Wuthering Heights to The Odyssey: 16 of the most exciting films coming up in 2026 – BBC

Critics and cinephiles are already marking calendars for 2026: from Emerald Fennell’s polarising take on Wuthering Heights (released 13 February) to Christopher Nolan’s epic The Odyssey (17 July), the year’s slate mixes literary adaptations, franchise tentpoles and auteur projects. This roundup highlights 16 films with confirmed release dates, notable directors and headline casting, and points to the commercial and cultural questions they raise for studios and audiences alike. Several projects reunite legacy casts or revive dormant properties, while others—both original and adapted—seek prestige and box-office heft. The selection below summarises what to expect, why each title matters, and which developments remain unclear.

Key takeaways

• Sixteen high-profile films from February–December 2026 are under wide theatrical release, including Wuthering Heights (13 Feb), The Bride (6 Mar), and The Odyssey (17 Jul).
• Major auteurs are prominent: Christopher Nolan (The Odyssey) and Ridley Scott (The Dog Stars) both have summer and late‑summer tentpoles with star-driven casts.
• Franchise entries anchor the year: Toy Story 5 (19 Jun), The Mandalorian and Grogu (22 May) and Avengers: Doomsday (18 Dec) aim for mass audiences.
• Several sequels/prequels revisit older IP: Practical Magic 2 (18 Sep), The Devil Wears Prada 2 (1 May) and The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (20 Nov) continue long-running properties.
• A number of films reunite original or legacy performers: Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman return for Practical Magic 2; Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway reprise roles in The Devil Wears Prada 2.
• Auteur-driven adaptations and original projects—The Bride, Digger, Mother Mary and Disclosure Day—signal studios balancing prestige with commercial bets.
• Release spacing shows a summer focus on blockbusters (May–July) and an awards/holiday push in autumn and winter (September–December).
• Social-media controversy has already surrounded some casting and stylistic choices, notably Wuthering Heights; studios face reputational as well as commercial risk.

Background

Studio release calendars in 2026 reflect a post-pandemic model where theatrical premieres remain central for tentpole titles, while prestige and auteur films seek festival buzz and awards season placement. Major franchises continue to dominate studio planning: Marvel’s Avengers films and legacy properties such as Toy Story have proven box-office multipliers, prompting studios to schedule them in windows that maximise global attendance. At the same time, streaming-era successes on television—The Mandalorian among them—now convert into cinematic projects when a property’s audience scale justifies theatrical investment.

Another trend is nostalgia and literary adaptation. Several 2026 films are direct adaptations of canonical texts or revivals of older cinema—Wuthering Heights and Sense & Sensibility among them—while franchises are mined for prequels or continuations (Hunger Games prequel; Narnia). Studios pair familiar IP with star casts and auteur names to create cross-demographic appeal: established stars draw older viewers, while celebrity-driven soundtracks and social-media marketing aim at younger audiences.

Main event

Wuthering Heights (13 February) is one of the earliest and most talked-about releases. Emerald Fennell has described her film as a visceral, adolescent-rooted reading of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel, and the production’s stylised visuals—red costumes and saturated skies—have divided critics and purists. The casting of Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi prompted debate online about age and racial representation; the film also features Hong Chau as Nelly and Owen Cooper as a younger Heathcliff.

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey (17 July) is arguably the most high-profile summer event. Nolan adapts Homer’s ancient epic with a sprawling cast—Matt Damon as Odysseus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope and Tom Holland as Telemachus—and promises large-scale battle sequences alongside intimate character work. Early previews show Nolan’s trademark blend of spectacle and human focus; a Trojan horse sequence has been flagged in promotional footage.

Franchise highlights include Toy Story 5 (19 June), which updates the series for an era of tablet and digital playthings, and Avengers: Doomsday (18 December), a major MCU convergence that reportedly reunites many legacy characters. The Mandalorian and Grogu (22 May) brings Jon Favreau’s popular Disney+ characters to cinemas with a story pitched as both adventure and a meditation on parenthood. Meanwhile, Practical Magic 2 (18 September) reunites Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman nearly three decades after the original.

Auteur and mid‑budget films also populate the schedule. Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars (28 August) returns the director to science fiction with a pandemic-set survival tale starring Jacob Elordi and Josh Brolin. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride (6 March) reimagines the Bride of Frankenstein in 1930s Chicago with Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale. Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Digger (2 October) pairs Tom Cruise with an unexpected comic tone, billed as a “comedy of catastrophic proportions.” These projects signal studios’ willingness to back directors with established reputations.

Analysis & implications

The 2026 slate demonstrates studios pursuing a two-track strategy: invest heavily in bankable franchises while maintaining an auteur corridor for prestige and awards potential. This mirrors previous studio behaviour where blockbusters bankroll riskier films; however, the scale and frequency of franchise returns (Avengers, Toy Story, Hunger Games) suggest a higher dependence on IP than in pre‑streaming eras. If multiple tentpoles succeed, studios will likely double down on universe-building and legacy cast returns.

Talent economics are also central. Reuniting legacy stars (e.g., Streep, Hathaway, Bullock, Kidman) reduces marketing friction because audience recognition is high, but salary and profit-participation demands are also larger. Meanwhile, attaching auteurs such as Nolan or Iñárritu transfers audience trust in creative quality, which can boost critical reception and awards prospects—key for prestige-driven titles like The Bride or The Odyssey.

Audience fragmentation remains a practical challenge. Blockbusters still aim for worldwide theatrical grosses, but mid-budget auteur films increasingly rely on festival acclaim and targeted marketing. Streaming platforms and theatrical windows continue to tussle over release strategies: hybrid or short-window models may be used selectively depending on a film’s expected box-office pull and awards potential.

Comparison & data

The table above samples eight headline titles to illustrate release clustering: a spring awards push (Feb–Mar), a blockbuster summer (May–Jul) and franchise/holiday heavy December. This pattern reflects studios’ attempts to capture families and international markets in mid-year windows while reserving early-year and autumn for prestige fare.

Reactions & quotes

“I wanted to make something that was the book that I experienced when I was 14,”

Emerald Fennell (director, on her Wuthering Heights approach)

Fennell’s comment has been widely reported and is often cited to explain the adaptation’s deliberately youthful, sexualised tone, which has contributed to both anticipation and backlash online.

“The genius of the character… the cleverness, the inventiveness of him, was a huge part of what interested me,”

Christopher Nolan (on adapting Odysseus)

Nolan’s remark frames The Odyssey as an attempt to foreground Odysseus’s intellect and resourcefulness, suggesting the film will balance spectacle with cerebral character work.

Unconfirmed

• Whether Disclosure Day is directly connected to Close Encounters of the Third Kind is speculative; studio marketing has not confirmed any canonical sequel status.
• Details about the full roster of returning characters in Avengers: Doomsday and the extent of their screen time remain unverified by independent studio statements.
• Reports of online backlash over Wuthering Heights casting and visual choices are documented, but the extent to which this will affect box-office turnout is uncertain.

Bottom line

2026 is shaping up to be a commercial and editorially diverse year for cinema: big‑budget tentpoles aim for global grosses and fandom reunions, while auteur projects and literary adaptations pursue critical acclaim and awards positioning. Studios are hedging by combining reliable franchises with riskier prestige bets, a strategy likely to continue if box-office returns validate the model.

For viewers, the year offers a wide palette—from family animation and franchise spectacles to provocative literary and auteur work. Watching how audiences and critics respond will be instructive for studio planning in 2027 and beyond: box-office performance, awards recognition and social-media discourse will collectively determine whether 2026’s mix is a template or a transition.

Sources

• BBC Culture — Films to watch in 2026 (media/press)
• Empire — interview excerpts and previews (film magazine)