The 10 Most Exciting Movies To Look Out For This Summer

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: blockbuster season. While there’s never a bad time to be a fan of the movies, there’s just something about the summer. The stress of awards season has come and gone, paving the way for pure, popcorn-munching fun. And this year’s selection definitely won’t disappoint. Though Marvel has a more modest presence this summer, Spider-Man is far from the only superhero returning to the big screen: DC also returns with the next chapter of its Superman Saga. Elsewhere, Star Wars returns to theaters after a seven-year hiatus, while Christopher Nolan delivers his latest film since the Oscar-winning Oppenheimer.

2026 will be a great year for sci-fi, horror, and fantasy alike. Here are the 10 most exciting films to keep on your radar this summer.

I Love Boosters

Boots Riley made a triumphant return at this year’s SXSW Film & TV Festival with I Love Boosters. His second feature bears plenty of similarities to his other work, but it just might be his best effort yet. If you liked his series I’m a Virgo, you’ll find plenty to love with his zany heist; if you wanted a bit more from his debut, Sorry to Bother You, you won’t be disappointed by his sophomore film. Riley assembles a pitch-perfect quartet — Naomi Ackie, Keke Palmer, Taylour Paige, and Poppy Liu — to play a group of outlaws on a mission to stick it to an exploitative designer (Demi Moore). Zany, cartoonish gags live side by side with Riley’s cutting anti-capitalist messaging, making for an unorthodox (but no less exciting) summer romp.

Release date: May 22, 2026

The Mandalorian and Grogu

Can Din Djarin and Baby Yoda — sorry, Grogu — save Star Wars? There’s a big galaxy to worry about, and it’s been in flux since the franchise’s last outing on the big screen. Lucasfilm took seven long years to regroup, with The Mandalorian emerging as its most promising, powerful lifeline. Whether its infamous duo can deliver the same success in a blockbuster capacity remains to be seen, but The Mandalorian and Grogu is ready to take the risk. Din and his adopted son are headed on their biggest adventure yet, teaming up with a buff Hutt (voiced by The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White), a former Rebel pilot (Sigourney Weaver), and a host of strange aliens to prevent another galactic conflict.

Release date: May 22, 2026

Backrooms

There’s a corner of the internet that feels like a universe unto itself, with worlds of lore, urban legends, and terrifying stories that only those of a certain generation are intimately familiar with. It’s from this corner that A24’s latest horror, Backrooms, hails, making director Kane Parsons — the youngest-ever in A24 history — the one filmmaker uniquely qualified to bring this hidden realm to the masses. Parsons himself created some of the most popular lore surrounding the Backrooms phenomenon, building out a narrative thread through a series of found-footage-inspired YouTube videos. That narrative will likely serve as the backbone for Parsons’ directorial debut, which places Chiwetel Ejiofor’s everyman at the center of a labyrinthine conspiracy.

Release date: May 29, 2026

Masters of the Universe

He has the power, but it’s been decades since he’s wielded it on the big screen. Nearly 40 years after his last adventure, He-Man is back with a fresh look. Nicholas Galitzine takes up the sword as He-Man — the first live-action He-Man since Dolph Lundgren brought the warrior to life in 1987 — in the new Masters of the Universe. In so many ways, He-Man was the OG action franchise: It hails from a time before Marvel, DC, or its contemporaries dominated the zeitgeist. That it’s back for another bout in a post-superhero world feels almost quaint, but with Travis Knight (the director behind Kubo and the Two Strings and Bumblebee) behind the camera, this dose of hopecore could be just what we need right now.

Release date: June 5, 2026

Disclosure Day

At this point in the career of Steven Spielberg, it’s less a question of whether the director believes in extraterrestrial life and more about how he thinks those extraterrestrials would reveal themselves to humanity. The director of such alien encounters as E.T. and War of the Worlds staunchly doubts that we’re alone in the universe — in fact, Spielberg believes that aliens might walk among us already. But how have they remained hidden, and more important, why? It’s those questions that Spielberg seems the most interested in answering now. His latest film, Disclosure Day, follows a group of civilians as they attempt to uncover a decades-long conspiracy involving aliens on Earth. The “social dislocation” that the truth inspires seems to be just the tip of the iceberg for this adventure: With a huge chunk of this story still under wraps, there may be more to worry about than the errant UFO.

Release date: June 12, 2026

The Death of Robin Hood

Hugh Jackman has mastered the art of playing the grizzled, haunted warrior: As Wolverine, he’s lived a hundred lives, each more gruesome than the last. Though his time as one of Marvel’s most enduring heroes seems to be finally nearing its end, Jackman might have found the next best thing. His latest film takes the medieval legend Robin Hood and gives him the Logan treatment, with director Michael Sarnoski reintroducing Robin Hood as more than just a thief. He’s a man who stooped to unspeakable depths to steal from the rich and now looks back on his life with regret. He gets a second chance at redemption, but turning over a new leaf before his past catches up to him will be easier said than done.

Release date: June 19, 2026

Supergirl

The next phase of James Gunn’s Superman Saga is finally here, but don’t expect a major appearance from David Corenswet’s Man of Steel. Instead, it’s his cousin Kara (Milly Alcock) taking center stage in an adventure that will span the cosmos. Based on Tom King’s celebrated series Woman of Tomorrow, Supergirl delivers a new origin story for its titular heroine. She’s the polar opposite of Kal-El, which means that her upcoming film will feel a lot less like Superman and a lot closer to the tone of Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy: irreverent, angsty, and anarchic. It’s also taking a page from space operas like Star Wars, throwing an alien warrior, a ruthless space pirate, and an interstellar bounty hunter into the mix. The DC Universe just got that much more cosmic.

Release date: June 26, 2026

The Odyssey

The trailers for Christopher Nolan’s latest epic, The Odyssey, aren’t particularly climactic — but that’s entirely by design. Nolan has always been the type to keep the scope of his films close to the chest, and that element of mystery only makes them feel more like spectacles. It doesn’t get much bigger than The Odyssey, the original epic story. It’s set to be one of Nolan’s most fantastic films: Fans have wondered how the typically understated director would depict such elements as sirens, a Cyclops, and the pantheon of Greek gods. Nolan has only offered teases so far, but we fortunately won’t have to wait much longer to see how Odysseus (Matt Damon) manages to sail back home after the events of the Trojan War.

Release date: July 17, 2026

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Spider-Man: No Way Home closed the door for a major chapter of Peter Parker’s (Tom Holland) life — but it also opened a window. The webslinger was forced back to square one after a brush with his multiverse of villains; when we meet him again in Brand New Day, no one from his old life remembers him. More than that, Peter seems to be undergoing some kind of eerie transformation. Between bouts with the ninja clan known as the Hand and mysterious telepaths, Spider-Man will be forced to level up in more ways than one. It won’t be easy, but at least the hero finally feels just a little bit closer to the Spider-Man fans know, love, and have been begging to see in the MCU for years.

Release date: July 31, 2026

The End of Oak Street