{"id":1018082,"date":"2026-08-23T00:29:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T00:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1018082\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T00:29:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T00:29:21","slug":"the-15-most-exciting-fall-2026-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1018082\/","title":{"rendered":"The 15 Most Exciting Fall 2026 Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite major box office wins for films like The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, this summer at the movies otherwise felt a little quiet. The projects that most assumed would be surefire successes \u2014 like, say, DC\u2019s Supergirl<\/a>, or The Mandalorian and Grogu<\/a> \u2014 didn\u2019t make nearly as big a splash as anticipated, making 2026 a subversive year for the world\u2019s biggest franchises. And there\u2019s sure to be more surprises as summer gives way to fall.<\/p>\n

Blockbuster season may be reaching its end, but this year\u2019s slate is heating up all the same. Superhero fans will get a bit of a lull until December, when Marvel returns with the latest Avengers film. Meanwhile, it\u2019s a great time to be a fan of freaky horror fests, sticky psychological thrillers, and big performances not-so-subtly designed to put the Oscars on notice. Here are the 15 most exciting movies to keep on your radar this fall.<\/p>\n

Onslaught<\/p>\n

Andor\u2019s Adria Arjona enters the world of The Guest.<\/p>\n

A24<\/p>\n

You can take the man out of The Guest, but you can\u2019t take The Guest out of the man. Though director Adam Wingard<\/a> has been making monster movies for the past five years, he still hasn\u2019t forgotten the film that put him on the map. His latest film, Onslaught<\/a>, is a stealthy sequel to The Guest, set in the same world where super-soldiers are trained up to be unstoppable murdering machines \u2014 it just so happens to tackle that tale from a more ambitious angle. Adria Arjona is a retired Army sniper who has to protect her young daughter from a squad of super-soldiers turned loose on the local population. Dan Stevens, who starred in The Guest, returns to this world (albeit under unrecognizable prosthetics) as the scientist responsible for these genetic experiments, adding a wild meta twist to what could be the season\u2019s most exciting actioner.<\/p>\n

Release date: Sept. 4, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hope<\/p>\n

Hope Harbor is under siege by an unseen monster.<\/p>\n

NEON<\/p>\n

Alien invasion movies are back in a big way this year, and the weirdest of the bunch is finally set to hit theaters. After a mystifying debut at the Cannes Film Festival, Na Hong-jin\u2019s Hope has been touted as the most \u201coff the rails\u201d thriller<\/a> we\u2019ll see this year. When an unidentified monster descends on Hope Harbor, a small village near the DMZ between South and North Korea, its ragtag residents are forced to band together against the unseen threat. The less that\u2019s said about this first-contact story, the better \u2014 but it\u2019s worth noting how much Na seems to revel in blood-soaked suspense and explosive, erratic action. As far as blockbusters go, Hope might stray a little far off the beaten path, but maybe that\u2019s just what we need after so many glossy, big-budget films.<\/p>\n

Release date: Sept. 9, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Resident Evil<\/p>\n

Raccoon City is getting a new look.<\/p>\n

Sony Pictures<\/p>\n

If Zach Cregger seemed like a good fit to helm the latest Resident Evil movie, it\u2019s because he\u2019s been stealthily paying tribute to the video game franchise for years now. With Barbarian and Weapons, the director expressed his affinity for grubby, gnarly body horror well enough \u2014 but this year, the floodgates will truly open. Cregger\u2019s Resident Evil<\/a> is set within the world of the games (its closest frame of reference is Resident Evil 2) but exists just outside of them. The film follows a hapless courier (Austin Abrams) as he heads into Raccoon City, totally oblivious to the fact that a mysterious outbreak has turned half the town into zombies. Sadly, Leon Kennedy won\u2019t be around<\/a> to save anyone, forcing our hero on a harrowing (and hilarious) journey to escape the biohazard before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n

Release date: Sept. 18, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

PrimetimeA24<\/p>\n

Ask anyone about Robert Pattinson in 2026, and they\u2019ll say he\u2019s been on a generational (if meme-worthy<\/a>) run. The actor hasn\u2019t been idle in the years following his turn as the Dark Knight in Matt Reeves\u2019 The Batman \u2014 after great performances in The Drama and The Odyssey, his hot streak shows no signs of slowing down. If anything, the best is still to come: This fall, just before appearing in Dune: Part Three, Pattinson will star as reporter Chris Hansen in Primetime<\/a>. The A24 film might be the most fascinating true-crime thriller to date, as it follows Hansen\u2019s rise to fame helming Dateline\u2019s landmark series To Catch a Predator. If you\u2019ve seen the documentary based on the same show, Predators, you know Hansen\u2019s crusade might have done a bit of harm in its quest to clean up the streets. Primetime will dig even deeper into Hansen\u2019s mind and motivations, dramatizing his rise and fall with an all-star cast and an equally stellar team behind the camera.<\/p>\n

Release date: Sept. 25, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother<\/p>\n

We may not have Blade, but we\u2019ll get Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.<\/p>\n

Orion Pictures<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a devastating few years for those eager to see Mahershala Ali\u2019s take on Blade in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Oscar-winning actor was attached to revive Marvel\u2019s beloved Daywalker since 2019 and spent the better part of the 2020s trying to get a Blade reboot<\/a> off the ground. After the departure of two directors, five screenwriters, and countless thrown-out concepts, Ali finally put the project to rest earlier this year. That we might not ever see his version of Blade is a disappointment that could have easily been prevented \u2014 but this fall we\u2019ll get a major consolation prize in Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother<\/a>. The crime thriller unites Ali with Bassam Tariq, who was originally set to direct Blade, on an original tale about a hit man struggling to provide for his family after losing his wife. With costars like Giancarlo Esposito, John Cho, and Tramell Tillman, Your Mother might be the film we truly deserved instead of Blade. If nothing else, at least Ali will put his newfound sword skills to good use.<\/p>\n

Release date: Sept. 25, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Digger<\/p>\n

Cruise is back in rare form for Digger.<\/p>\n

Warner Bros.<\/p>\n

If Tom Cruise never starred in anything other than Top Gun sequels<\/a> and new Mission: Impossibles for the rest of his days, it wouldn\u2019t be the end of the world. Those movies are great, and give the death-defying actor myriad reasons to tempt fate. That said, he\u2019s also one of the greatest of his generation: It\u2019s important to remember that he can actually hold his own in a \u201cserious\u201d drama. Digger, directed by Alejandro G. I\u00f1\u00e1rritu, casts Cruise as the most powerful man in the world \u2014 but that power has also, incidentally, thrown the world in abject peril. Somehow he caused a large iceberg to break away from its post in Greenland; now it\u2019s headed for Europe, inciting a tsunami that could destroy the world. Digger has little time to reverse the damage he caused before it\u2019s too late, but the path to redemption will likely be filled with the same twists and turns that made I\u00f1\u00e1rritu\u2019s Birdman<\/a> so unmissable.<\/p>\n

Release date: Oct. 2, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Social Reckoning<\/p>\n

The sequel we never thought we\u2019d see is about to rehash Facebook\u2019s biggest scandal.<\/p>\n

Sony Pictures<\/p>\n

Nobody asked for a \u201ccompanion\u201d to David Fincher\u2019s The Social Network, but by Jove, we\u2019re getting one anyway. Writer-director Aaron Sorkin insists that \u201cit\u2019s time to say more\u201d<\/a> about Facebook and its controversial founder, Mark Zuckerberg, and so he\u2019s pulling double duty for The Social Reckoning. The follow-up explores the buildup and subsequent fallout of the \u201cFacebook Files,\u201d a tell-all published by The Wall Street Journal that aired out the platform\u2019s harmful practices in 2021. Jeremy Strong takes the baton as late-fame Zuckerberg, so at the very least we know we\u2019re getting a legendary performance out of the Succession alum.<\/p>\n

Release date: Oct. 9, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Street Fighter<\/p>\n

With Street Fighter, an iconic game franchise gets a fresh coat of paint.<\/p>\n

Legendary Pictures<\/p>\n

Is 2026 sneakily the year of the fighting-game adaptations? This past spring, the Mortal Kombat franchise delivered its latest offering \u2014 and this fall, its fiercest rival, Street Fighter, will get its first live-action film in 30 years. This adaptation leans a great deal zanier than the Street Fighter we got in the \u201990s, but therein lies its charm. From its sprawling cast (which includes Warrior\u2019s Andrew Koji, wrestling superstars, and even a musician or two) to its candy-colored visuals, Kitao Sakurai\u2019s Street Fighter is boasting plenty of style. As for substance, well… do we really need that from Street Fighter? This remake could be the turn-your-brain-off fun that\u2019s largely been missing from theaters this year; bonus points if it also does justice to the games.<\/p>\n

Release date: Oct. 16, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whalefall<\/p>\n

Resident Evil\u2019s Austin Abrams gets himself into another situation.<\/p>\n

20th Century Studios<\/p>\n

Austin Abrams is the kind of actor who seemingly loves playing guys who get into Situations. He\u2019s reteaming with Zach Cregger \u2014 the director who put him through the wringer in last year\u2019s Weapons \u2014 for Resident Evil, but that\u2019s just one of his ordeals this fall. Later comes Whalefall, a story that feels a bit more harrowing than a zombie outbreak, if only because it\u2019s slightly more plausible. Abrams is Jay, an amateur deep-sea diver who heads into the ocean to search for his late father\u2019s (Josh Brolin, another Weapons alum) remains. He gets much more than he bargained for when he\u2019s caught in a scuffle between a giant squid and a hungry sperm whale. When the whale swallows the squid, Jay gets caught up with it; with only an hour of oxygen left in his tank, our hero has to scramble to escape from the belly of the whale… if that\u2019s even possible.<\/p>\n

Release date: Oct. 16, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Clayface<\/p>\n

Clayface gives us our first look at the DCU\u2019s Gotham.<\/p>\n

Warner Bros.<\/p>\n

Supergirl might not have met DC\u2019s expectations at the box office this summer, but James Gunn and Peter Safran aren\u2019t wavering from their overarching plan for the franchise \u2014 whatever that may be. Next up on the slate is the DCU\u2019s wildest offering to date: a straight-up horror movie set in Gotham City, with one of Batman\u2019s oldest villains taking the spotlight. Clayface traces the origins of Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harris), an acclaimed actor who turns to bleeding-edge science when his face is disfigured in an attack. Brilliant as the scientist (Naomi Ackie) treating him may be, her methods eventually turn him into something unrecognizable. With a script by Mike Flanagan<\/a> and horror director James Watkins at the helm, Clayface will represent a first for DC in many intriguing ways.<\/p>\n

Release date: Oct. 23, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Klara and the Sun<\/p>\n

Taika Waititi takes a break from superhero fare to adapt a complex sci-fi novel.<\/p>\n

Sony Pictures<\/p>\n

Kazuo Ishiguro\u2019s seminal sci-fi novel Klara and the Sun is kind of the perfect story for someone like Taika Waititi to adapt. The book follows the adventures of an \u201cArtificial Friend\u201d \u2014 one of many androids available for purchase in the dystopian near-future \u2014 who\u2019s adopted by a domineering mother and her sickly daughter. As the strife between mom Chrissie and daughter Josie unfurls, Klara decides to ask the sun for help healing the family. A sweet fable unspools into something a little bleaker, and a lot more mature, than most might have expected. In a way, it\u2019s a fitting companion to Waititi\u2019s Oscar-winning Jojo Rabbit, which used its prickly historical context to tell a fairly sweet coming-of-age story. Don\u2019t let the cheeky Star Wars references fool you: Waititi\u2019s Klara might be just as devastating as the book it\u2019s based on. There may be some laughs in store, but Jenna Ortega\u2019s naive AF will likely stay close to the source material to deliver the emotional gut punch fans are expecting. <\/p>\n

Release date: Oct. 23, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wildwood<\/p>\n

Laika unveils their most ambitious project yet.<\/p>\n

Laika<\/p>\n

Laika has kept details about Wildwood tightly under wraps, but with its first trailer, we\u2019ve got a few new reasons to get excited about the film. The stop-motion studio has touted Wildwood as its most ambitious story yet, and it\u2019s easy to see why. The film follows Prue (Peyton Elizabeth Lee), a young girl who lives at the border of the titular forest. When her baby brother disappears, she sets off to rescue him, only to come face-to-face with Alexandra (Carey Mulligan), a mysterious woman who hails from that wild wood. Alexandra is mourning the loss of her young son \u2014 and from what we see in the Wildwood trailer<\/a>, she might be using Prue\u2019s brother to fill that void. Prue\u2019s efforts to get him back will involve some dark magic, a sprawling battle, and plenty of stunning visuals from a studio that never fails to outdo itself.<\/p>\n

Release date: Oct. 23, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Godzilla Minus Zero<\/p>\n

After two years of peace, Godzilla is back to wreak havoc.<\/p>\n

Toho<\/p>\n

Godzilla might have been thwarted at the end of Godzilla Minus One, but it won\u2019t be that easy to get rid of the classic monster. Director Takashi Yamazaki is back to pit his brave heroes against Godzilla once more, this time in Japan\u2019s first film shot exclusively for IMAX screens<\/a>. Godzilla Minus Zero picks up a few years after the titular kaiju was seemingly defeated by a thermonuclear blast in Minus One. He\u2019s set to emerge stronger than ever now \u2014 but with the introduction of Kanji Murakami (Min Tanaka), a biologist keen to conduct an experiment or two on old \u2019Zilla, the monster\u2019s return might be the least of anyone\u2019s worries.<\/p>\n

Release date: Nov. 6, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

How to Rob a Bank<\/p>\n

David Leitch follows up The Fall Guy with a social media-fueled heist movie.<\/p>\n

Amazon MGM Studios<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one subgenre that never gets old, it\u2019s the Hollywood heist. From Ocean\u2019s Eleven to The Italian Job, there\u2019s something intoxicating about a classic, well-planned caper \u2014 though director David Leitch is about to take a hatchet to the formula. His latest, How to Rob a Bank, reinterprets the cat-and-mouse game between cops and robbers for the doomscrolling generation. Nicholas Hoult is a streamer who, alongside his merry band of outlaws, broadcasts robberies live to entertain the masses. With a skilled hacker (Zo\u00eb Kravitz) hot on his trail, however, his fun may soon come to an end \u2014 but with a premise this wacky, our fun is just beginning.<\/p>\n

Release date: Nov. 13, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping<\/p>\n

The Second Quarter Quell is about to begin.<\/p>\n

Lionsgate<\/p>\n

As much of a phenomenon as the Hunger Games films were in the 2010s, no one could have predicted that the saga would continue to bear fruit a decade later. Shockingly, though, the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes recently got its second wind: Author Suzanne Collins has been penning prequels to Katniss Everdeen\u2019s dystopian misadventures, and this November, we\u2019ll get a big-screen adaptation of her latest book. Sunrise on the Reaping depicts the 50th Hunger Games, which brought Katniss\u2019 future mentor, Haymitch, to the world stage. His Games (also known as the Second Quarter Quell) were infamously bloody: With twice the number of children drafted into this battle royale, there was also double the carnage. Sunrise on the Reaping might be the most devastating installment of this saga thus far \u2014 but with visuals borrowed from something like Midsommar, it could easily be the most dynamic, too.<\/p>\n

Release date: Nov. 20, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite major box office wins for films like The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, this summer at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1018083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[9458,3028,49595,407518,171,27445,12730,54,142094,387951,53,17109,44414,57083,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1018082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-thriller","tag-a24","tag-animation","tag-dc-cinematic-universe","tag-entertainment","tag-godzilla","tag-homepage","tag-horror","tag-hp-latest","tag-inverse-recommends-movies","tag-movies","tag-resident-evil","tag-science-fiction","tag-superheroes","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117141999878962573","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1018082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1018083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1018082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1018082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1018082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}