7 January 2026

The best film & TV to watch in 2026

While there are exciting movies and series to come this year, the industry feels like it’s out of ideas

This year, the franchises march on and the sequels keep coming. Film production companies and streamers both continue to put their faith in what has worked before, despite diminishing returns, both financially and creatively.

Superhero film fans can look forward to Supergirl with Milly Alcock, Spider-Man: Brand New Day with Tom Holland and Avengers: Doomsday, with a massive crew. There’s also an improbable new face from the upstart DC Universe, Clayface: Tom Rhys Harries stars as an actor whose body is turned into clay.

For children, who can be excused for their conservatism, there’s Toy Story 5 and Minions 3 in the summer – true treats. Also on the way are the fifth Jumanji movie, Shrek 5 and a live-action version of Moana. Star Wars customers will not be forgotten, with The Mandalorian & Grogu, the 12th film in the franchise, for those who have failed to grow up.

On television too, we can, in the absence of new ideas from the industry, look forward to almost everything we have liked in the past being zealously reanimated. On the more appealing side come Amandaland 2, Rivals 2, Bridgerton 4, Industry 4, Euphoria 3 and Line of Duty 7. The Night Manager 2, with Tom Hiddleston and Olivia Colman returning, is already on screens.

There are notable original films, too, even some indie ones. Just released is the much anticipated Hamnet, adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s acclaimed 2021 novel. The film – a merciless tearjerker about Shakespeare’s marriage, the death of his son and the writing of Hamlet – is directed by Chloé Zhao, who won an Oscar in 2022 for Nomadland. Jessie Buckley stars as Agnes Hathaway, a spirit of nature, while Paul Mescal is a brawny Shakespeare, and Emily Watson plays his mother, Mary. The ethereal music is by Max Richter and the mood resembles a feminist homage to Terrence Malick – with additional sobbing.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day comes the no less bruited Wuthering Heights, the latest adaptation of Emily Brontë’s only novel, written, directed and produced by Emerald Fennell (Saltburn). Jacob Elordi, fresh from playing Frankenstein’s monster, is Heathcliff, Margot Robbie is Catherine Earnshaw, and the Yorkshire Dales stand in for the moors. It promises to be saucy. Fennell has observed there’s an “enormous amount of sado-masochism in this book”, and that adapting it has been a “masochistic exercise”, since she loves it so much but it can’t love her back. Luckily, Robbie – Fennell says – brings enough “big dick energy”.

In the same month comes The Testament of Ann Lee. Directed by Norway’s Mona Fastvold, and co-written with her partner, Brady Corbet (the man behind The Brutalist), this is a musical drama about the much-persecuted founding leader of the sect of Shakers, who left Manchester for the US in 1774. Festival reviewers called Amanda Seyfried’s performance a career best.

In March there’s a new film by Paolo Sorrentino (renowned for such films as 2013’s The Great Beauty, though his last outing, Parthenope, was preposterous). In La Grazia, which means “grace”, an elderly, conservative and Catholic president of Italy, played by the marvellous Sorrentino stalwart Toni Servillo, must decide whether to sign a euthanasia bill into law – and whether to pardon two convicts who murdered their partners.

If that sounds rather grave, there’s also a new action movie from the indefatigable 88-year-old sensationalist Ridley Scott. The Dog Stars, adapted from Peter Heller’s 2012 sci-fi novel, depicts a fight for survival in a world that’s been devastated by a flu virus. Elordi again, this time as a former pilot, sets out with his dog to find survivors, accompanied by tough nut Josh Brolin and the fetching Margaret Qualley.

In April there’s a biopic of Michael Jackson, focused on his rise and the years of triumph in the 1980s rather than those of decline and scandal. Michael is directed by Antoine Fuqua (the African-American director behind Training Day and the Equalizer trilogy) and it stars Jaafar Jackson, the son of Jermaine Jackson. The project originated with producer Graham King, who no doubt hopes to repeat the success he had with Bohemian Rhapsody.

The spring concludes with The Devil Wears Prada 2. Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt all return for a fashionista sequel 20 years after the original, but tactfully set only ten years later.

Even bigger news than that is an entirely original sci-fi film from Steven Spielberg, which opens in the summer. Disclosure Day – the director’s first work since the 2022 family saga The Fabelmans – is a flying-saucer story that depicts the whole world learning we are not alone, again. Screenwriter David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible) scripts from an original concept by Spielberg, and the cast includes Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor and Colin Firth.

Yet Spielberg’s project pales beside The Odyssey. This three-hour epic from Christopher Nolan, scheduled for release on 17 July and probably the blockbuster of the year, follows his triumphant Oppenheimer (2023). The film, shot on location around Europe on Imax 70mm cameras, is on the grandest of scales. Matt Damon is Odysseus and Anne Hathaway is Penelope; Tom Holland, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson and Charlize Theron also figure. Let’s hope spoilsports don’t give the story away.

Looking forward to the autumn, we will see Tom Cruise return to acting – rather than his usual running around – in a black comedy provisionally entitled Judy, the first English-language film by Alejandro González Iñárritu since The Revenant (2015). Cruise’s co-stars include Riz Ahmed, Sandra Hüller and John Goodman, and details remain scarce.

October will also feature The Social Reckoning, the follow-up to multiple award-winning The Social Network (2010): this time, Aaron Sorkin directs as well as scripts. Jeremy Strong replaces Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg. Mikey Madison (Anora) plays Frances Haugen, the Facebook whistleblower who, in 2021, disclosed internal documents about the company’s darker side.

Closing off the year, we can look forward to Dune: Messiah, part three of the franchise directed by Denis Villeneuve, with Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya and Rebecca Ferguson. “Not a phantasm of the future but an epiphany of the present,” said John Gray of Dune: Part Two in these pages. The new film’s messianism will no doubt again be of interest.

Then there are the films – some still in production – which may be released in 2026 but remain subject to rumour. They include the Danny Boyle-directed Ink, an adaptation of James Graham’s stage play about Rupert Murdoch (played by Guy Pearce) buying the Sun in 1969; I Love Boosters, a futuristic satire by Boots Riley (Sorry to Bother You) about thieves taking on a fashion mogul; Whitney Springs, a comedy by South Park co-creator Trey Parker about a black man working in a slavery museum who discovers that his white girlfriend’s ancestors owned his ancestors; and, last but not least, a still untitled film written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg. After the success of A Real Pain (2024), his latest stars Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti in a musical about a shy woman who is cast in a musical and falls under the spell of its charismatic director.

Television schedules are not fixed as far in advance as film releases, so many of these small-screen prospects remain moveable feasts. But Game of Thrones addicts can look certainly forward to another prequel this January: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms arrives from HBO. Then, a further instalment from the George RR Martin world, House of the Dragon series three, follows later in the year.

How to Get to Heaven from Belfast appears on Netflix in February – a promising new series written by Lisa McGee, the creator of Derry Girls. Over eight episodes, three women investigate the death of a former schoolmate. In the same month, there is also the latest instalment of influential producer Ryan Murphy’s American Story anthology series. Love Story portrays the marriage of fashion icons John F Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, who died together in a plane crash in 1999.

In March, The Testaments will stream on Hulu/Disney+. Based on Margaret Atwood’s disappointing follow-up to her novel The Handmaid’s Tale, the new series is set 15 years later and narrated by Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd).

Sexual anxiety appears to be a recurring theme. Apple TV has Margo’s Got Money Troubles, with Elle Fanning and Nicole Kidman, about a girl turning to OnlyFans for money, while Hulu/Disney+ showcases another series from Ryan Murphy: The Beauty is a science-fiction show about an STD that makes people beautiful, presumably an Ozempic satire.

Amazon Prime is expected to offer Blade Runner 2099, a sequel series to the original Blade Runner film of 1982 and the more recent Blade Runner 2049. Michelle Yeoh plays Olwen, an ageing replicant, who teams up with Cora (Hunter Schafer), a woman on the run. Netflix promises Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, a horror series from the creators of Stranger Things about a couple in the week before they are due to wed, and a faithful new Pride and Prejudice,scripted by Dolly Alderton in six episodes, with Emma Corrin as Elizabeth Bennet, Jack Lowden as Mr Darcy and Olivia Colman as Mrs Bennet. Disney+ will have Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair, a four-episode reboot anchored by Bryan Cranston.

Closer to home, the BBC presents a couple of curious shows. Small Prophets, a sitcom written and directed by Mackenzie Crook, is about a man who is given a potion that allows him to see into the future. We may also get to see First Day on Earth, a delayed comeback drama by Michaela Coel (I May Destroy You), about a British novelist (herself) who returns to Ghana to reconnect with her father and her heritage.

The former Doctor Who and Sherlock writer Steven Moffat says there are three famous doors in the world: to the Tardis, 221B Baker Street – and 10 Downing Street. That’s the motivation behind Channel 4’s Number 10, a new Upstairs, Downstairs-style drama that Moffat has created about life in Downing Street.

Jed Mercurio (Bodyguard, Line of Duty), one of Britain’s most prolific showrunners, moves over to Netflix with Trinity, an eight-part thriller starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Richard Madden in a story about a dangerous affair between a defence minister and a naval officer. Netflix also has Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, a feature film written by Steven Knight with Cillian Murphy et al, and an as-yet-untitled new Charlie Brooker project, which sees the Black Mirror maestro turn to the mystery genre.

This looks to be an intriguing year for film and TV. But who knows – before the end of 2026 Netflix may have bought up not only Warner Bros but everything else, too. And commissioned a future that borrows more heavily from the past than ever.

[Further reading: Films of the year 2025]