8 2026 Movies I'm Dying to See: 'The Odyssey' and More
2025 was a surprisingly mixed year for movies.
While the box office increased slightly from 2024's total, several high-profile movies, like Marvel's Thunderbolts and Paramount's The Running Man, underperformed. There's a reason for that - they weren't as good as many people, including myself, expected them to be.
2026 promises to be different.
Project Hail Mary, Michael, The Devil Wears Prada 2, Obsession and Backrooms have brought audiences back to the multiplex - and most of these films are actually good.
With new films from directors like Christopher Nolan and Steven Spielberg and some fan-favorite sequels like Dune: Part Three in the pipeline, 2026 has plenty of movies I'm looking forward to watching in a crowded theater.
‘Disclosure Day' (June 12)
It's safe to say that 2021's Dune and 2024's Dune: Part Two are two of the best modern sci-fi movies ever made. The critically acclaimed adaptation of Frank Herbert's classic science fiction novel won a bunch of Oscars and a legion of fans, so it's only natural that another movie would be made to cash in on the success of the previous two.
Based on Herbert's divisive novel Dune: Messiah, Dune: Part Three takes place years after the last chapter ended. Paul (Timothée Chalamet) is now the Padishah Emperor and father to two children. The long-dead Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa) is somehow alive again, and Paul's young sister, Alia (Anya Taylor-Joy), last seen as a sentient embryo in Part Two, is now fully grown. Zendaya and Rebecca Ferguson return, as well as director Denis Villeneuve, who has promised this is the last Dune sequel he'll be involved in. I can't wait to see what he has in store for his farewell to a far-out universe filled with massive sandworms, albino gladiators and, of course, spice.
‘Werwulf' (December 25)
On Christmas 2024, director Robert Eggers delivered a most unusual gift to moviegoers – the vampire horror movie, Nosferatu. An unexpected hit, Nosferatu exploited an untapped market for dimly-lit period movies depicting all sorts of dangerous creatures lurking in the night. This Christmas, Eggers promises more of the same with his new film, Werwulf, which swaps out vampires for, you guessed it, werewolves.
Not much is known about the plot except that it takes place in 13th-century England and focuses on a small village being terrorized by a murderous lycanthrope. Most of the cast of Nosferatu, including Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Lily-Rose Depp and Willem Dafoe, return for Werwulf, as well as longtime Eggers' collaborators, cinematographer Jarin Blaschke and writer Sjon. I'm hoping Werwulf can conjure the same magic that Nosferatu cast on me and millions of other moviegoers and give all of us some relief from those endless repeats of Home Alone during the holidays.
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This story was originally published June 7, 2026 at 9:05 AM.