David’s Most Anticipated Movies of 2026

In 2025, I was relieved to see superheroes and legacy sequels begin to fade, while there was a major resurgence for the horror genre with Sinners, Weapons, and The Conjuring: Last Rites, among many others. Adult-skewing dramas even seem to be making a comeback as of the last couple months (One Battle After Another, The Housemaid), another trend I hope continues in the New Year. Perhaps 2026 will finally be the year that Hollywood rebounds to its pre-pandemic heights of 2019 (Parasite, Joker, Ford v. Ferrari, Hustlers, Toy Story 4, etc.)

Below are 8 movies I can’t wait to see in 2026:

Primate (January 9)

Hollywood loves to kick off The New Year with a horror flick, and this year’s first wide release is no exception. Primate is a gory creature feature in the vein of Crawl and Cujo, this time putting a violent chimpanzee front and center. The trailer for Primate had me giddy with laughter between the scares, and reviews are strong coming out of the movie’s premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin. Perhaps we have another early January sleeper hit like M3GAN on our hands!

Scream 7 (February 27)

Sidney Prescott (played once again by Neve Campbell) is back as “the final girl” in the iconic slasher franchise’s seventh entry! With original screenwriter Kevin Williamson at the helm and the action returning to a small town (after Ghostface’s NYC killing spree in Scream VI), Scream 7 looks like a return to form for the series. My only concern is the lack of self-aware humor in the first trailer… hopefully the filmmakers are saving the best parts for the movie.

Ready or Not: Here I Come (March 27)

Ready or Not was a pleasant horror surprise in 2019, and this sequel seems to be doubling down on what made the original so fun, at least based on the initial trailer. Samara Weaving returns as Grace, who winds up at the center of another deadly game of hide and seek, this time involving four rival families. The addition of scream queens Sarah Michelle Gellar (I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Grudge) and Kathryn Newton (Freaky, Abigail) to the cast should also entice horror fans!

The Devil Wears Prada 2 (May 1)

20 years after The Devil Wears Prada invented the color cerulean and gave us memorable quotes like “Florals for spring? Groundbreaking…”, Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway are back to slay the runway as Miranda Priestly and Andrea Sachs. The plot details of this follow-up haven’t been revealed yet, but I’m sure audiences are in for plenty of bitchy one-liners, eye-popping fashion, and another Oscar-worthy performance from Streep.

Mortal Kombat 2 (May 8)

2021’s Mortal Kombat was one of the strongest video game adaptations of the last five years, and it didn’t even show the namesake tournament! Therefore, this sequel should be able to deliver the goods, as the trailer promises the introduction of more fan-favorite characters and an actual fighting tournament this time around!

Disclosure Day (June 12)

Steven Spielberg does not play around when it comes to extraterrestrials (War of the Worlds, Close Encounters of the Third Kind), so audiences are in for a treat with Disclosure Day, the iconic director’s newest action-thriller about an alien invasion. Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, and Colman Domingo star. Yay for Universal Pictures betting on an original summer blockbuster!

Verity (October 2)

Anne Hathaway has a busy 2026 ahead, as Verity marks yet another starring vehicle for the Oscar-winning actress. Based on the chilling book by Colleen Hoover, this psychological thriller follows a struggling writer named Lowen as she ghost writes the end of a popular series by author Verity Crawford, who is in a coma. When Lowen discovers an unsettling autobiographical manuscript among Verity’s files, she begins to question fact from fiction and fear for her safety.

Fans of Gone Girl and The Housemaid will not want to miss this one, coming just in time for spooky season.

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (November 20)

Lionsgate threw The Hunger Games fans into a frenzy when they dropped the teaser for Sunrise on the Reaping last month.

This second prequel follows Haymitch (Katniss and Peeta’s mentor from the original trilogy) as he competes in the 50th Annual Hunger Games, a “quarter quell” featuring double the number of tributes. I recently finished the book, and I must say it’s my favorite installment since Catching Fire.

Plus, with a cast like Glenn Close, Elle Fanning, Kieran Culkin, and Ralph Fiennes, you can’t go wrong!

Other highly anticipated releases in 2026:

Office Romance (TBD)

Project Hail Mary (March 20)

The Drama (April 3)

Scary Movie 6 (June 12)

Toy Story 5 (June 19)

The Odyssey (July 17)

Flowervale Street (August 14)