The fantasy genre continues to reign supreme on television, and no network has a better track record than HBO. Whether it’s established franchises like Game of Thrones, or underrated gems like Carnivale, HBO delivers shows that keep people talking. That didn’t change once it entered the 2020’s, with one original series that put a fantasy-style spin on the idea of superpowered beings. That series is none other than The Nevers, which perfectly blends the Victorian-era trappings of His Dark Materials with the subversive storytelling of The Magicians. That doesn’t sound like a combo that would work, and yet it makes for the perfect weekend binge.

Created by Joss Whedon, The Nevers takes place in an alternate timeline in which a group of Londoners discovers they have superhuman abilities. Dubbed “The Touched”, these people struggle to survive in a world that hates and fears them (sound familiar?) while also uncovering the true nature behind their abilities. Among the Touched is Amalia True (Laura Donnelly), who runs an orphanage for Touched children and can see the future. Though The Nevers only lasted a single season, it’s packed with enough unique elements that make it worth a watch.

‘The Nevers’ Perfectly Blends Superhuman Stakes With Period Piece Trappings

Image via HBO

It’s not hard to look at The Nevers and think of “Victorian-era X-Men.” Most of the Touched are women or people of color, and their greatest obstacle is the prejudices of the time, which aligns with the allegory that’s fueled Marvel’s mighty mutants for years. On top of that, The Nevers introduces a cast of characters that wouldn’t feel out of place in a comic book series. There’s the criminal mastermind known as the Beggar King (Nick Frost), the mad scientist Hague (Denis O’Hare), and the serial killer Maladie (Amy Manson). Even Whedon’s explanation of The Nevers‘ title feels like it wouldn’t be out of place in a comic book universe.

“It’s a phrase that’s meant to evoke a sort of reaction to their oddity, to what is considered unnatural. The idea that you should never be like this, you should never have existed. Something is not the way it should be, and you don’t have the right to have whatever weird power or ability that you have…But to me, it’s one of those things where you take something negative, and you wear it as a badge of honor, basically. Certain things could never happen – they’re happening. And the people they’re happening to are taking their place in the world.”

As if superpowers weren’t enough, The Nevers throws a massive curveball at its audience in its mid-season finale “True”, which reveals that the Touched came into being via aliens visiting the Earth, who also have the ability to time travel into the past. It was a wild swing, but one that made the series that much more interesting. Amalia’s visions made more sense, and the idea of fighting to save the future made The Nevers less of an X-Men clone and more in line with iconic sci-fi movies such as The Terminator. Yet behind the scenes, The Nevers was facing issues that no superpower could save it from.

Despite A Promising Start, ‘The Nevers’ Was Cut Down in its Prime

HBO clearly saw The Nevers as the next Game of Thrones, engaging in a bidding war with Netflix and others to secure the rights to the series. Yet halfway through the series, Whedon departed as showrunner and executive producer, citing the stress of producing during the COVID-19 pandemic as taking a toll on him. Some couldn’t help but notice that this announcement also coincided with Ray Fisher and other figures accusing Whedon of misconduct on the set of various projects, though HBO chief Casey Bloys denied it. While The Nevers found a new showrunner in Philippa Gossett, it wasn’t enough to save the series from cancellation.

To add insult to injury, The Nevers was one of several series pulled from HBO Max’s library in 2022. It eventually found a new home on Tubi…but on Warner Bros.’s FAST channel, and airing at times that no one would be sitting down to watch the series. Despite being cut down in its prime, The Nevers is still worth a watch as it evolved from a mere superhero show into the beginnings of a unique fantasy saga.

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Release Date

2021 – 2022

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Network

HBO Max

Showrunner

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Philippa Goslett

Directors

Joss Whedon

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Writers

Joss Whedon

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• 
• 

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Action hype can usually be determined through a trailer and is relatively fussier. Action fans are not just asking whether the movie is big. We are asking what kind of velocity it promises. Is it built around star charisma, physical jeopardy, giant myth, kinetic wit, revenge grammar, or that very old-fashioned pleasure of watching one determined person move through impossible space while everything around them catches fire?

That is why an upcoming action ranking can look a little strange. It’s not going to be spot-on either because a trailer can be made to look flashy and the movie can just suck. A movie can be huge and still not feel charged in the right way. Another can look a little less colossal and still feel like it has genuine motion in its bones. These 6 upcoming action movies? This is how they’re looking so far.

7

6

‘Mutiny’ (2026)

Image via Lionsgate

Mutiny being built around Jason Statham framed for the murder of his billionaire boss and forced to punch his way through an international conspiracy is such a sturdy piece of action architecture that I barely need more than the sentence. The film is set for August 21, 2026, Jean-François Richet is directing, and the official site is already live, which gives the whole thing a satisfying “this is coming, not just developing” solidity.

And yet this is exactly the sort of Statham vehicle where my excitement is confident rather than feverish. I know the baseline will probably work. He will carry the frame, the threat map will stay readable, someone will badly underestimate how angry he is, and there will be at least one sequence where professionalism turns into annihilation. That is a nice floor. It is not automatically a sky-high ceiling. I am ready. I am just not vibrating. Statham has to change something here.

5

‘Masters of the Universe’ (2026)

Image via MGM

Masters of the Universe is much easier to get emotional about because the risk is part of the thrill. He-Man (Nicholas Galitzine), Skeletor (Jared Leto), Teela (Camila Mendes), and Duncan (Idris Elba) already suggest a movie that at least understands it needs physicality, pulp myth, and a little weird old toy-box grandeur to survive. The film opens June 5, 2026.

What excites me is the possibility of full-bodied fantasy action, swords, transformations, cosmic villainy, the kind of heroic scale modern franchise movies sometimes flatten into gray sludge. He-Man should not feel tasteful. He should feel like a primal action-fantasy image with absurd sincerity behind him. If the movie really leans into Eternia as a place of muscle, tragedy, and theatrical evil rather than bland CG sprawl, this could jump much higher by release. For now, the anticipation is real because the movie could either become a delirious win or a spectacular wreck. Both are energizing in their own way.

4

‘Supergirl’ (2026)

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

Supergirl is where the ranking starts getting genuinely hot for me. Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock) leads, Craig Gillespie directs, and the early reporting around the project has stressed the rougher, harsher texture of this version of Kara. That matters. Supergirl works best for me when she is not just female Superman, but a more bruised, more displaced, more emotionally scorched figure carrying cosmic power with a different kind of wound.

What makes it especially promising as action is that the film does not sound soft-edged. The early descriptions of pirate attacks, rougher space-travel texture, and a less polished heroic surface suggest a movie that wants the action to feel dangerous rather than merely pretty. That is exactly the right instinct for Kara. If this movie really gives her rage, loneliness, and momentum instead of just iconography, it could be one of the year’s biggest action surprises.

3

‘Avengers: Doomsday’ (2026)

Image via Marvel Studios

Avengers: Doomsday is anticipation powered by pressure. Joe Russo and Anthony Russo are back, and Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.) gives the whole project a kind of unstable voltage. It is not just another ensemble movie now. It is an explicit attempt to make Marvel feel dangerous, event-sized, and globally discussable again. Would it happen the same way Infinity Wars and Endgame did? I’m not sure.

As an action fan though, the appeal is obvious. Avengers movies work well when they stop feeling like adjacent solo-brand maintenance and start feeling like large-scale impact design. Convergences. Clashes. Giant movement across multiple fronts. Characters meeting each other’s action grammar in ways we have not seen before. Doom adds another layer because he promises authoritarian force and theatrical intelligence rather than just another sky-beam problem. If the Russos can reintroduce that Infinity War–Endgame sense of converging momentum, this could be huge in exactly the sweaty, communal way blockbuster action is supposed to be.

2

‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ (2026)

Image via Sony Pictures Releasing

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the one that makes me grin because the setup is so clean. Peter Parker (Tom Holland) was left, by the end of No Way Home, stripped down, isolated, and forced to rebuild from the pavement up. That is where Spider-Man action gets springy again. Smaller rooms, harder landings, more improvisation, less multiversal fireworks covering for the absence of personal jeopardy.

And Holland is perfectly positioned for that kind of comeback. The ending of No Way Home left Peter in a version of the character’s loneliest lane, and that loneliness is fantastic action fuel. It changes how every swing feels. Every fight. Every escape. Every decision about whether he can afford to be heroic when no larger safety net is waiting behind the mask. It’s like the perfect yin-and-yang balance. This is why I have it above Avengers: Doomsday in pure action anticipation: I can already see the physical language. Rainy alleys, scrappier combat, momentum with bruises in it. That gets me every time.

1

‘The Odyssey’ (2026)

Image via Universal Pictures

The Odyssey had to be number one. Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and Odysseus (Matt Damon) already make this feel like a studio flex from a healthier era. The cast around him is absurdly stacked. But even before the cast, the material itself makes this the most exciting action prospect on the board. This is not just a prestige epic. It is one of the foundational action stories in Western storytelling: shipwrecks, monsters, sieges, archery, disguises, rage, endurance, fathers and sons, men trying to come home through a world that keeps refusing to let them.

And Nolan, when he is really locked in, is a war architect of momentum. He understands ordeal. He understands scale as movement rather than wallpaper. He understands how to turn one man’s objective into a sequence of giant physical trials without losing the obsession at the center. That is why The Odyssey is the most anticipated action movie here for me. It has the chance to be huge without feeling synthetic, mythic without feeling dead, and action-heavy in a way that still hurts. That is the dream.

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The Odyssey

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Release Date

July 17, 2026

Runtime

172 Minutes

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Anna Faris is opening up about her return to the “Scary Movie” franchise, describing it as a meaningful moment in her career. The actress rose to fame following her portrayal of Cindy Campbell in 2000’s “Scary Movie,” which paved the way for her Hollywood career.

In 2020, the actress stepped back from work to focus on her family, but she is now grateful for the opportunity to reconnect with the Wayans brothers and to once again reprise the role that helped define her career.

Marlon, Shawn, and Keenen Wayans have reclaimed control of the “Scary Movie” franchise, two decades after they were allegedly pushed out of their own creation. The upcoming instalment, the sixth in the franchise, has the original cast members reuniting to parody horror movies and pop culture.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Anna Faris, who reprises her role as “final girl” Cindy Campbell, shared how meaningful the opportunity was, both professionally and personally. “I had been coming around to the idea of Hollywood sort of putting me out to pasture. And that was okay,” Faris said, describing her career trajectory before she got the offer for “Scary Movie 6.”

The Actress Lost Touch With The Wayans Brothers

Faris lost her home during the devastating Palisades Fire in 2025. Just a month later, however, she received a call from Marlon about the movie. “With the house burning down, there was a lot of taking stock. So to have this opportunity to thank them — I got to thank them every day. They were probably really annoyed with me,” Faris shared.

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Admittedly, Faris said the call was the first time she had spoken to any of the Wayans brothers since they worked together on “Scary Movie 2,” the last movie in the franchise they were involved in. As previously reported by The Blast, Marlon claims the Weinstein brothers “stripped” the franchise from them, and they were in no way involved in the third, fourth, and fifth films.

Faris returned for “Scary Movie 3” and “Scary Movie 4,” and despite wanting to reach out to the Wayans brothers, she had reservations. “I had always wanted to. But honestly, I didn’t know if they were mad at me,” Faris confessed.

In an interview, Marlon said he didn’t take Faris’ involvement in the other films personally, adding that he was simply glad she was part of the sixth instalment.

‘Scary Movie’ Launched Anna Faris’ Career

Faris was an aspiring novelist who completed her degree in literature in 1999. While studying, she did acting gigs for extra income. After graduating, however, she gave professional acting a shot, and “Scary Movie” was her first audition in Hollywood.

The first movie was a critical and commercial success, and it skyrocketed Faris’ career. Apart from being in four “Scary Movie” films, the actress also starred in several movies, including “The House Bunny,” “What’s Your Number?” “Overboard,” “Just Friends,” and “The Dictator.” She also lent her voice to animated movies, such as “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” and “The Emoji Movie.”

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The Actress Took An Unintentional Sabbatical

In 2013, Faris was cast as one of the lead characters in the Chuck Lorre sitcom “Mom,” alongside Allison Janney. After Season 7, however, Faris announced her sudden departure from the show, citing a desire “to pursue other opportunities.” The show continued for one more season without Faris before ending in 2020.

The actress didn’t entirely exit from acting, but she became more selective of her projects. In a 2023 interview with PEOPLE, Faris said she stepped back from work to spend more quality time with her son. “I kind of took my foot off the gas and I spent a lot of time with my son. It felt really good. It wasn’t conscious, but sort of a sabbatical, I guess,” she explained.

Anna Faris Said Returning To ‘Scary Movie’ Was ‘Healing’

Faris was not part of “Scary Movie 5” because the studio opted for a younger cast, choosing Ashley Tisdale as the lead instead. In April, Faris shared how shocked she was to learn that there would be a sixth movie in the “Scary Movie” franchise, and, more importantly, that she would be reunited with her former castmates.

“I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that there was a world where I would be feeling so good about doing ‘Scary Movies’… It’s a little, I wish I had a better word, but healing. We got back together again. And that in and of itself is, for me, a personal celebration,” Faris said.

The sixth instalment in the franchise, titled “Scary Movie,” will be released in theatres on June 5.

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Morgan Wallen has issued his first public remark after upturning a piano while performing on stage in Denver, Colorado.

Wallen, 33, took to TikTok four days after the Empower Field at Mile High concert to share a sarcastic response to the Friday, May 29, incident. “Hey, I just want you guys to know that right now this piano is working,” he told fans while tapping the keys of a piano. After seemingly filming the clip in his dressing room one night after the incident occurred, Wallen added, “That’s what they told me last night, too.”

The country music star also captioned the video, “Can’t you tell I’m so distraught over my piano?”

Wallen, who is currently touring his 23-stadium Still The Problem Tour across the U.S., had appeared frustrated on Friday night just ahead of performing his hit song “Sand In My Boots.” In footage shared via social media and multiple news outlets, the musician seemed to be unable to hear his piano through ear pieces.

Related: Morgan Wallen’s Ups and Downs Through the Years

Morgan Wallen has become the bad boy of country music after facing a series of scandals throughout his career. The “Whiskey Glasses” singer got his start on season 6 of The Voice in 2014, where he was a member of Adam Levine’s team but got knocked out during the playoffs. Two years after his appearance […]

The technical mishap led to him pushing the instrument along the stage before flipping it over completely. He then performed the track a cappella.

Us Weekly reached out to representatives for Wallen at the time but did not hear back.

Fans took to Wallen’s TikTok video to comment on his cheeky response, with one person writing in the comments section, “I love seeing you clap back,” and another writing, “Hah! I was there … great concert!”

The praise follows criticism of Wallen’s piano flip, with fans expressing their disapproval across social media in light of the video circulating online. “Grown professional if you can believe it,” wrote one Instagram user, while another wrote, “From chairs in the streets of Nashville to flipping pianos. Wow, anger management may help. What a baby.”

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Related: Morgan Wallen Arrested After Allegedly Throwing Chair at Bar: See Mugshot

While some of country music’s biggest names gathered at the CMT Awards on Sunday, April 7, Morgan Wallen was reportedly getting into some trouble in Nashville. Footage of Wallen, 30, sitting in a police car outside of fellow musician Eric Church’s Chief’s Bar in downtown Music City went viral in the early hours of Monday, […]

The incident comes after a long run of controversial headlines sparked by Wallen since he rose to fame on season 6 of The Voice in 2014. He was arrested in May 2020 for public intoxication and disorderly conduct while partying at Kid Rock’s Nashville bar, Big Honky Tonk. Wallen was later cleared of both charges and apologized for his actions via X, then known as Twitter.

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He also claimed that year to have lost a Saturday Night Live hosting gig after he was seen out without a face mask and kissing multiple women at college bars. (COVID-19 pandemic mask mandates were in force at the time.)

When he did make his SNL debut as a musical guest in March 2025, he ruffled feathers again by abruptly walking off the stage prior to the show’s end credits rolling — a rare move by any cast member, let alone guest.

Wallen was also the subject of 2021 headlines after TMZ published footage of him using the N-word publicly amid widespread racial tension following the murder of George Floyd. He later apologized for using the word before promising to “do better.”

Meghan Markle has often shared glimpses of family life on social media, but one detail consistently stands out.

The mother of two rarely shows her children’s faces in photos and videos, despite freely appearing alongside her husband, Prince Harry.

Now, one royal observer believes the reason could be linked to a legal “loophole” that may allow the Duchess to feature her children online without triggering certain California child-protection requirements.

In recent months, attentive fans have noticed Meghan occasionally featuring her children in social media posts and even promotional content for her lifestyle brand.

However, their faces have remained largely hidden. Princess Lilibet’s face has never been publicly shown, while it has been years since Prince Archie’s face was prominently seen, most notably in the Sussexes’ Netflix documentary.

Amid continued speculation, one royal observer suggested that Meghan may be seeking to avoid running afoul of a little-known California law designed to protect the children of content creators and public figures.

“It turns out that California has a law, the ‘Child Vlogger Bill of Rights,’ that requires parents to put money into a trust fund for kids shown on social media for monetization purposes,” the commenter claimed, per Sky News.

“However, there is a loophole that if you don’t show the kids’ faces, you are exempt from this law,” the individual added.

Meghan Markle Shares More Glimpses Of Her Children

Last month, Meghan made several posts involving her children, beginning with a personal tribute to Archie on his seventh birthday.

She shared a carousel of images on Instagram that included throwback baby photos and a picture of Archie walking along a beach with Lilibet.

Days later, Meghan posted a rare mirror selfie showing Lilibet in a red dress with a matching scrunchie as the youngster helped her prepare for an appearance at a World Health Organization event.

In April, the Duchess also shared footage of her children taking part in an Easter egg hunt, though only their backs were visible. The video additionally featured clips of the children decorating the eggs they had collected.

Duchess Offers Rare Peek Into Family Life

Meghan recently offered another glimpse into family life by revealing the nicknames she uses for her children at home.

The former actress shared the details in a Memorial Day weekend video that appeared to double as a promotion for her lifestyle brand.

“My husband loves the raspberry, Lil loves the strawberry, and Arch likes both. And I like the marmalade,” Meghan said in the clip, which was filmed in a white kitchen.

In the accompanying caption, she promoted her fruit spread trio as being “inspired by the jams [she] has created in her own kitchen and shared over the years.”

“These spreads are crafted to highlight each fruit’s natural essence without overpowering it,” the caption further read.

Meghan Calls For Stronger Child Safety Protections

Meghan’s decision to occasionally feature her children on social media has drawn criticism from some quarters, with detractors accusing her of using them for commercial purposes.

Despite those complaints, the Duchess recently addressed children’s online safety during a speech at the Lost Screen Memorial in Geneva, Switzerland.

During her remarks, Meghan urged audiences to “speak up” against harmful online behavior and to “demand better from the platforms shaping our children’s lives.”

“Be an example in your own social media use of how to be intentional in every like, comment, post, and share. Hold your community to the same standard,” she added.

Meghan further encouraged listeners to “support laws and leaders committed to child safety by design, transparency, and accountability online.”

Meghan Markle’s Remarks Draw Mixed Reactions

While many supporters praised Meghan’s speech, it also drew criticism from political commentator Megyn Kelly.

“Would you take a look at the crowd that showed up… or didn’t? Literally nobody is on the side,” Kelly said during an episode of “The Megyn Kelly Show” on YouTube.

The commentator also referenced footage from the event, claiming that one attendee behind Meghan appeared disengaged.

“No one is listening to her. We have video of a woman behind her who basically is like putting the jacket on… yawning, stretching,” Kelly added.

The former Fox News broadcaster went on to argue that Meghan should stop bothering the public with her “fake profundities and fake title” and instead focus on living her life.

Amid his many musical honors and long-standing reputation as an LGBTQ+ advocate, Sir Elton John has opened up about what he truly wants his legacy to be, and it is not centered on music.

The “Rocket Man” singer also urged queer people to keep standing against political hostility, lamenting the setbacks the community has faced in recent years.

Elsewhere, John recently shared that he has finished another album at 79, and explained why the project feels different from anything he has made before.

Sir Elton John has built a career filled with global hits, sold-out shows, major honors, and film work, including “The Lion King.” But as he reflects on his legacy and mortality, the music icon says he does not want his greatest mark to be his entertainment career.

In a new interview with Out, John and his husband, David Furnish, discussed legacy and the importance of family.

Asked how he wants to be remembered, John said, “If my children are happy and know I gave everything I had to support and love them, that is enough for me.”

He added that while he has been honored for his music and tries to support rising artists, “being a father and building a family with David” will always matter most.

John Launches Impact Awards

John and Furnish are also marking Pride Month with a new initiative celebrating LGBTQ+ figures who have made a visible impact.

The couple partnered with iHeartMedia and Procter & Gamble for the Elton John Impact Awards, which will recognize names including Jonathan Bailey, Laverne Cox, Orville Peck, and Chappell Roan.

Explaining the reason behind the awards, John said he has watched people get punished simply for wanting to live openly. He said the initiative is meant to honor those who have remained courageous while also making clear that the work is not over.

“The awards exist because that courage deserves to be named and celebrated, not just assumed,” he said.

Elton John Speaks Out Against Political Hostility

Elsewhere in the interview, John addressed the political hostility facing the LGBTQ+ community in recent years.

The “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” singer urged queer people to keep standing together and speaking up, noting that visibility has long been central to the community’s survival.

“The hostility is real, and it is growing,” he said. “We are seeing rights rolled back, funding cuts, and communities that were already vulnerable being made more so. This is not a moment for silence or looking away.”

He added that the Elton John Impact Awards are one way of declaring that the community is “here,” “proud,” and “not going away.”

John Says Vision Loss Shifted His Songwriting

Although John has stopped touring, he has not stopped creating music.

While receiving the prestigious Glenn Gould Prize in Toronto last month, the “Tiny Dancer” singer revealed that he had completed a new album. He also explained how losing vision in his right eye forced him to rethink his songwriting process.

“I’ve had eye trouble recently, and I always make records by looking at lyrics and writing to lyrics, and so I’m kind of f-cked at the moment,” he said, per fan-captured footage.

John explained that the setback pushed him into a new method, which involves writing melodies first and letting the lyrics come afterward.

“I’ve never done that. And I’ve just done it,” he said.

Elton John Says His New Album Feels ‘Different’

John said the new album feels unlike anything else he has made, especially because of its joyful tone.

“It’s so happy,” he said. “I’m so thrilled with it because it’s given me another chance to make music.”

During a 2024 interview on “Good Morning America,” John revealed that he had lost vision in his right eye after getting an infection while spending the summer in France.

“It kind of floored me, and I can’t see anything. I can’t read anything, I can’t watch anything,” he said at the time.

Blockbuster anticipation is not just about size. Size is easy. A release date, a logo, a giant cast photo, a CinemaCon sizzle reel, none of that automatically means a movie has real heat in it. The blockbusters people go feral for usually promise something more specific. A return. A collision. A risk. A long-awaited payoff. A director getting too much money and enough trust to do something gloriously overcommitted. That is the difference between big movie and “I need opening night.”

And 2026 is packed with exactly that kind of argument. Legacy animation coming back for one more emotional swing, MCU stepping back in for a take over, Christopher Nolan probably at his post-production magic right now, there’s a lot at play. Here’s my take on these upcoming blockbuster movies by anticipation.

8

‘Supergirl’ (2026)

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

Supergirl is exciting, but it lands eighth for me because the anticipation is still a little more curious than feverish. Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock) is strong casting, Craig Gillespie is a very smart pick if DC wants this thing to feel rougher and stranger than standard cosmic-hero polish, and the early footage sounded pleasingly dirty, less pristine cape iconography, more interplanetary bus grime, pirates, spider droids, and bruised momentum. That is a good sign. It means the film might actually understand that Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow should feel harsher and sadder than people casually expect from the character. Warner Bros. has it set for June 26, 2026.

What keeps it here is simple: I still need the emotional lock. The best superhero anticipation has one image or one dramatic line that suddenly makes the whole film feel inevitable. Supergirl sounds promising, and the rougher space-western texture is exactly the right instinct, but I am not yet in that irrational clear zone for it. I can see it becoming one of the year’s nicest surprises but there’s also a chance for it to swivel toward that Madame Web zone.

7

‘Moana’ (2026)

Image via Disney

Moana sits here because the commercial confidence is obvious, though the emotional anticipation is a little more cautious. Moana (Catherine Laga’aia) plays the title role, and Maui (Dwayne Johnson) is back, which gives the project instant familiarity and star power. The trailer and CinemaCon material have leaned hard into the ocean, the songs, the broad family-adventure warmth, and the “we know this world already works” comfort play. From a pure blockbuster standpoint, that is smart. It is probably going to hit big.

But anticipation is not the same as confidence. With live-action Disney remakes, the question is always whether the film is uncovering something newly cinematic or just restaging inherited feeling at a larger budget level. Moana at least has a story strong enough to survive translation, identity, oceanic calling, cultural rootedness, self-doubt becoming purpose, but right now the pitch still feels more like a polished re-entry into familiar waters than a genuine leap. I am interested. I am not electrified.

6

‘Toy Story 5’ (2026)

Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Toy Story 5 is where anticipation starts becoming emotional risk. Pixar has the film dated for June 19, 2026, and the early material has already teased a “toys versus tech” angle, with Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), Woody (Tom Hanks), Jessie (Joan Cusack), and the gang confronting the fact that kids now have glowing screens competing with old imaginative play. That is a very smart hook, maybe almost too smart, since it gives the film an automatic generational ache before the plot has even properly started. Pixar has also previewed that Jessie will matter heavily, which is another reason fans are leaning in rather than just dutifully showing up.

Toy Story 3 already felt like the most emotionally complete ending imaginable, and even Toy Story 4 had to fight its way into legitimacy through pure execution. So every new installment carries suspicion alongside excitement. And that’s why I’m not too stoked for Toy Story 5. Still, the premise here has real juice. If the movie uses technology not as a boomer joke but as a way of asking what happens to old forms of companionship when attention itself has changed shape, this could really land.

5

4

‘Dune: Part Three’ (2026)

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

Dune: Part Three is where anticipation starts feeling almost religious. Denis Villeneuve has the film set for December 18, 2026, and the reporting around it has made clear that the film is adapting Dune Messiah territory while bringing back Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), Chani (Zendaya), Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), Stilgar (Javier Bardem), Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), and others, with Anya Taylor-Joy moving from tease to major presence and additional casting widening the next phase of the saga. Even before release, Warner Bros. was reporting major IMAX demand, which tells you how much faith audiences already have in Villeneuve’s control over this world.

And the reason the anticipation is so high is that Messiah material is where the triumph starts turning poisonous. The first two films built awe. The third one, if Villeneuve really goes for it, gets to build consequence. Paul as messiah-emperor is not simple blockbuster victory architecture. It is political dread, religious corrosion, intimacy damaged by destiny, charisma curdling into catastrophe. That makes this more exciting to me than a standard Part Three gets bigger situation. It has a chance to become the chapter where the franchise stops being merely majestic and becomes haunting.

3

‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ (2026)

Image via Sony Pictures Releasing

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is one of the easiest top-three placements on the list since the emotional setup is so clean. No Way Home ended with Peter Parker (Tom Holland) stripped down to almost nothing, no public identity, no Avengers-status cushioning, no MJ (Zendaya), no Ned (Jacob Batalon), no social safety net, just the character in his loneliest and most stripped-back form in years. Sony announced the title Spider-Man: Brand New Day and has it set for July 31, 2026, and the early trade messaging has already leaned into the idea that this is a more grown-up Peter story. That is exactly the right pitch.

What makes me so excited is that Spider-Man is often best when his world gets smaller before it gets larger again. Not smaller in stakes, smaller in belonging. He is more vulnerable when he has something to lose and nobody to call. Holland coming back after that ending gives this movie immediate emotional leverage. You can feel the possibility of reset without erasure, of a bruised, more adult Peter trying to rebuild identity from scratch while the larger Marvel machine circles in the background. If they keep it street-level enough to hurt and expansive enough to feel cinematic, this could absolutely be one of the year’s most crowd-pleasing blockbusters.

2

‘Avengers: Doomsday’ (2026)

Image via Marvel Studios

Avengers: Doomsday is one of the year’s major pressure points. Marvel and Disney pushed the film to December 18, 2026, Joe Russo and Anthony Russo are back, and Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.) gives the whole project an enormous amount of theatrical voltage even before you get into the sprawling cast configuration. The official cast rollout and the subsequent trade coverage made it crystal clear that Marvel is treating this as one of its major re-consolidation plays, not just another phase installment.

The pressure itself is exciting. Marvel is at its most interesting when the project feels slightly too big to control. That is when the anticipation turns nervous in the best way. Can they make the MCU feel like a true event machine again? Can they turn Doom into something more than stunt casting? Can the Russos recapture the disciplined escalation that made earlier Avengers finales feel like mass-viewing rituals rather than noisy obligations? I am not calm about this movie, and that is part of why it ranks so high.

1

‘The Odyssey’ (2026)

Image via Universal Pictures

The Odyssey had to be number one. Christopher Nolan adapting The Odyssey with Odysseus (Matt Damon) and one of the most intimidatingly stacked blockbuster casts in years, including Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, Benny Safdie, and others, already sounds like a studio flex from a healthier era. Universal has it opening July 17, 2026, and the trade coverage plus trailer rollout have only reinforced the scale of the thing. This is not being sold as a modest literary prestige adaptation. It is being sold as an event epic, a giant myth-machine in the hands of a director who already treats time, ordeal, and masculine obsession like sacred cinematic fuel.

And emotionally, this is the easiest number one on the page. The Odyssey is one of the foundational adventure stories for a reason: monsters, gods, shipwrecks, seductions, war aftershock, homecoming as trauma, identity proved through endurance. In Nolan’s hands, that material could become overwhelming in the best possible way, stern, huge, mournful, ecstatic, physically punishing. More than any other title here, this is the one that feels like it could give blockbuster cinema something it has been missing: grandeur without plasticity. Not just scale, but scale with blood in it. That is the dream. That is why it sits at the top.

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The Odyssey

Release Date

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July 17, 2026

Runtime

172 Minutes

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Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Episode 4 of Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed

Tatiana Maslany‘s Paula in Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed is really going through, well, a lot. Created by David Rosen, Apple TV’s comedic thriller sees the newly-divorced soccer mom doing her best to keep her perpetually chaotic and messy life in check as much as she possibly can — only to have a completely unexpected blackmail-murder scandal upend everything. Could her once-trusted Cam Boy Trevor (Brandon Flynn) really be behind all of this? And will her nosey, judgy co-workers (Charlie Hall and Kiarra Hamagami Goldberg) actually prove to be… helpful?

Those are just two of the many questions in desperate need of answers in the addictive Apple TV show, with Episode 4 of the freshman series peeling back some key layers to Karl (Jake Johnson) and his wife Mallory (Jessy Hodges) that provide some much-needed context to Paula’s previous marriage, while also raising even more questions about what happened years ago in Portland with the police and Paula.

Episode 4 feels a lot like a bottle episode, as the main narrative is briefly paused in order for us to see the exact moment things started to really shift in Paula and Karl’s marriage. But if there’s anyone up for the challenge of pulling off such a complex, charming, and engaging performance needed to anchor such a twisted series, it’s the endlessly impressive Tatiana Maslany. During this interview with Collider, the Orphan Black and She-Hulk star dissects what makes Paula such a magnetic character, why Paula decides to trust Rudy and Geri, and how Episode 4 challenges the narrative we’ve seen so far.

Tatiana Maslany Was Drawn to ‘Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed’s Unpredictability

“Paula was a question mark for me.”

Image via Apple TV

COLLIDER: You’re fantastic in this show and such a great anchor and lead. I want to start with a little bit of a fun question. Obviously, Paula has an outlet for pleasure, as we see. Is there something that you watch or that you do that immediately will turn your mood around?

TATIANA MASLANY: Yes. Going dancing, even if it’s by myself. But dancing is for sure. I don’t think there’s anything that I… Oh, you know what? I just watched Love on the Spectrum, and that did it for me for sure.

Good choices. What’s so great about Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed is that you’re able to be so funny and have such great line deliveries, and then you can immediately just be an emotional mess and really intense. What was your first impression when you were pitched the series and read the first script?

MASLANY: That, for me, was the delight in it. I couldn’t put my finger on the genre or the tone, and I consistently was asking David Rosen and David Gordon Green, “Is there anything that you kind of compare it to?” And they were like, “Kind of this, kind of that.” But it felt like it was its own creation in a lot of ways. The thing that I loved — I felt it in reading it, but I really felt it in doing it — was that each scene had so much potential. The writers are so fantastic. Within all the scenes, there is humor, there’s a kind of brutality, there’s pain, there’s lightness, there’s all these possibilities. And that, just as an actor, is a real exciting thing to get to try to do, and with all these actors who are so spontaneous and open and have comedic timing and also dramatic chops, it was really fun. I felt like Paula was a question mark for me. I didn’t know her, and I couldn’t place her. I felt like she was at a place where she didn’t know who she was, so it was just an incredibly powerful, visceral read when I read it.

Do you have a process for any project when you start to get into a character? Did it differ at all for this one?

MASLANY: Yeah, it differs for every project. I used to have quite a studious thing, but now I sort of try to follow what my instinct is. Sometimes it’s doing a lot of research, it’s reading books, it’s fiction, it’s whatever, it’s movement, it’s study of some kind. But for Paula, it was really like being present with everything that I was feeling when I was reading the script. Just like with the moment in my life — I was about to turn 40 — there was a sense of, “What is it to be at this age, and you don’t know who you are?” The heartbreak of the grief of that and the feeling of being a kid still when you’re thrust into this really adult world of divorces and of exes and of all that stuff like it. The process was a little nebulous and hard to place.

Creating Paula and Hazel’s Bond in ‘Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed’ Was Easy for Maslany

“Both of us have that sense of play.”

Image via Apple TV

Paula is hard to play, so that makes sense. Probably my favorite part of the show are your scenes with Hazel. Paula and Hazel’s relationship is so beautiful. I really felt like I was spying on a real mother-daughter duo. It was so authentic. What was that energy like on set?

MASLANY: [Nola Wallace] is so great. And from the start, she was so great. I think the first thing we shot was just me sending her off to school, and she was listening in every moment. I like to do everything different every single time, and when you’re working with an actor, they’ll respond differently, or they’ll give you something different. She’s no exception. She would improvise lines, she would try different things. If I changed something, she would totally respond to how I was doing it differently. Both of us have a sense of play. We could really find that thing in Paula and Hazel that is like their united thing, which is goofiness and ease with each other. That kind of thing felt very natural for Nola and I.

It seemed so natural, and it was really fun to watch. And heartbreaking at times, of course.

‘Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed’ Episode 4 Reveals Different Sides to Our Core Characters

“We see this other thing in Paula that’s reckless.”

I want to talk about Episode 4 a little bit. I like when shows take a step back and zoom out. We get different POVs of characters that we thought we knew. It was a really hard episode for Paula, because we start to see why her marriage started to crumble, and I now view Mallory differently and Karl differently. What stood out to you about that episode in particular? Did you feel like Paula was a different character?

MASLANY: Yeah. I think a lot of Paula at that point in her life is sleepwalking, in a way. She’s sort of become very comfortable with just everything as-is. She doesn’t really see what’s happening, even though she does see what’s happening. I think she also has a lot of rage. I think that rage is easy to dance on top of when you’re sort of laughing and joking, and you’re not really present in your own life. As soon as this sort of stuff is happening with Mallory, and we see this other thing in Paula that’s reckless. I think what’s cool about Episode 4. It has all of these twists and turns, but they’re just interpersonal and they’re just sort of inside of Paula’s experience. We can side with her and sort of feel empathy for her and sort of horror that her husband is clearly cheating on her or maybe cheating on her. By the end, I think that there’s a real question around Paula’s culpability and her volitional actions and whether she is operating with a lot of awareness or not. I think what it does really beautifully is add this other layer to Paula. We’ve sort of been following her story for the whole series, and now we’re given this extra thing that sort of challenges what we know about her and what we feel about her.

New York City is kind of its own character in the show. I know that David Rosen grew up there and lived there a while and put a lot of thought into New York City itself. What was it like approaching New York City as its own character?

MASLANY: I feel like New York City is like the most working city on the planet in terms of its ability to be a separate piece of a movie that is so vital to everything about that movie and the story and the history and everything. For me as a Canadian [Laughs] it’s like such a city. It’s the city, you know what I mean? It was very fun to be in areas that aren’t what you would see glamorized or romanticized about the city. More just neighborhoods and day-to-day stuff. We shot in every area, we were all over the place. Sometimes, two or three times a day, we’d be shifting whole locations with the unit move and everything. It was a very “alive” feeling. I’d only shot two separate films there and one day on each of those films, so this was the longest I’d been filming there. It’s totally its own beast.

It felt like that. I can feel the show being chaotic. It really felt like New York City is a perfect chaotic setting.

MASLANY: Yeah. Yeah, totally.

I also really loved your scenes with Charlie Hall and Kiarra Hamagami Goldberg. It was so interesting because, at the beginning, you feel like they’re just going to be these antagonists for her that just get in her way and provide laughs, but then they really become a huge part of the plot. What was it like filming those scenes with them in the office? It felt like there was a lot of improv.

MASLANY: Yeah, there’s improv. There’s also a lot that is tightly scripted, but just feels playful because Rosen and all the writers are such incredible writers. Charlie and Kiarra have such a specific dynamic, and for Paula, she does see them as sort of this nuisance for most of the beginning of the series, and then she has nowhere else to turn, she turns to these two people who, by all accounts, are, again, the incorrect people to go to with any of these problems that she’s having. But they’re sort of unbiased, and they’re neutral, in a way. They’re not wrapped up, they don’t know anything about her. She can kind of start from scratch with them and introduce them to who she is in this very intimate way that sometimes we can only do with strangers. It makes sense to me that they would be the kind of people she would approach because she had such an intimate relationship with a Cam Boy, who is being paid to be intimate with her, but who she totally feels real intimacy with. Paula doesn’t necessarily have the soundest of radars, but she always makes an interesting choice.

Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed airs Wednesdays on Apple TV.