Hollywood loads 2026 with epic franchises

Hollywood’s biggest studios are loading the 2026 release calendar with heavyweight franchises and familiar titles, promising a year dominated by superheroes, sci-fi epics, animated favourites and horror revivals as audiences head back to cinemas for large-scale spectacle.

The year opens with ‘Return to Silent Hill’, a dark psychological horror in which a man is pulled back to the cursed town after receiving a mysterious letter from a lost love whose memory he cannot escape.

Marvel swings back into the frame with ‘Avengers: Doomsday’, reuniting big-name stars under Anthony and Joe Russo for another universe-shaking chapter, while ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ sees Peter Parker again struggle to leave heroics behind when danger threatens friends.

Denis Villeneuve continues his sweeping Frank Herbert saga with ‘Dune: Part Three’, following Muad’dib’s rise towards unimaginable power as ancient plans move closer to fruition in a stark universe of prophecy, politics and rebellion.

Disney’s power franchises also return, including ‘Toy Story 5’, where Woody, Buzz and Jessie face the challenge of modern electronics threatening playtime, and a live-action retelling of ‘Moana’, led by Catherine Laga’aia with Dwayne Johnson reprising Maui.

The ‘Star Wars’ universe widens with ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’, sending Din Djarin and his small companion on another galaxy-spanning adventure, promising a blend of western-style action and big-screen space mythology for loyal fans.

DC turns its focus to ‘Supergirl’, a darker origin story for Kara Zor-El before her arrival on Earth, while ‘Clayface’ explores the tragic, shape-shifting Gotham figure who drifts between villainy and uneasy alliance with Batman.

Horror keeps its claws in the schedule through titles such as ‘Scream 7’, ‘Evil Dead Burn’, ‘Terrifier 4’ and ‘Thread: An Insidious Tale’, alongside the return of the apocalyptic ‘28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’.

Younger audiences are courted with ‘PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie’, ‘Minions 3’ and ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’, underlining how animation and family franchises remain reliable box-office engines for studios chasing global numbers.

Elsewhere, ‘Masters of the Universe’ brings He-Man back to the screen, ‘Mortal Kombat II’ resumes its brutal tournament saga, and ‘The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping’ rewinds Panem’s story to Haymitch Abernathy’s deadly youth.

Twenty years after the first ‘Devil Wears Prada’ comes a sequel with the same writer-director-producer trio and many of the same actors reprising their roles. The plot itself isn’t fully known, but it will presumably follow 2013’s ‘Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns’, the sequel to the original novel.

With familiar brands, bankable nostalgia and high-stakes storytelling dominating the slate, 2026 already looks like another year where franchise power will dictate the shape of the global box office – for better or worse.