We’re officially halfway through the year, and 2026 has already served up plenty of unforgettable pop culture moments.

Over the last six months, we’ve flocked to the cinemas to spend more time with Miranda and Andy in The Devil Wears Prada 2, hid behind our hands during Obsession and fell in love with Rocky during Project Hail Mary.

Meanwhile, our playlists have been full of pop divas thanks to new music from Madonna and Olivia Rodrigo, and we’ve sweated it out at Harry Styles’ Wembley Stadium residency.

We’ve also marvelled and gossiped about big celebrity weddings from the likes of Zendaya, Dua Lipa and Taylor Swift.

But don’t go thinking that the best of 2026’s new music, TV and film is now behind us. Here are 21 things happening in the world of entertainment still to come in the next six months that we are totally hyped about…

Later this month, we’ll be saying goodbye to Charlie Spring and Nick Nelson when Netflix’s Heartstopper ends with a feature-length finale.

The last time we saw the boys, they had admitted their love for each other and taken their relationship to the next level – but drama loomed, as Nick was about to go to university while Charlie finished up at school.

In an interview with Tudum, Heartstopper’s creator Alice Oseman teased what fans can expect from the upcoming film.

“The movie will be an exploration of time, memory, love, pain, the changing of the seasons, endings and beginnings, and the core element of Heartstopper: the ordinary magic of our everyday lives,” they said.

Alice added: “I think this movie will explore what makes love survive, or what elevates it, or deepens it. At 18 and 17, Nick and Charlie are hurtling towards their adult lives. Many teenage relationships don’t survive that pivotal moment of change.”

Excitingly, Netflix has also announced a behind-the-scenes documentary to mark the end of Heartstopper, drawing on unseen footage throughout all the series and celebrating the beloved show.

Heartstopper Forever premieres on Netflix on Friday 17 July.

Christopher Nolan’s much-anticipated adaptation of the Greek classic, The Odyssey, is finally sailing onto the big screen.

Following on from Oppenheimer’s box office and awards season successes, film fans are expecting Nolan’s first film entirely shot in IMAX to be the must-see event of this summer.

Telling the epic story of Matt Damon’s Odysseus as he tries to return home to his family at the end of the Trojan war, the cast is a who’s who of A-listers, including the likes of Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya and Robert Pattinson.

Speaking to Time earlier this year, Matt Damon hyped up the film as the type of epic that, sadly, don’t make it to the big screen anymore.

“Movies like this are not getting made anymore,” he claimed. “To do this without a green screen, the way that David Lean would have done it, I don’t know anybody, with the exception of Chris, that’s even trying to do that.”

The Odyssey hits cinemas on Friday 17 July.

In May, it was announced that Fifa would have its first ever halftime show to commemorate the end of the 2026 World Cup, which will be made up of an 11-minute show featuring Madonna, Shakira, Justin Bieber and BTS.

Curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin, the show plans to raise money for Fifa and Global Citizen’s Education Fund.

“As the world unites for the most significant football match in history on Sunday 19 July 2026 at the New York New Jersey Stadium, this groundbreaking spectacle, curated by Chris Martin of Coldplay, will celebrate football, music and our shared values, ensuring a legacy that transcends the final whistle,” Fifa president Gianni Infantino wrote on Instagram.

Given the type of epic performances we’re used to seeing from Shakira, Madonna and BTS, it’s sure to be a show-stopper, and given the divided reaction to his recent performances at the Grammys (where he appeared in just boxers for a low-key rendition of his song Yukon) and Coachella (where he served as one of this year’s headliners) earlier this year, we’re intrigued to see what he brings to the stage this time around.

The Fifa World Cup Halftime Show will take place on Sunday 19 July.

The Big Bang Theory’s socially-awkward comic book owner Stuart Bloom is the latest character from the hit sitcom to get his own spin-off.

Don’t expect your standard multi-camera sitcom with Stuart Fails To Save The Universe, though.This new spin-off sees Kevin Sussman’s character being tasked with restoring reality, after he breaks a device built by Sheldon and Leonard, accidentally bringing on a multiverse incident.

He is assisted on this new quest by his girlfriend Denise, geologist friend Bert, and smarmy quantum physicist Barry Kripke – all of whom fans of The Big Bang Theory will recognise from the original show.

Over the course of his quest, he will also encounter alternate-world versions of more characters from the world of The Big Bang Theory. Look forward to seeing your favourite sitcom characters in a very different light, as Stuart navigates a multiverse Armageddon of his own making.

Creator Bill Prady has described the show as “a complex science fiction story” with “the kind of mythology that those characters love while maintaining the comedic elements”.

Stuart Fails To Save The Universe premieres on Friday 24 July on HBO Max.

Many of us have only just recovered from Brat Summer, but Charli XCX is already back with new bops.

Titled Music, Fashion, Film, Charli’s seventh album takes a very different approach compared to her Grammy-winning 2024 release, and includes the divisive singles Rock Music, Wink Wink and SS26.

In an interview with British Vogue earlier this year, the pop star teased her new sound and a lyric from the album’s lead single, which read: “I think the dance floor is dead…so now we’re making rock music.”

She claimed: “For me, it’s fun to flip the form. We know there’s gonna be people who are bothered by it, but that’s fine.”

While Charli has denied that Music, Fashion, Film is a straight-forward rock album, she warned fans on TikTok her new record will sound different from Brat, and they might not warm to it as much.

“I love it! And you might not, and that’s cool,” she said “If you do [love it] that’s cute, but if you don’t, that’s totally OK because that’s just what it is to have personal preferences,” the Vroom Vroom singer said.

Charli XCX’s Music, Fashion, Film is released on Friday 24 July.

If you’ve been enviously watching clips from Ariana Grande’s latest world tour in the last few weeks, rest assured that the UK will finally get to see the One Last Time diva in person in just a few weeks, when her Eternal Sunshine show hits our shores.

Before that, though, comes the release of her eighth album Petal. Ariana said in a press release that Petal is about “growing through the cracks of something cold and hard and challenging,” but “something that is full of life”, while in a video posted to Instagram, she called the album “a little feral”.

“It’s definitely from a place I’ve been maybe too shy or polite to tap into before,” she claimed. “This kind of just feels like, ‘Fuck it’.”

If that isn’t enough for Arianators, she’ll also appear in the fourth instalment in the Meet the Parents franchise, titled Focker In-Law later this year.

She will play Olivia Jones, a former FBI hostage negotiator and the fiancée of Pam and Greg’s son, Henry, who is subjected to the iconic “circle of trust”.

Ariana Grande’s Petal is released on Friday 31 July, with the UK leg of the Eternal Sunshine world tour beginning on Saturday 15 August. Focker-In-Law will then hit cinemas on Friday 25 November.

After fans feared season three would be the last we saw of Richmond FC, news finally broke last year that Ted Lasso had been renewed, with plans to bring it back for not one, but three new series.

Joining leading man Jason Sudeikis in the fourth season are Brett Goldstein‘s Roy Kent, Juno Temple’s Keeley Jones and, of course, Hannah Waddingham’s Rebecca Welton, as well as new additions played by Sex Education’s Tanya Reynolds and Enola Holmes actor Abbie Hern.

The fourth iteration of the award-winning sports comedy will see Ted taking a new challenge: women’s football.

“As we all continue to live in a world where so many factors have conditioned us to ’look before we leap, in season four, the folks at AFC Richmond learn to leap before they look, discovering that wherever they land, it’s exactly where they’re meant to be,” Jason Sudeikis told Deadline.

Ted Lasso returns to Apple TV+ on Wednesday 5 August.

Flying in hot on the heels of last year’s Superman and this summer’s Supergirl, DC’s next big-screen venture will be Lanterns.

Created by Ozark’s Chris Mundy, Watchmen’s Damon Lindelof and comic book writer Tom King, Lanterns stars Kyle Chandler as veteran test pilot Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre as rookie John Stewart, who are paired up to investigate a grisly murder in a small Nebraska town.

This isn’t your standard murder mystery, though, as it involves two famous members of the cosmic police force, who have the power to create constructs of whatever they can imagine.

In the past, the Green Lantern story hasn’t had the best luck when it comes to live-action adaptations, with 2011′s critically-panned Ryan Reynolds film being one particular low, but things appear to be looking up in James Gunn’s rebooted DC Universe.

Also coming later this year for DC fans is Clayface, the first solo film for the Batman baddie.

The upcoming body horror film follows actor Matt Hagen, played by House Of The Dragon’s Tom Rhys Harries, who, in desperation, has his body turned into clay after suffering facial disfigurement.

Written by The Haunting Of Hill House scribe Mike Flanagan, the October release hints at a new horror angle to the DCU.

Lanterns premieres on HBO Max on Sunday 16 August.

Our annual Strictly Come Dancing fix will be a little different when it returns in the autumn.

Not only do we have new hosts in Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe, but the whole show is rumoured to be getting a revamp.

Despite all the changes, definitely still expect to fall in love with a new cast of famous faces from the world of music, TV and sport as they go on a journey through learning to dance.

Although the whole cast hasn’t been announced, we do know that Dani Dyer is back after pulling out last year due to injury and will be joined by the likes of Aussie pop star Delta Goodrem and EastEnders star Lacey Turner.

Strictly Come Dancing is expected to return to our screens in early September.

The lavish period drama The Gilded Age is back in production, with season four coming to our screens in autumn.

Created by Downton Abbey screenwriter Julian Fellowes, The Gilded Age takes place in late 19th-century New York, and centres on the tension between two high-society families: the old-money van Rhijns and the new-money Russell family.

Fortunately, Carrie Coon, Cynthia Nixon, Christine Baranski, Morgan Spector and Louisa Jacobson are all returning as your favourite 1880s socialites in the new run of episodes.

An official synopsis for the new episodes teases: “Bertha Russell changed Society at a cost. Now, her family must reckon with the consequences as Agnes van Rhijn seizes an opportunity to regain her position.

“Meanwhile, Marian forges a new path for herself and Peggy works to be accepted by her future in-laws. In this new era, you must be careful what you wish for.”

Enjoy one last trip with the Pogues when the fifth and last series of Outer Banks drops all at once this summer.

Set in an affluent beach town in North Carolina, the hit young adult series follows two rival gangs, who embark on a dangerous treasure-hunting mission.

These 10 new episodes will follow the fall-out from the tragedy of season four, and sees the characters “stranded far from home and mourning the heart of their crew,” after they “lost the Blue Crown and continue to face a gauntlet of familiar threats”.

Returning for one final journey are Madison Bailey’s Kiara, Jonathan Daviss’ Pope, Carlacia Grant’s Cleo and Drew Starkey’s Rafe. Meanwhile, murderer J. Anthony Crane’s Chandler Groff remains on the run, while Pollyanna McIntosh’s Dalia and the Corsairs pursue the Pogues relentlessly.

“The Pogues are in a desperate race to reclaim their future and finally win the freedom they’ve always been chasing,” Netflix teased in the official synopsis. “It’s the Pogues against the world as they seek to avenge their best friend and bring it on home … one final time.”

Season five of Outer Banks will arrive on Netflix on Thursday 20 August.

Tom Cruise is so synonymous with the Mission: Impossible movies, it’s sometimes hard to see him as anyone other than Ethan Hunt.

In October, he will return to his indie cinema roots with Digger, a black comedy directed by Birdman’s Alejandro G. Iñárritu.

Tom plays an eccentric, cat-loving oil baron who accidentally triggers a catastrophic ecological disaster, alongside a cast that includes Jessie Plemons, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman and Sandra Hüller.

The film, which is Iñárritu’s first English-language picture since The Revenant, will see Tom’s billionaire character doing all he can to repent for his crimes, and eventually become humanity’s saviour.

Digger is slated for release on Friday 2 October.

Motherland, Mandy and Philomena Cunk star Diane Morgan returns with a brand new BBC sitcom, Ann Droid.

Co-written by Taskmaster’s Sarah Kendall, Ann Droid sees Diane reuniting with her Motherland co-star Paul Ready, and brings comedy icon, The Royle Family’s Sue Johnston, back onto our TV screens.

In her new venture, Diane will play Linda, an AI AnnDroid who Paul’s character buys to help his widowed mum – only to turn out to be an “overly attentive, socially inept pain in the arse”.

An official synopsis reads: “She soon works out she can use the droid to her benefit in settling scores and doing the things her son never gets round to.

“What develops is a buddy comedy between an older woman and her robot who isn’t quite as advanced socially as she is technically.”

Diane also joked about the show: “I’m thrilled that the BBC has finally commissioned a programme about AI and how it will affect your mum.”

Ann Droid premieres on BBC One on Friday 17 July.

The first season of The Celebrity Traitors became the most talked-about show of 2025, with more than 15 million people watching the likes of Joe Mahler, Celia Imrie and Alan Carr shacked up in a castle to separate the traitors from the faithful.

In the autumn, a new cast of 21 more celebrities will join Claudia Winkleman to be put through their paces in TV’s most famous castle.

The latest all-star cast includes the likes of Bella Ramsey, Michael Sheen, Maya Jama, and Rob Beckett, all of whom we can expect to see bickering at the round table, completing grueling (and puzzling) challenges and becoming inadvertent national treasures.

The Celebrity Traitors will be back on BBC One in the autumn.

Fans were gutted when they discovered that the long-awaited second series of Rivals was being divided into two parts.

Episode six dropped in May on Disney+, and ended with a shocking cliffhanger as a storm swept through Rutshire, leaving us all on tenterhooks about what’s next for David Tennant’s Tony, Danny Dyer’s Freddie and Alex Hassell’s Rupert Campbell-Black.

An official Disney+ synopsis for the rest of season two teases: “As Tony Baddingham and Declan O’Hara’s contest for the Cotswolds crown hits a fever pitch, Rupert Campbell-Black is forced to confront his own personal demons.”

Fortunately, the new episodes promise “hedonistic parties”, “Bonfire Night chaos”, “the Hampshire Hunt Ball” and “a turbulent Christmas”, during which “affairs unravel, alliances fracture and rivalries intensify”.

Rivals will be back on Disney+ in November with six more episodes airing weekly.

The misty moors get a new look and a star-studded cast, as Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice gets a new TV adaptation.

The Crown’s Emma Corrin will take on the lead role of Elizabeth Bennet, with Slow Horses star Jack Lowden as her Mr Darcy.

Also in the cast will be Olivia Colman and Rufus Sewell as Mrs. and Mr. Bennet, with Louis Partridge playing Mr. Wickham.

Scripted by Dolly Alderton, the author of Everything I Know About Love, and directed by Heartstopper’s Euros Lyn, this adaptation promises to stay faithful to the source material while also appealing to a Gen Z audience.

“I am so excited to reintroduce these hilarious and complicated characters to those who count Pride and Prejudice as their favourite book, and those who are yet to meet their Lizzie and Mr Darcy,” writer Dolly said.

Emma also shared their delight at stepping into Elizabeth Bennet’s petticoats, enthusing: “To be able to bring this iconic character to life, alongside Olivia and Jack, with [screenwriter Dolly Alderton’s] phenomenal scripts, is truly the greatest honour. I can’t wait for a new generation to fall in love with this story all over again.”

Pride & Prejudice is expected to premiere on Netflix in the autumn, although an exact release date has not yet been announced.

Another literary adaptation Netflix is treating us to this year is East Of Eden.

Inspired by the John Steinbeck novel – previously brought to life on the big screen in a classic James Dean film – the upcoming series tells the story of two interwoven families across two generations.

Considered one of America’s most important pieces of literature, East Of Eden is a loose retelling of the biblical tale of Cain and Abel, and promises an epic story of generational trauma, and the struggle between good and evil.

The miniseries follows Adam, played by Christopher Abbott, who marries Florence Pugh’s Cathy, after which he discovers her startling true colours.

Unlike past takes on the story, the new series, directed by Zoe Kazan, is set to shift the narrative by focussing on its anti-hero, Cathy, and offering a new insight into her psychology.

East Of Eden is one of three exciting Florence projects still to come in 2026, alongside Dune: Part Three and Avengers: Doomsday.

East Of Eden will premiere on Netflix later this year.

Former Doctor Who and Sherlock showrunner Steven Moffat is set to make British politics even more ridiculous with his new six-part Channel 4 dramedy.

Taking place almost exclusively inside the PM’s official residence and workplace, this upcoming series isn’t concerned with party politics, and instead shines a light on the individuals who keep the country running, when the politicians get themselves into mishaps.

“It’s just about what it’s like being in there, with the two most powerful people in the country in the attic, the worst coffee shop you’ve ever seen in the basement, and basically a knock-through with mice and a nuclear deterrent,” Steven told the Radio Times.

Based on an entirely fictional government, Rafe Spall will appear as prime minister Harry Douglas, while Katherine Kelly plays his formidable Chief of Staff and Jena Coleman as the ambitious Deputy Chief of Staff.

Number 10 will premiere on Channel 4 in the autumn.

We’re back to Panem with The Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping, a prequel to the iconic film series.

Set 24 years before Katniss Everdeen first entered the arena – and 40 years after The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes – the dystopian movie predominantly follows a young Haymitch Abernathy at the 50th Hunger Games.

The new film, based on Suzanne Collins’ book of the same name, will also include younger versions of some of our favourite characters, including Elle Fanning taking over Elizabeth Banks′ role of Effie Trinkett, Jesse Plemons taking the mantle from Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch Heavensbee, and Kieran Culkin portraying Caesar Flickerman, the host of the Hunger Games, in a role previously played by Stanley Tucci.

Meanwhile, Ralph Fiennes is the new President Coriolanus Snow, a character previously portrayed by Donald Sutherland and, more recently, Tom Blyth.

The film’s all-star cast also includes Glenn Close, Billy Porter and Maya Hawke as Capitol residents and Hunger Games mentors.

The Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping is released on Friday 20 November.

Denis Villeneuve’s epic space saga concludes in December, with the third instalment in the Dune series

The upcoming sci-fi film will take place 17 years after the events of Part Two, and follow the fall-out from Timothée Chalamet’s character Paul Atreides’ rise as galactic emperor.

In an IMAX special reveal event, the Oscar-nominated director teased that audiences will “see Paul dealing with the consequences of having too much power and him trying to figure out how to get out of this cycle of violence”.

“And of course he’s an emperor who can see the future, so he’s kind of invincible,” the Oscar nominee added.

More recently, the Canadian filmmaker also teased the darker themes of his franchise’s conclusion.

“It’s more of a thriller,” he claimed. “It’s a more intense story. And it’s definitely more emotional as well.”

The recently-released trailer depicts Paul becoming a more malevolent figure, under attack from both the outside and inside, with even his former lover and mother of his children, Zendaya’s Chani, turning against him.

Anya Taylor-Joy – who briefly appeared at the end of the second film – is becoming a more prominent figure in Part Three as Alia, Paul’s younger sister, while Javier Bardem returns as Stilgar.

Florence Pugh and Jason Momoa will also reprise their roles as Princess Irulan and Duncan Idaho, too, with Robert Pattinson on hand to play a new bad guy as he takes on the role of the shapeshifting Scytale.

Dune: Part Three will be released on Friday 18 December.

As if Dune won’t already be keeping cinemagoers busy enough on 18 December, Avengers: Doomsday is released that same day.

The 39th MCU film will see some of your favourite superheroes coming together to take on a new intergalactic and multiversal threat.

Newbies like Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby and Lewis Pullman will team up with MCU veterans like Chris Hemsworth, Letitia Wright and Mark Ruffalo to defeat this new evil, alongside Patrick Stewart’s Professor X, Ian McKellen’s Magneto and James Marsden’s Cyclops, making the jump from Fox’s X-Men movies for the first time.

Even more intriguingly, fans were shocked back in 2024, when Robert Downey Jr announced that he would be returning to the MCU – not as Iron Man, but as the villainous Doctor Doom.

Marvel has teased: “Beloved heroes from three distinct universes are set on a deadly collision course and face an existential threat unlike anything they’ve ever encountered.”

Avengers: Doomsday will arrive in cinemas on Friday 18 December.

The final instalment in the rebooted Jumanji franchise opens up for gameplay on Christmas Day.

However, this time around, instead of taking place inside the films’ central video game, the avatars – played by Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart and Jack Black – are heading into our world.

Yes, after escaping their games console, the avatars will bring all the jungle beasts and catastrophic natural disasters usually relegated to the game world into real life.

Also returning to the action comedy are Danny DeVito, Nick Jonas, Awkwafina and Alex Wolff.

“I’ve never had more fun working on a movie. This is my favorite so far,” Jack Black teased at CinemaCon.

Jumanji: Open World is slated to arrive in cinemas on Friday 25 December.