EW's 24 most anticipated movies of 2024

From Joker and Deadpool to J.Lo and Bong Joon Ho, here's what we can't wait to watch this year.

Mark your calendars: 2024 has an overwhelming array of exciting cinematic treats in store for moviegoers. We can't wait to see the highly-anticipated sequels to Dune, Joker, Gladiator, Deadpool, Inside Out, and many more massive movies past. We're also thrilled to see new projects from acclaimed filmmakers including Bong Joon Ho, Francis Ford Coppola, Ethan Coen, and Robert Eggers, plus spinoffs from the worlds of John Wick, Mad Max, A Quiet Place, and more. Here are 24 of EW's most-anticipated movies of 2024.

'The Beekeeper' (Jan. 12, in theaters)

Vengeance is sweet like honey. The latest buzzy action thriller from David Ayer (End of Watch, Fury) stars Jason Statham as a beekeeper with a very particular set of skills: He’s a former member of the secret special ops organization called, incredibly, the Beekeepers. He embarks on a John Wick/Equalizer-style revenge mission where he’ll crack skulls, slice fingers, and set his adversaries on fire with — you guessed it — honey. —Wesley Stenzel

'Lisa Frankenstein' (Feb. 9, in theaters)

Robin Williams’ daughter Zelda Williams makes her directorial debut with this spooky rom-com, featuring a script from acclaimed screenwriter and Oscar winner Diablo Cody (Juno, Jennifer’s Body). Kathryn Newton stars as a lonely goth high schooler who reanimates a hot Victorian corpse (Cole Sprouse) in 1989. "I know Hollywood gets a bad rap for regurgitating sequels and remakes and reboots over and over and over," Williams said. "And yeah, it totally does that! But it's also finally letting me make the most bonkers, wonderful zombie script I've ever read, and for that, I will be forever grateful!" Check out EW’s first look at the film here. —Wesley Stenzel

'This Is Me...Now: The Film' (Feb. 16, on Amazon Prime Video)

Jennifer Lopez is releasing her first album in a decade on Feb. 16, and on the same day, she’s dropping an accompanying movie on Amazon Prime Video. Don’t expect a making-of documentary, though — instead, the teaser trailer promises a fantastical journey through a fictionalized version of J.Lo’s love life, featuring eye-popping visuals and elaborate dance choreography. Lopez’s husband Ben Affleck is also credited as a co-writer on the project and is expected to appear in some scenes of the film, which is only fitting, as the actor/director was a primary inspiration for her 2003 album This Is Me… Then. —Wesley Stenzel

'Drive-Away Dolls' (Feb. 23, in theaters)

This lesbian road trip caper stars Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan, and marks the first solo narrative directorial project from Ethan Coen, who co-wrote the movie with his wife Tricia Cooke. "As a queer writer, it's exciting for me to make a lesbian film that is playful and innocent in a way, but also perverse and subversive," Cooke told EW. "Back then, the studios would go, 'Well, if you have gay characters, it's gotta be important.' Just doing a fun movie with gay characters somehow computes in a way now that it didn't then." —Wesley Stenzel

'Dune: Part Two' (March 1, in theaters)

Denis Villeneuve’s sandy sci-fi sequel was one of the biggest projects delayed by last year’s Hollywood strikes, and our anticipation has only grown stronger. Joining Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya are series newcomers Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, Lea Seydoux, and a very bald Austin Butler. And though this second part will finish adapting Frank Herbert’s original novel, Villeneuve already has ideas for how he’ll expand the saga — "I will say, there are words on paper," the filmmaker said of a potential Dune Messiah adaptation. —Wesley Stenzel

'Road House' (March 21, on Amazon Prime Video)

Jake Gyllenhaal is the most ripped he’s been since Warrior in this remake of the 1989 classic starring Patrick Swayze. Here, the Nightcrawler actor plays an ex-UFC fighter who takes down his enemies with exhilarating MMA skills, as seen in the first footage from the film. Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity) serves as director, while Daniela Melchior (The Suicide Squad), Billy Magnussen (Game Night), and UFC star Conor McGregor costar. —Wesley Stenzel

'Civil War' (April 26, in theaters)

Alex Garland (Ex Machina) directs A24’s most expensive project to date: a sci-fi thriller that sees the United States once again at war with itself. Real-life couple Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons star alongside Cailee Spaeny and Wagner Moura. We don’t know much about the film’s plot so far — its only logline describes it as "a race to the White House in a near-future America balanced on the razor’s edge." The first trailer suggests that 19 states have seceded from the Union, and that Nick Offerman is president. —Wesley Stenzel

'Challengers' (April 26, in theaters)

Zendaya is turning up the heat in this provocative tennis drama from director Luca Guadagnino, where a scandalous love triangle takes center court. The Euphoria star plays Tashi Duncan, a tennis prodigy who becomes a coach after a devastating career-ending injury. She's married to a Grand Slam champion named Art (West Side Story breakout Mike Faist), and in an effort to end his current losing streak, she enters him in a challenger event where he'll face off against Patrick (The Crown's Emmy/Golden Globe-winning actor Josh O' Connor), who also happens to be Art's former best friend ... and Tashi's ex-boyfriend. —Sydney Bucksbaum

'The Fall Guy' (May 3, in theaters)

Just call him Action Star Ken: Ryan Gosling headlines this action-comedy as a longtime stuntman named Colt Seavers, who takes a job working on a movie with his director ex-girlfriend (Emily Blunt). When the film’s star (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) goes missing, Colt volunteers to try to find him, putting his on-screen skills to real-world use. Director David Leitch — himself a former stunt performer — promises that The Fall Guy is filled with all sorts of spectacular stunts, including a 150-foot fall and a scene where Gosling surfs through the streets of Sydney, Australia, towed behind a moving vehicle. "We said, 'If we're going to lock down the Harbour Bridge, we better do something amazing,'" Leitch told EW. "So you'll see in that sequence: We were actually dragging Ryan Gosling behind a garbage truck doing 40 miles an hour." —Devan Coggan

'Back to Black' (May 10, in theaters)

Amy Winehouse gets the biopic treatment in this drama from Sam Taylor-Johnson (Fifty Shades of Grey). Industry star Marisa Abela plays the late singer, while Eddie Marsan and Juliet Cowan play her parents and Lesley Manville portrays her grandmother, a former singer. The film has the blessing of Winehouse’s estate, and will feature her songs on the soundtrack. "I feel excited and humbled to have this opportunity to realize Amy's beautifully unique and tragic story to cinema accompanied by the most important part of her legacy — her music," Taylor-Johnson said last year. —Wesley Stenzel

'Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga' (May 24, in theaters)

The fifth movie to be set in the sun-blasted, crazy car-filled universe of Mad Max is the origin story of Furiosa, the role played by Charlize Theron in 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road. Anya Taylor-Joy plays a younger version of the character who is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by Chris Hemsworth’s Warlord Dementus. —Clark Collis

'Ballerina' (June 7, in theaters)

Ana de Armas is a deadly dancer in this John Wick spinoff film from Underworld director Len Wiseman, which is set before the events of 2023’s John Wick: Chapter 4. The cast also includes one Keanu Reeves, who told EW last year that "it was fun to put the suit back on" as the lethal Mr. Wick. —Clark Collis

'Inside Out 2' (June 14, in theaters)

2015’s Inside Out is one of the finest (and agonizingly beautiful) pieces of the modern Pixar era. It also didn’t feel like a coincidence that, after the success of personifying emotions such as Joy (Amy Poehler) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith), the storied animation house would go on to personify other things like souls (2020’s Soul) and elements (2023’s Elemental). Now Pixar is returning to Inside Out to see if there’s any other gold to mine from the mind of Riley. The young girl, who we followed on her family’s tumultuous move from the Midwest, is now a teenager in San Francisco and facing a whole new emotion: Anxiety (Maya Hawke). That addition somehow feels super relatable to the current times. —Nick Romano

'A Quiet Place: Day One' (June 28, in theaters)

Hush now. The next movie in the saga of A Quiet Place is almost upon us. While the first two films tracked the Abbott family as they fought to survive a world invaded by vicious alien monsters that hunt through sound, this next one will be centered on new characters played by Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o, Stranger Things fan-favorite Joseph Quinn, and Hereditary standout Alex Wolff. Details are being kept under wraps, though we think it's fair to assume the movie will be taking us back to the day the monsters first arrived on Earth — you know, because the movie is called A Quiet Place: Day One. —Nick Romano

Untitled 'Deadpool' sequel (July 26, in theaters)

An R-rated Marvel movie? Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine back from the dead? And he's sharing the screen with Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool for the first time since their long-lampooned X-Men Origins: Wolverine?! Hell yeah! This Deadpool sequel has been a long time coming, and leave it to director Shawn Levy, who's worked with both Reynolds (Free Guy, The Adam Project) and Jackman (Real Steel, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb), to bring these guys together again. Not much has been officially released about this movie yet, though we do know Dogpool is involved. However, if you’ve paid attention to any of the leaks or reports in the press...then shame on you! No spoilers, especially because this is now the only Marvel Cinematic Universe movie to be released in theaters this year. —Nick Romano

'Alien: Romulus' (Aug. 16, in theaters)

The xenomorph saga continues under the stewardship of Don’t Breathe filmmaker Fede Álvarez. Beyond the casting of Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, and Isabela Merced, little is known about the movie at present except that, according to Álvarez, Alien director Ridley Scott has seen it and pronounced the film to be "f---ing great." —Clark Collis

'Beetlejuice 2' (Sept. 6, in theaters)

Tim Burton returns to the underworld of his spooky 1988 comedy alongside original cast members Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O’Hara. Also joining the ghostly gang: Jenna Ortega, who worked with the filmmaker on Wednesday, and Willem Dafoe, who somehow has never crossed professional paths with Burton until now. The latter is playing an undead cop who was a B-movie star in life. "We're doing it exactly like we did the first movie," Keaton said last year. "There’s a woman in the great waiting room for the afterlife literally with a fishing line – I want people to know this because I love it – tugging on the tail of a cat to make it move." —Wesley Stenzel

'Joker: Folie à Deux' (Oct. 24, in theaters)

Wherever the Joker lurks and laughs, Harley Quinn can’t be far behind. So for the upcoming sequel to their Oscar-winning 2019 supervillain film Joker, director Todd Phillips and star Joaquin Phoenix have recruited none other than Lady Gaga to be the belle of the ball. Phillips has been slowly teasing images from the film, featuring the characters with and without their iconic costumes. On top of everything else, Joker: Folie à Deux is also billed as a musical — though Zazie Beetz, who reprises her role as single mother Sophie Drumond, thinks "people will be surprised" by what that entails. —Christian Holub

'Gladiator 2' (Nov. 22, in theaters)

Director Ridley Scott heads back into the arena with this long, long awaited sequel to 2000's epic Gladiator. Plot details are scant, but it is said to follow the grown-up Lucius (Paul Mescal), the son of Lucilla and nephew of Commodus, from the original. Connie Nielsen is returning as a legacy cast member in her original role as Lucilla, as is Derek Jacobi, who will play Gracchus once more. Stranger Things star Joseph Quinn, Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, and The White Lotus star Fred Hechinger are also picking up their swords and joining the fight, which is sure to entertain us... again. —Lauren Huff

'Wicked Part 1' (Nov. 27, in theaters)

After years of false starts and casting rumors, the first part of Wicked is finally ready to try defying gravity. Starring Cynthia Erivo as green-skinned Elphaba and Ariana Grande as pink-obsessed, popular Galinda, the musical follows the lives of the witches of Oz, before Dorothy dropped in. The Wizard of Oz prequel has been delighting audiences on Broadway and around the world for the last 20 years — and now, we’ll get to see it brought to life on the big screen. We don’t know what we’re most excited for — seeing Jonathan Bailey make us fall in love with his Fiyero in "Dancing Through Life," Grande’s take on "Popular," or hearing Erivo hit that high note as she takes to the Western skies. — Maureen Lee Lenker

'Nosferatu' (Dec. 25, in theaters)

Director Robert Eggers’ long-in-the-works remake of F.W. Murnau's 1922 vampire classic finally shot in Prague last year with a starry cast and 2,000 live rats, as the filmmaker recently revealed to EW. Bill Skarsgård plays the titular bloodsucker, Lily-Rose Depp portrays the movie’s heroine Ellen Hutter, and Willem Dafoe is the vampire-hunter Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz. —Clark Collis

'Mickey 17' (TBD)

Bong Joon Ho is back in the director’s chair for the first time since Parasite conquered the world — and he’s returned to the sci-fi genre as well. Where Parasite was rooted in reality, Mickey 17 is an adaptation of the genre novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton. Robert Pattinson stars as the titular character, a space explorer who gets cloned with his memories intact every time he dies — and the change in title from book to movie suggests there may be even more cloning involved in Bong’s version. Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo are also in the cast. So far the only available footage is a brief clip of Pattinson hooked into a high-tech machine…but with names this starry, what else do you need to get excited? —Christian Holub

'Megalopolis' (TBD)

Legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola returns with his first film in 13 years: a self-financed, decades-in-the-making sci-fi passion project about an architect reconstructing New York as a utopia after a disaster. The film’s all-star cast includes Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, and Aubrey Plaza, as well as Coppola’s sister Talia Shire and nephew Jason Schwartzman. "It's a love story," Coppola said in 2022. "A woman is divided between loyalties to two men. But not only two men. Each man comes with a philosophical principle. One is her father who raised her… the other one, who is the lover, is the enemy of the father." —Wesley Stenzel

'Kinds of Kindness' (TBD)

Following the resounding success of 2018’s The Favourite and last year’s Poor Things, Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone have reteamed for a third feature-length project: an anthology film where Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, and Margaret Qualley all play different roles in three distinct segments. "Apart from being a great actress, [Emma] is a very unique presence overall," Lanthimos told EW. Though no release date is set, it’s safe to assume that the film will debut in the fall for an awards play like the duo’s prior collaborations. —Wesley Stenzel

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