The 21 most anticipated movies of the summer

Director Mike Flanagan’s third Stephen King adaptation – after Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep – steps aside from the pure horror genre both the author and the filmmaker are known for. Instead, it’s an exploration of what it means to be alive – and more specifically, what life means when the world is literally coming to an end. Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Jacob Tremblay and Mark Hamill highlight a stellar cast.

In US cinemas Jun 6 and UK cinemas Aug 22

With every new movie, Wes Anderson seems to retreat further into his dollhouse of obsessions, and if you’re already with him, you’re bonded for life – and if not, he’s always going to live up to every single cliche. Nothing appears terribly different with his 12th feature, a spy comedy starring Benicio del Toro as a billionaire pursued by any number of schemers looking to nab a piece of his fortune. As usual, the full cast is ridiculous in terms of size and star power, but the standout name might be Michael Cera, in an apparently significant role, if only because it’s crazy to think he somehow hasn’t been in a Wes Anderson movie before.

In cinemas worldwide Jun 6

Celine Song follows up 2023’s quietly complex Past Lives with what, on the surface, appears to be an old-fashioned romcom – albeit one that appears heavier on the ‘rom’ than the ‘com’, based on the trailer. Dakota Johnson is a professional matchmaker who violates much of her own advice and ends up in a love triangle with rich guy Pedro Pascal and lowly caterer Chris Evans. (Yes, a poor caterer who still looks like Chris Evans.) It seems awfully traditional, but Song’s debut earned a lot of faith that it’ll go deeper than the trailer lets on.

In cinemas worldwide Jun 13

Acclaimed playwright Rebecca Lenkiewicz makes her directorial debut with an adaptation of Deborah Levy’s 2016 novel. A daughter (Sex Education’s Emma Mackey) and mother (the great Fiona Shaw) travel to the Spanish coast during an oppressively hot summer in search of a miracle cure for the latter’s illness, only to find their relationship fraying under the blistering sun. Sounds wrenching. 

In US theaters Jun 27 and UK cinemas Jul 4

Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski trades dogfights for hairpin turns in this big-money sports-racing drama, starring Brad Pitt as a Formula 1 legend coming out of retirement to train a promising young driver. The final budget is allegedly massive – and based on the action-packed trailers and a banger of a soundtrack, it’s been money well spent.

In cinemas worldwide Jun 27

Movies have mostly avoided looking back on the pandemic era, but leave it to director Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar) to make what looks like the first ‘quarantine western’. Set in May 2020, it stars Joaquin Phoenix as a sheriff in small-town New Mexico butting heads with the mayor, played by the omnipresent Pedro Pascal. Emma Stone looks to be playing Phoenix’s daughter, while Austin Butler seems to be doing a Tom Cruise-in-Magnolia as a hunky preacher. The poster also depicts buffalos freefalling into a canyon like lemmings – actual scene or metaphor? With Aster, probably both. 

In cinemas worldwide July 18

Zach Cregger, formerly a member of the sketch comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U'Know, made a splash in the horror genre with 2022’s Barbarian, a wildly unpredictable creeper whose audacious scares could make you scream and laugh at the same time. Maybe it’s a swerve, but his followup looks decidedly darker. All that’s known of the plot is that it involves a class of schoolkids in a small town who disappear from their homes in the middle of the night – but the teaser, showing children sprinting down streets and across suburban lawns under the cover of darkness, is uniquely chilling.

In cinemas worldwide Aug 8

Highly touted out of Sundance, not much is known about writer-director Michael Shanks’ body-horror feature, other than that it stars real-life couple Alison Brie and David Franco. But the trailer is sufficiently disquieting as just a series of disconnected images. What’s that string Franco is yanking out from between his wife? What’s up with those dogs? What kind of orifice is that? And is that their eyelashes fusing together at the end?

In US cinemas Aug 1 and UK cinemas Aug 21 

The smash hit (in every sense) John Wick franchise powers off in a new direction with Ana de Armas as a dancer with moves more lethal than Tony Manero. As a hit woman trained in the ways of the Russian Roma, the No Time To Die star will strut her stuff as a leading lady with serious action chops. Old John Wick warriors Lance Reddick, Ian McShane and, of course, Keanu Reeves will be along for the ride, too. But can it match John Wick’s box office? 

In cinemas Jun 6

Inside Out 2’s box-office-breaking success proved there’s still some juice in Pixar’s existing IP, but it’s been a while since the studio has produced a fresh hit. Whether this one turns out to be a phenomenon or not, at least it looks pretty fun. When an alien-obsessed boy’s dream of being sucked up into a UFO comes true, he finds himself stuck in the middle of extraterrestrial family drama, leading him on a cosmic adventure and journey of self-discovery. 

In cinemas worldwide Jun 20

What are the odds that another group of teens, in the same town, would commit vehicular manslaughter, cover it up, then get hunted down by yet another vengeful fisherman-themed maniac? Pretty high, apparently. Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr, having been through this very particular scenario before, return to offer advice to a new generation of reckless-driving teens. All cynicism aside, the harpoon kill teased in the trailer looks gnarlier than anything in the first film. 

In cinemas worldwide July 18

However you feel about Adam Sandler, if you grew up in the ‘90s, it’s hard not to smirk with delight over the return of his best cinematic character, the rageful hockey goon turned championship golfer incongruously named Happy Gilmore. Honestly, the bar for success for this legacy sequel – which sees Gilmore coming out of retirement for a senior tour, wearing Timbs and a baggy Boston Bruins jersey – is pretty low. Since Bob Barker is no longer with us, it’ll mostly depend on who he fist-fights on the green this time around. Eminem, Bad Bunny and Travis Kelce apparently all make cameos, so place bets now.

On Netflix July 25

Did you know it’s not illegal to remake The Naked Gun? Nor is it possible to file an injunction prohibiting Seth MacFarlane from being involved. Anyway, it’s happening, indeed with a story from the Family Guy guy and directed by the Lonely Island’s Akiva Schaffer. Liam Neeson has been cast as Frank Drebin Jr, spoofing his own gravitas in the spirit of the late Leslie Nielsen. And Schaffer did direct a comedy classic of his own in 2016’s Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. And the cast also includes rapper Busta Rhymes, pro-wrestler Cody Rhodes and the resurgent Pamela Anderson. Maybe this could work after all.

In cinemas worldwide Aug 1

Darren Aronofsky doesn’t really do ‘capers’, but his ninth feature appears to be his most antic film yet. Based on the book by Charlie Huston, it stars Austin Butler as a onetime baseball phenom sucked into the criminal underworld of late ‘90s New York by a case of mistaken identity, bringing him into contact with mohawked punks, Orthodox Jewish mobsters and Puerto Rican gangsters. Zoë Kravitz, Griffin Dunne, Carol Kane, Bad Bunny and Action Bronson are also in the cast. Seems fun – another phrase you don’t often associate with Aronofsky.

In cinemas worldwide Aug 29

Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman are a warring married couple in the throes of divorce in this slapstick satire, a remake of the 1989 comedy based on the Warren Adler novel – a somewhat peculiar replacement for Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, the stars of the original film. Great as they are, their buttoned-down Britishness doesn’t seem quite suited for a husband and wife attacking each other with crabs and weaponised oranges. But maybe that’ll work in its favour.

In cinemas worldwide Aug 29