Spoiler alert. There will be sequels. There will be colons. Audiences are inching their way back to pre-Covid numbers, and the studios are keen to hang on to them with a ragout of familiar favourites. Sit tight for a restaffed Captain America: Brave New World (due in cinemas on February 14th), the widowhood-negotiating Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (February 14th), many digitised hours of Avatar: Fire and Ash (December 19th), and Tron: Ares (October 10), the belated sequel to the 2010 film Tron: Legacy, itself the belated sequel to Tron, from 1982.
Wicked Part Two is due to magic its way into cinemas on November 21st. The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection will arise at Easter. But how? Its star Jim Caviezel can no longer pass for 33. Nobody on the outside knows anything about the plot. But Mel Gibson is an enthralling director. We await with interest. We’ll be saying all of our novenas for Freakier Friday (August 8th) to be good, so that Lindsay Lohan can escape Christmas movies. Another mystery on the 2025 sequel horizon: are we getting a Star Trek sequel-slash-reboot? We’d quite like one. Whatever happened to Quentin Tarantino’s pitch for Star Trek 4? Can we have that?
If only we were similarly enthused about The Accountant 2 (April 25th). Who on earth wanted Den of Thieves: Pantera (pencilled in for January)? Mortal Kombat 2 (October 24th)? Another Knives Out movie (late 2025)? Downton Abbey 3 (September 13th)? Of course, these movies could all be tremendous and life-changing, but ... we can’t think of a way to end this sentence.
The IP plunder will continue apace with a live-action How to Train Your Dragon (June 13th) plus reboots of Superman (July 11th), The Naked Gun (July 18th), Fantastic Four (July 25th), Blade (November 7th), Final Destination (release date to be announced), I Know What You Did Last Summer (July 18th) and The Karate Kid (May 30th). Spin-offs include the John Wick adjunct Ballerina (June 6th) and The Boys prequel, Vought Rising (date to be announced).
As ever, the year begins with awards season’s heavy hitters, including Brady Corbett’s superb The Brutalist (January 24th) and the fascinating, first-person-shot adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel The Nickel Boys (January 3rd). Be warned: dates can change. See you at the movies.
The Amateur
Rami Malek is a CIA cryptographer on a one-man mission to track down the terrorists who killed his wife. Due in cinemas on April 11th
April
An antinatalist Georgian gynaecologist faces an investigation after a newborn dies in Dea “Beginning” Kulumbegashvili’s singular Venice prize-winner. To be announced
Babygirl
Halina Reijn, the hot, hot, hot film-maker behind Bodies Bodies Bodies, directs an award-winning Nicole Kidman in this outrageously kinky office romance between the star’s chief executive and intern Harris Dickinson. January 10th
Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story
Jessie Buckley voices O’Brien as director Sinéad O’Shea reconstructs the late author’s life and writings from letters, journals and novels. January 31st
The Ballad of a Small Player
Colin Farrell’s con artist flees the UK for the gambling tables of Macao, where he passes himself off as a runaway lord in Edward Berger’s follow-up to Conclave. Netflix; to be announced
The Battle of Baktan Cross
An all-star cast (including Leonardo DiCaprio) assembles for Paul Thomas Anderson’s top-secret countercultural adventure, which may or may not be an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland. August 8th
The Bride
Maggie Gyllenhaal reimagines The Bride of Frankenstein in 1930s Chicago with Jessie Buckley in the title role. September 26th
The Brutalist
In Brady Corbet’s masterpiece – and there’s some competition for that title – Adrien Brody’s architect charts a path between the Holocaust, the American dream, artistic vision and Zionism. Epic. Essential. January 24th
Bugonia
A bumbling conspiracy theorist and his girlfriend kidnap a chief executive in Yorgos Lanthimos’s English-language remake of the cult 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet! November 7th
Conjuring Finale: Last Rites
We will surely miss this $2 billion franchise. Especially for Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as the paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. September 5th
The Damned
In 19th-century Iceland a widowed fisherwoman (Odessa Young) must choose to risk lives for a ship wrecked on the coast. Strange occurrences follow. Scripted by Jamie “Pilgrimage” Hannigan. January 10th
Die, My Love
Lynne Ramsay directs a dark postpartum-psychosis comedy starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson. To be announced
Eddington
Ari Aster directs Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal and Emma Stone in a mysterious and contemporary New Mexico western. To be announced
[ The 50 best films of 2024 – a full list in reverse orderOpens in new window ]
Emmanuelle
How did Audrey Diwan follow Happening, her Golden Lion-winning abortion drama? With a reboot of this creaky old soft-porn franchise starring Noémie Merlant. January 17th
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2
Matthew Lillard is back in the Blumhouse sequel to the popular cult-video-game adaptation. Not to be outdone, fellow Gen X star Ethan Hawke will return for The Black Phone 2 from the same imprint. November 11th and October 17th, respectively
Flow
Gints Zilbalodis’s already highly decorated and Oscar-tipped animation follows a cat and various animal companions across a flooded postapocalyptic world. Magical. March 1st
Fréamhacha
An agency carer and her elderly charge bond with spooky results in the first feature-length Irish-language horror from The Devil’s Doorway’s Aislinn Clarke. To be announced
The Gorge
Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy are snipers patrolling the mysterious expanse of the title. Apple TV+; to be announced
Grand Tour
In Miguel Gomes’s brilliant Cannes prize-winner a jilted British heroine follows her runaway fiance around Rangoon and the Far East at the end of the first World War. To be announced
Him
Veteran American football player Marlon Wayans coaches Tyriq Withers in a creepy isolated compound. September 19th
I Love Boosters
Sorry to Bother You innovator Boots Riley returns with a shoplifting-gang comedy starring Demi Moore and Keke Palmer. To be announced
I Want Your Sex
Trailblazing Gregg Araki’s first feature since 2014 stars Cooper Hoffman as Olivia Wilde’s sexual muse. To be announced
I’m Still Here
Eunice Paiva investigates her husband Rubens’s disappearance in Walter Salles’ true-life drama tackling deaths and disappearances during Brazil’s military dictatorship. February 7th
Julie Keeps Quiet
The star player at an elite tennis school says nothing when her predatory coach is suspended in Leonardo Van Dijl’s cleverly written, Cannes prize-winning debut. February 21st
Jupiter
Russian auteur Andrey Zvyagintsev returns after ill health with a twisty tale about an oligarch and his family. To be announced
The Last Showgirl
Activist and all-around good egg Pamela Anderson takes on the role of a lifetime as an embattled Las Vegas hoofer. February 28th
The Legend of Ochi
In a remote village, a young girl is raised to fear the forest creatures that prowl around after dark. Then she adopts one of them. Willem Dafoe and Emily Watson star. February 28th
The Life of Chuck
Mike Flanagan directs Tom Hiddleston in the Toronto People’s Choice-winning adaptation of the Stephen King novella. To be announced
Love Hurts
The violent past of Ke Huy Quan’s real-estate agent comes back to haunt him. February 7th
M3gan 2.0
The popular killer dancing robot is back on the rampage and is seeking out her former family. June 27th
Materialists
A dating agency is compromised when the founder ends up in a toxic love triangle in Celine Song’s starry follow-up to Past Lives. To be announced
Mickey 17
Bong Joon-ho’s much-delayed follow-up to Parasite stars Robert Pattinson as an expendable clone sent on a dangerous mission. April 17th
A Minecraft Movie
The malevolent Ender Dragon sets out on a path of destruction, and it’s every block for itself. April 4th
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
The eighth film in the sequence is, confusingly, the sequel to the underperforming but well-reviewed Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. Final? Are we sure? May 21st
The Monkey
The talented Osgood Perkins adapts Stephen King’s tale of a vintage toy monkey, many murders and estranged brothers. February 21st
Mother Mary
David Lowery directs Anne Hathaway in a melodrama about a pop star and her costume designer. Charli XCX does the tunes. To be announced
Predator: Badlands
Elle Fanning uncovers evidence of a horrifying marauding-alien past in the dino-rich ground of the title. Bring back Prey! November 7th
Presence
Lucy Liu’s family discover they are not alone when they move into a new house in Steven Soderbergh’s Amityvillian thriller. January 24th
The Running Man
Edgar Wright directs a remake of the 1980s movie set in “the futuristic United States of 2025 when the world has become a dystopia”. Ahem. Glenn Powell occupies the Arnie-shaped hole. November 21st
Saipan
The talented directing couple Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D’Sa dramatise historical handbags between Roy Keane (Éanna Hardwicke) and Mick McCarthy (Steve Coogan) ahead of the 2002 World Cup. To be announced
Saw XI
Tobin Bell is back in the 11th instalment of the homespun torture-porn sequence. But how? That’s for him and Mel Gibson’s Jesus to answer. September 26th
Snow White
Trump enemy Rachel Zegler stars in Disney’s reboot of its first animated feature, in an iteration that looks much closer to the swashbuckling feminism of Snow White and the Huntsman. March 21st
Souleymane’s Story
Nervy Cannes prize-winning thriller about a Parisian food-delivery cyclist and asylum seeker prepping for a make-or-break interview to secure legal residency. January 17th
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
When an Iranian judge’s gun vanishes, he leans on his wife and children in a nerve-shredding Cannes prize-winner that genuflects before The Shining. To be announced
Thunderbolts
Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour and Wyatt Russell lead the newest gang of superheroes in the 26th film from the Marvelverse. May 2nd
The Way of the Wind
Move over, Mel. Terrence Malick has his own Jesus movie, starring Géza Röhrig as the popular resurrectionist and – wait for it – Matthias Schoenaerts as St Peter, Mark Rylance as Satan and Aidan Turner as St Andrew. To be announced
The Wedding Banquet
The closeted gay drama that launched Ang Lee’s career in the US is remade with Lily Gladstone. To be announced
Wolf Man
Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner attempt to repair their marriage in rural Oregon only to discover an ancient family curse. January 17th
You’re Cordially Invited
Planners Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon discover they are double-booked for their destination weddings. Amazon; January 30th
Zootropolis 2
Ginnifer Goodwin’s cheery rabbit and Jason Bateman’s cynical fox are police detectives on the trail of an elusive reptile. November 26th
