Taking a break from our look back at 2019, we’re looking forward to what is coming out in 2020. There are a lot of great looking films coming out next year, and here are 15 of the ones that have me the most excited. But first a couple of honourable mentions.

Honorable Mentions:

  • January UK Releases: There are a ton of films that will be fighting for awards that we don’t get released her until January. Whilst I will have seen a good amount at Film Festivals, such as The Lighthouse, we will have Jojo Rabbit, 1917, Bombshell, Waves, Just Mercy, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, and Parasite to look forward to here.
  • Superhero Films: I’m a comic book fan so I will be looking forward to the whole host of comic book films that would be dominating this list if I didn’t put them in the honourable mentions category. We’ve got Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, Black Widow, Wonder Woman 1984, Morbius, Venom 2, The Eternals, and supposedly The New Mutants, although I’ll only believe that when I’m sitting in the cinema.

15) A Quiet Place: Part II – Let’s call this one intrigued more than anticipating the sequel to A Quiet Place. The first film was such a brilliant breath of fresh air in the horror genre, and it was something that didn’t need a sequel. Given that John Krasinski is returning to write and direct I’m fascinated to see what kind of new take to the world he can bring. But we’ve all seen so many terrible horror sequels that I can’t get truly excited for it, maybe until the trailer comes out.

14) Godzilla vs. Kong – Ok Godzilla: King of the Monsters was a bit of a flat disappointment, but I still want to see Godzilla and King Kong duking it out. Adam Wingard is directing the film, and he is a talented director who has made a couple of duds with his last two films. And he has certainly never tackled anything on the scale of a Godzilla AND King Kong movie. The likelihood is that the film won’t be good, but I still can’t wait to see it anyway.

13) Monster Problems – A post apocalyptic comedy about a guy fighting off monsters sounds like it could be a lot of fun. With a cast the includes Dylan O’Brien, Michael Rooker, and Jessica Henwick there definitely some talent behind it as well, but this is one that I’m looking forward to purely on premise. It sounds like it could go a Zombieland direction or even more like Warm Bodies with a romcom vibe. Either way it sounds fun, but we won’t really know until a trailer drops.

12) Monster Hunter – Ok I know I’m going to be in the minority here but I generally enjoy Paul W S Anderson’s films, particularly the Resident Evil franchise. I’m not trying to say they’re good but I like them. The Monster Hunter games should be a good one to adapt as they have little story, but a fantastic world that should translate to the big screen well. The monsters in particular are the real stars, and I’ll be excited to see some of my favourites brought to life.

11) Mulan – I adore the 1998 Disney animated Mulan film, but it certainly isn’t on the same level as classic such as Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King so is open for reinterpretation. It looks like Director Niki Caro is making this more of a war film, and incorporating more Chinese mythology around it, rather than having characters like Mushu. The trailers have been fantastic, the cast is stacked, and the film seems to be forging its own path. This looks like what we should be getting from the Disney remakes.

10) Coming 2 America – Coming To America is a comedy classic, and one of the films that helped propel Eddie Murphy into the stratosphere as a comedy star. With the original writing team all returning I am hopeful that this can be a success, and not a flop like other long awaited comedy sequels like Zoolander 2 or Dumb & Dumber To. The likes of Arsenio Hall, Shari Headley, John Amos, and James Earl Jones all return, and the new additions are fantastic. This is another of those that I’m apprehensive for but excited nonetheless.

9) Bill & Ted Face the Music – Much like Coming 2 America this is a long awaited sequel that I’m really hoping can capture the joy of the originals. I can’t wait to see Keanu Reeve and Alex Winter reteaming as Theodore Logan and Bill S. Preston Esq. because those original films were just fantastic. Writing team Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon return and the film is to be directed by Dean Parisot who directed the classic Galaxy Quest. Keanu is in such a renaissance right now that to see him return to the role that really helped him breakthrough should be something special.

8) Tenet – Christopher Nolan directing a film starring John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Kenneth Branagh, and Himesh Patel? Sign me up. I actually wrote about how I was excited for this film before we ever saw that trailer that was recently dropped, but with that first look I’m even more excited. I’m also fascinated to see how he works with composer Ludwig Göransson as Hans Zimmer is already working on Dune, given that Zimmer’s work has been so important to Nolan’s past work. This will certainly be an action thriller to look out for in July.

7) Death On The Nile – I enjoyed Kenneth Branagh’s first film as Agatha Christie’s legendary detective Hercule Poroit Murder on the Orient Express, the problem with it however is that it’s just too famous. There can’t have been too many people going in not knowing how it ended. With Death on the Nile Branagh and screenwriter Michael Green should have a bit more freedom to sculpt a great whodunnit. And given that Knives Out was my favourite film of this year you can imagine how exciting that is.

6) Onward/Soul/Raya and the Last Dragon – Onward and Soul are the upcoming films from Pixar animation studios and Raya and the Last Dragon is a new original Disney animated film. I love the original work from both these studios, and so even though we’ve only really seen a trailer for Onward at this point I’m throwing all three of these together. Pixar’s better work does tend to be their original, and they haven’t done one since Coco in 2017. The trailer for Onward didn’t look exceptional, but I trust in Pixar and the premise is cool. The trailer for Soul however looks fantastic and Pixar taking a really out there concept, as they did with Inside Out. We haven’t seen anything from Raya yet, but Disney have had a great decade, so I’m throwing it up there with the new Pixar releases.

5) No Time To Die – I’m slightly surprising myself here by picking the new Bond movie so highly as I’m not a huge fan of the series, and Spectre was such a non entity of a film. But the trailer actually looked really great. Daniel Craig seems to make a great film then a bad one with Bond, which if this follows the pattern should mean this is another hit, and I hope so. Craig deserves to go out of Bond on top.

4) Last Night In Soho – Much like with Tenet I have no idea what Last Night In Soho is, or will be about, but a new Edgar Wright film is always an event in my books. It’s also exciting to see Wright make something in a different genre, psychological horror, as we know he’s a huge horror fan, but has never made a true horror film. The cast is fantastic as well. It stars Thomasin McKenzie, who is Jojo Rabbit and received acclaim for last year’s Leave No Trace, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Diana Rigg, and Terence Stamp. All of that means even though its an unknown quantity I’m hugely excited.

3) Dune – Dune is such a monster task for any director to undertake, but if anyone can pull it off then surely it is Denis Villeneuve, the man who managed to make a great sequel to Blade Runner. He’s certainly assembled an exceptional cast for the project, led by Timothée Chalamet, but with huge talent right the way through it. I’ve never read Frank Herbert’s novel, but I’ve heard a lot of stories where people have tried to get an adaptation off the ground, but Villeneuve has managed it, and hopefully he can deliver another epic Sci-Fi film after Arrival and Blade Runner 2049.

2) In the Heights – Lin-Manuel Miranda is a genius. Hamilton is one of the few musicals that I’ve seen live and I’m completely obsessed with it. I’ve also heard some of the music for In The Heights before and its great, so I’m going into this with sky high expectations. But I believe Lin can deliver. I enjoyed the first trailer too so that bodes well for it. It seems as though the film will have spectacular musical numbers and plenty of heart, so I absolutely cannot wait.

1) Artemis Fowl – I have loved the book series that Artemis Fowl is adapting since I first read them when I was a kid. It’s an incredible world, with the original book having one of the absolute best self contained stories that I’ve read in a children’s book. The characters like Artemis, Butler, Holly, and the rest are all fantastic and have such wonderful journeys. This is a film I’ve been incredibly excited for since it was announced, but I’m also incredibly apprehensive about because we’ve all been burned so many times before by bad adaptations.