latest satirical smart bomb, in which a group of professional, Oakland-based thieves led by Keke Palmer do battle with a fast-fashion CEO played by Demi Moore. Like Riley’s 2018 feature debut Sorry to Bother You, it’s a wild ride that a genuinely radical political consciousness and a cartoonish absurdism that goes off like a timebomb. Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, LaKeith Stanfield, Will Poulter, Eiza González, and Poppy Liu co-star.

The Star Wars movies begat the Star Wars TV series The Mandalorian, in which Pedro Pascal’s masked interstellar gunfighter must protect a young, Yoda-like child with a unique connection to the Force — and now that show gives us the latest big-screen adventure set in that good ol’ galaxy far, far away. Congrats, Grogu, you’ve graduated to in-the-title status! Sigourney Weaver joins the franchise as a former rebel pilot who now leads the starfighter squad known as the Adelphi Rangers; Jeremy Allen White plays Rotta the Hutt, Jabba’s son (!!!); and the series co-creator Dave Filoni will reprise his exquisitely named X-wing flyboy Trapper Wolf as well.

How many times has this happened to you: You’re on a road trip with your friend, you stop to offer help at a grisly accident, and when you get back on the highway, a demonic presence has stowed away in your vehicle and, y’know, wants to claim your soul? Foundation‘s Lou Llobell and Jacob Scipio are the unfortunate drivers, while Melissa Leo is the resident scholar on the urban legend, because every horror film needs one of those characters. Norwegian director André Øvredal’s resumé includes The Autopsy of Jane Doe and The Last Voyage of the Demeter, which bodes well if you’re hoping this will be more than just cheap jump scares.

You need an extraordinary ear to be a professional piano tuner — and Niki (The White Lotus‘s Leo Woodall), a former prodigy once destined to be a concert pianist, has the best ears in the tuning business. You know what also requires extremely good hearing? Cracking safes. Which, it turns out, Niki is also very good at doing. So when his mentor (Dustin Hoffman) gets sick and needs to cover his medical bills, the young man decides to start up a highly illegal side hustle. Things, as you might guess, get complicated. Oscar-winning documentarian Daniel Roher (Navalny) makes his narrative-filmmaking debut with this tale of music and crime. Havana Rose Liu, Tovah Feldshuh, and Fauda‘s Lior Raz costar.

A24 continues its ongoing mission of creeping you the fuck out with this debut feature from YouTuber/up-and-coming horror auteur Kane Parsons, about a furniture store that is a little bigger than you might guess. Specifically, it has a series of ever-expanding backrooms (see title!) that seem to go on into infinity. If you’ve seen the Parsons’ web series of the same name, you know the drill: found footage, negative space, people freaking out in empty rooms in a way that induces serious existential dread. This time, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value) venture into this liminal nightmare, and… well, we’re guessing it doesn’t end well.

He’s one of the most successful touring comics right now, selling out arenas across America — it was only a matter of time before Nate Bargatze got a starring role in his own movie comedy. Our man Nate plays an everydude who becomes a stay-at-home dad when his wife (Mandy Moore) starts her own business. He is, shall we say, actively learning on the job. So it’s a contemporary version of Mr. Mom starring the really dry, witty guy with the Southern drawl? OK, we’ll bite. Will Forte, Kumail Nanjiani, Kate Berlant, Colin Jost, and Severance‘s Zach Cherry fill out the supporting roster of funny folks.

Everyone knows that D-Day took place on June 6th, 1944, and was a key offensive that helped the Allies win World War II. (I mean, the American education system is pretty abysmal, but it’s not that bad.) What few know is that General Dwight D. Eisenhower had earmarked storming the beaches of Normandy for June 5th — and the whole thing might have been an epic disaster had it not been for James Stagg, a Scottish member of the Royal Air Force who predicted a storm that day and advised them to hold for 24 hours. Yes, this oft-forgotten chapter in WWII history had been transformed into a meteorological thriller, with Brendan Fraser as Ike, Andrew Scott playing Stagg, and Kerry Condon, Chris Messina, and Damian Lewis as various military so-and-so’s.

Just because you can make a film franchise out of a line of toys doesn’t mean you should make a movie franchise out of a line of toys — but that hasn’t stopped Mattel from trotting out this I.P. in the hopes of having its own in-house blockbuster series. You’re either very excited that the adventures of He-Man are getting the full summer-movie treatment or you need to see an ophthalmologist due to injuries incurred from too much eye-rolling. Nicholas Galitzine (Red, White and Royal Blue) is the super-jacked prince who moonlights as the savior of the galaxy; Jared Leto plays his nemesis, Skeletor; Alison Brie is the super-villainess Evil-Lyn; Idris Elba is He-Man’s second in command, Man-at-Arms; Morena Baccarin shows up as a sorceress; and Kristen Wiig voices a robot called Roboto.

What happens when a down-and-out wedding singer (Paul Rudd) and a former boy-band star (Nick Jonas) decide to do an impromptu, just-kickin’-back-no-big-deal jam session? They come up with a song that becomes a big comeback hit for the latter — which naturally inspires a good deal WTF? resentment in the former. Because this is cowritten and directed by John Carney, who’s forged an entire career making feel-good movies about the power of song (see: Once, Begin Again, Flora and Son), we’re going to guess that everything ends on an uplifting note.

Look, if Scream is going to successfully reboot itself and start dropping a gajillion more fracnhise entries, it only makes sense to bring back the parody film series that mocked it, along with a dozen other slasher-flick staples. Marlon and Shawn Wayans return to the screen to rip horror flicks a new one, alongside fellow Scary Movie O.G.s Anna Faris and Regina Hall. It seems the serial killer who terrorized those two “final girls” several decades ago has returned, blah blah blah jokes about pronouns and dildos and M3GAN. Damon Wayans Jr., Anthony Anderson — who you remember was in Scary Movie 3 — and SNL alum like Heidi Gardner, Chris Elliott, and Cheri Oteri clock in for duty as well. We genuinely hope this makes more money than Scream 7.

The thought that Steven Spielberg — the legend behind Close Encounters of the Third Kind and War of the Worlds — was revisiting the watch-the-skies subgenre was enough to get a lot of filmgoers drooling even before the film had an official title. (It was simply listed as “Untitled Steven Spielberg UFO Movie” on Universal’s schedule for months.) Details are still scarce on this mystery sci-fi movie, but we know it has something do with the government covering up the fact that we’ve made first contact with aliens; Josh O’Connor’s mission to disclose everything to the world; and Emily Blunt playing a weather person who appears to be speaking in intergalactic tongues. Colin Firth, Colman Domingo, Eve Hewson, and Wyatt Russell all factor into this too, as do what appears to be self-aware animals trying to nudge their human counterparts into some sort of epiphany. Personally: You had us at “Spielberg UFO Movie.”

Say the name “Robin Hood,” and people think of Errol Flynn, Kevin Costner, a mischievous Disney fox — they probably don’t picture a filthy, bearded Hugh Jackman rolling around the muck and beating people senseless like a medieval berserker. Writer-director Michael Sarnoski (Pig) aims to change all that, however, with a dark, revisionist look at the outlaw in his final years, long past his heyday of robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. Whether this punctures the mythology behind the legend in the green plumed hat remains to be seen, but it won’t be for lack of trying on the filmmaker and Jackman’s part. Jodie Comer, Bill Skarsgard, Noah Jupe and Murray Bartlett join in on the fun.

It’s tough being the new kid in a backwater town, but luckily for Niam (Joe Bird), he’s found a new friend in a blond local named Ryan (Stacy Clausen). It’s apparent to both of them that there’s more there than just being pals, but they soon find themselves on the receiving end of scorn from religious locals, homophobic bigots, conversion therapists — oh, and also a supernatural entity that takes on the form of the one they most desire, a.k.a. each other. Neon nabbed this Australian midnight movie shortly after its premiere at Sundance this past January, and it’s been racking up a lot of buzz at festivals ever since.

John Early (Search Party) pulls triple duty as the writer, director, and star of this comedy about a popular food influencer named Maddie, who, yes, has a secret: She struggles with an eating disorder. We’re not sure whether this is supposed to be mocking the kind of torn-from-the-headlines melodrama that used to populate network movie-of-the-week slots and Lifetime Channel programming, or beat them at their own irony-drenched game… which we’re guessing is kind of the point, right? Kristen Johnson, Vanessa Bayer, and longtime Early collaborator and besty Kate Berlant lend their support.

After a few hit-and-miss swings at non-sequel material, Pixar goes back to the drawing board — get it? — for a sure thing, i.e. milking their O.G., game-changing animated hit for one more go-round. This time, Woody, Buzz, Jessie, and the rest of the gang must contend with their eight-year-old owner’s newest obsession: a smart tablet. Who thinks there might be some messaging about screen time versus play time, how technology is warping kids’ imaginations, and how not even the latest fancy-pants Silicon Valley gadget can truly replace good old-fashioned playthings? Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, John Ratzenberger, Tony Hale, Melissa Villaseñor, and Blake Clark return to voice their characters from the previous movies; Greta Lee, Conan O’Brien, Anna Faris, and Ghostbusters‘ Ernie Hudson are the new talent jumping into the fray.

Olivia Wilde’s first directorial effort since 2022’s Don’t Worry Darling — yeah, yeah, we know, quiet down now, people — centers on two couples gathered together for what’s supposed to be a nice, civil dinner party. Quicker than you can ask who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf, the evening devolves into an airing of marital grievances that that threatens to go nuclear. Wilde and Seth Rogen play one of beleaguered duos; Edward Norton and Penélope Cruz play the other. One of the big hits (and even bigger surprises) out of this year’s Sundance, this is the sort of one-location, star-driven ensemble piece that could have merely been a theatrical exercise — and turns into a truly funny, flithy comedy of manners.

Johnny Knoxville says it best in the trailer: “Twenty-five years, and we haven’t learned a goddamn thing.” The gang best known for being shot out of cannons, administering paper cut to their tongues, and indulging in what they call the “Poo Cocktail Supreme” (please don’t ask) are back for one final round of self-harm for your viewing pleasure. And while they’ve included a number of greatest-hits moments just to remind you of their quarter century’s worth of ridiculousness, Knoxville and friends are including a few new gags — in every sense of the word — for this farewell tour. Three words: “penis shock collar.” You’ve been warned.

Superman viewers probably remember Milly Alcock showing up at the end of James Gunn’s movie as the Man of Steel’s 23-year-old cousin Kara Zor-El, a.k.a. Supergirl — defender of truth, justice, and fighting for her right to party. This cosmic bar-hopper will now anchor the second movie in Gunn’s revamping of the DC Extended Universe, based on Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s comic Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Enlisted by a teen (Eve Ridley) to help avenge the death of her father, our hero with the red cape and the wicked hangover must confront a host of bad guys and deal with the responsibility that comes with being one of the last Kryptonians alive. Jason Momoa trades in his gills for an interstellar biker get-up and a cigar to play Lobo, the fan-favorite badass mercenary. And yes, Krpyto is around to save the day, super-doggy–style, as well. Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya) directs.

You know how couples will joke about the one celebrity crush that they would get a relationship “hall pass” for? It’s all fun and games until one of them actually has sex with that famous person, which is what happens to Gail Daughtry (Zoey Deutsch). In order to repair the relationship between her and her philandering boyfriend, this squeaky-clean good girl must travel into the bowels of hell, a.k.a. Los Angeles, and fulfill her quest to get freaky with her celebrity crush, Jon Hamm. David Wain’s sex farce made a big splash at Sundance, and fans of his old sketch group The State will be stoked to know that roughly half of his old crew pops up — so it’s almost kinda sorta a reunion.

Do not ask, “Did we actually need a live-action version of the 2016 Disney animated film about a Polynesian girl who befriends a demigod and must save her island?” — that way, dear reader, lies only madness. Simply acknowledge the fact that Disney made a ridiculous amount of money off its live-action Lilo & Stitch last year, and that the unsolicited transformation of all your animated favorites into so-so redos with real actors has become an inevitability. We look forward to seeing what Catherina Laga’aia does with the title character, and you’ll now be able to watch Dwayne Johnson give the exact same performance as Maui rather than just listen to him do it. Plus, they got Thomas Kail, producer of Hamilton and one of the creators of Fosse/Verdon, to direct.

Jonah Hill wrote and directed this broad comedy about two spoiled adult siblings (played by Hill and Kristen Wiig) who have lived their whole lives with untold wealth at their fingertips. Then their parents decide that it’s time their offspring learn how to fend for themselves and, well, it’s not called Cut Off for nothing. Hilarity (we hope!) ensues. Bette Midler and Nathan Lane play the tough-love Mom and Pops. Chelsea Peretti and Camila Cabello are in it, too!

What do you do after you’ve revolutionized the superhero genre, cornered the wonky, psychologically dense puzzle-thriller market, and crafted the ultimate biopic on Shiva, Destroyer of Worlds? If you’re Christopher Nolan, you go back to the source — the original epic-poetic narrative of a hero’s journey. Matt Damon is Odysseus, Greek king of Ithaca who battles all sort of perils (witches, sirens, and cyclops, oh my!) so he may be reunited with his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) after the Trojan War. The actor bench is as deep as you’d expect in a Nolan IMAX extravaganza like this: Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Tom Holland, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, Elliot Page, Mia Goth, Jon Bernthal, Samantha Morton, Benny Safdie, John Leguizamo… the list goes on. Go big or go Homer, we always say.

A loose (and we do mean loose) remake of Marco Bellochio’s incendiary 1965 family melodrama Fists in the Pocket, Brazilian filmmaker Karim Aïnouz’s latest centers around a clan who’s just moved to Catalonia to regroup after a major tragedy. When one of the sons introduces a new girlfriend into the mix, an already fraught atmosphere threatens to go Chernobyl. Dig the cast: Elle Fanning, Callum Turner, Riley Keough, Jamie Bell, Tracy Letts, Pamela Anderson, and Lukas Gage.

He (Cooper Hoffman) is a young Angeleno who just scored a plum gig as an artist’s assistant. She (Olivia Wilde) is his new boss, who’s also decided that her new hire will become her “sexual muse.” Considering this cockeyed exploration of intimacy, consent, power dynamics and hot ‘n’ heavy kink comes courtesy of director, co-writer, and New Queer Cinema icon Gregg Arraki (The Living End, The Doom Generation, Mysterious Skin), expect a post office’s worth of envelopes to get pushed before the end credits roll. Charli XCX, Daveed Diggs, The Studio‘s Chase Sui Wonder,s and Scream‘s Mason Gooding co-star.

Your friendly neighborhood arachnid-themed do-gooder is back for yet another adventure involving post-teen angst, great powers equaling great responsibilities, and a whole lotta webslinging. Tom Holland once again dons the mask and Zendaya once again graces the screen as MJ. — except, because of that mass-memory-erase at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter Parker’s soulmate doesn’t remember meeting him, much less being in love with him. Also: Mark Ruffalo will be on hand as the Hulk, Jon Bernthal will reprise his take on the Punisher , and Better Call Saul‘s Michael Mando will introduce the legendary Spidey villain Scorpion into the MCU. Stranger Things‘ Sadie Sink and Severance‘s Tramell Tillman have also been cast in yet-to-be-revealed roles.

Back in the late Seventies, you could be a better-than-average poet and attain minor celebrity in the Lower East Side. For Ed Saxberger (Willem Dafoe), that early tenure in the downtown boho spotlight was followed by decades of obscurity and a solid 9-to-5 gig at the post office. Then our man’s work is “rediscovered” by a group of young poetry enthusiasts, including a woman named Gloria (Greta Lee), who believe he’s the second coming of Rimbaud, and suddenly, the title of filmmaker Kent Jones’ character study makes a lotta sense. Bonus: The screenplay was written by Samy Burch, of May December fame.

There are those who love — like, truly love — the Broken Lizard’s movies about Vermont state troopers who get into all sorts of shenanigans, mishaps, misadventures and, dare we say, straight-up tomfoolery. The 2001 original is a genuine cult movie for a reason, and die-hards flocked to the 2018 sequel; director and B.L. founder Jay Chandrasekhar has parlayed his work on those comedies into an impressive TV career behind the camera (he’s helmed episodes of Community, The Goldbergs, New Girl, Happy Endings). So yeah, why not make it a trilogy? This time, Chandrasekhar’s Thorny has to stop the troopers’ resident d-bag Farva (Kevin Heffernan) from marrying his sister (Hannah Simone). All the guys are back, including honorary Lizard member Brian Cox. Newcomers Chace Crawford, Nat Faxon, and Andrew Dismukes join the fun. Expect more boner jokes and maple-syrup guzzling.

The latest from cult filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw the TV Glow) follows a queer director (Hannah Einbinder) who nabs the plum assignment of remaking-slash-rebooting a classic slasher-flick franchise. Her dream is to get the original film’s lead actor (Gillian Anderson) involved in this new production; when the star agrees to participate, however, things begin to get weird. Very, very weird. Schoenbrun has said that they wanted this valentine to Eighties gorefests feel like a movie “I wish existed when I was a kid… a ‘sleepover classic’ that beckons to unsuspecting viewers from the horror section at the local video store.” We’re so here for this. SNL’s Sarah Sherman, Severance’s Zach Cherry, Sorry Baby’s Eva Victor, and Scream 7’s Jasmin Savoy Brown costar.

We’ve been waiting to see what David Robert Mitchell — the writer-director behind cult hits It Follows (2014) and Under the Silver Lake (2018) — would do next, and the answer is apparently a cryptic sci-fi movie. The logline is simply: “A family in the 1980s starts to notice bizarre happenings in their neighborhood.” Yes, it’s a fairly generic premise that could virtually go anywhere. But given how Mitchell managed to mine gold out of equally stock ideas like “curse is passed from one person to next” and “man stumbles across vast, hidden conspiracy,” our curiosity is piqued about this one. Nice, eclectic group of actors he’s corralled, too: Ewan McGregor, Anne Hathaway, My Old Ass breakout Maisy Stella, Sweet Tooth‘s Christian Convery, The Boys’ P.J. Byrne, The Deuce‘s Chris Coy.

We’re huge fans of writer-director Andrew Patterson’s first movie The Vast of Night (2019), which worked a retro “Watch the Skies!” sci-fi scenario and a slow-burn sense of dread to beautiful effect. So we’re anxious to check out his latest, featuring Matthew McConaughey as a pillar of a rural community running a successful honey-making business in Oklahoma. When a ring of honey thieves target his hives, however, it’s up to his former foster-care ward (Angela LookingGlass) to figure out who’s behind the M.I.A. bees. Loving this supporting cast, too: Kurt Russell, Cole Sprouse, Owen Teague, Tony Revolori, and the great Rob Morgan.

Kristen Stewart and her wife, director Dylan Meyer, cowrote this stoner comedy about two young women — played by Stewart and Alia Shawkat — who get into a heap of trouble over the course of a night. There’s not much information about the movie other than Stewart saying that it’s “so fucking stupid” in the best possible way; Mannequin Pussy recorded a performance that we assume will be part of a set piece; and that Neon will be putting it into theaters near you. Also in the stacked cast: Seth Rogen, LaKeith Stanfield, Kumani Nanjiani, and Tony Hale.

New Ridley Scott joint incoming! The latest from Sir Ridley concerns a pilot (Jacob Elordi) who survives a deadly global pandemic and is left to navigate the postapocalypse with his faithful pooch and a crusty old marine (Josh Brolin) on an airbase. When one of his searches for supplies ends in disaster, he ends up befriending a rancher (Guy Pearce) and his daughter, a doctor (Margaret Qualley). Readers of Peter Heller’s 2012 novel know what’s in store for our hero. The rest of us will have to head to a theater to find out.