2019 is going to be a huge year for genre movies. From enormous comic book blockbusters to small but tense thrillers, we’re hoping this year’s going to give us some great reasons to go to the movies. The first part of the year will offer us superhero punches like Shazam!, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, and Hellboy, while fans of Disney’s live-action remakes will have a whopping three on order. The end of the year will see a surprising amount of children’s horror books and series adapted to the big screen, along with long-awaited films by Quentin Tarantino, Rian Johnson, and Jordan Peele.
Yes, it’s a year of much goodness, and we’ve gathered a list of films we think are relevant to your interests below. Please note: these release dates are all subject to change and some of these movies might end up not coming out at all. But as far as we know, we’ve got 12 months of cinematic goodness right here for you to peruse.
January
January 11
Buffalo Boys – A Western/martial arts hybrid movie that was Singapore’s official submission to this year’s Oscars.
Pledge – Dark comedy/horror film about getting into an exclusive fraternity.
Replicas – Keanu Reeves plays a scientist who’s found a way to clone his dead loved ones. Super cool of him.
January 18
Glass – The highly anticipated third part in M. Night Shyamalan’s surprise superhero trilogy, which finds David “Unbreakable” Dunn in a psychiatric hospital with his old nemesis Mr. Glass and new threat, the Beast. We want this to be good, but it’s a January release, so who can say?
January 25
Dead Ant – A one-hit wonder metal band from the ’80s take drugs in the desert and get attacked by giant ants.
February
February 1
Arctic – Mads Mikkelsen finds himself stranded at the North Pole and forced to trudge through a barren, unforgiving landscape to find help and try to save a sick woman.
Miss Bala – Gina Rodriguez stars in Catherine Hardwicke’s film about a woman forced to go undercover in the world of cross-border crime.
February 8
Cold Pursuit – Liam Neeson is a snowplow driver seeking revenge. Obviously.
The Prodigy – Taylor Schilling’s son is way too smart too soon, thus he’s evil. Obviously.
The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part – Emmet Brickowski must save the world from the evil DUPLO invaders from outer space. Everything will likely end up awesome.
February 14
Alita: Battle Angel – Robert Rodriguez’s epic graphic novel adaptation about one young woman’s journey to discover the truth of who she is and her fight to change the world.
Happy Death Day 2U – Sequel to the very fun slasher movie/Groundhog Day pastiche, this time the day repeats and more different stuff happens.
February 22
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World – I would not take Hiccup’s advice on dragon training at this point. Call me when the movie’s called Now You’ve Trained Your Dragon. Anyway, the movie looks fun.
March
March 8
Captain Marvel – The long-awaited first appearance of Carol Danvers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe takes us back to the ’90s and will hook stuff up to Avengers: Infinity War, we’d imagine.
March 15
Us – Jordan Peele’s follow-up to Get Out has one of the scariest trailers I’ve ever seen. I can’t wait to get terrified of Evil Lupita Nyong’o.
Wonder Park – Animated movie about a girl who finds out her designs for a magical theme park became a reality, and animals talk.
March 22
Where’d You Go, Bernadette – From Richard Linklater, a movie about a 15-year-old daughter who has to track down her runaway mom, played by Cate Blanchett. Based on the novel by Maria Semple.
March 29
Captive State – From Rise of the Planet of the Apes director Rupert Wyatt comes the story of Chicago, ten years after an alien invasion and occupation. Some people are dissidents, and some people are collaborators.
Dumbo – Tim Burton’s gonna try to make us think Dumbo is an even cuter elephant in “live-action” than he was in animation. We’ll see, Burton.
April
April 5
Pet Sematary – Stephen King is hot hot hot!
Shazam! – We’re very intrigued by DC’s first attempt at a lighter, more comedic (on purpose) take on their characters.
April 12
Hellboy – The first trailer was…weird, but we’re still holding out hope the adaptation of Mike Mignola’s “Wild Hunt” saga stays true to the greatness of the source material.
April 19
Penguins – It’s a documentary about penguins. So we’re in.
Under the Silver Lake – From the director of It Follows, a darkly comedic neo-noir about a slacker trying to solve a missing persons conspiracy.
The Curse of La Llarona – Horror movies based on ancient folklore are definitely our bag.
April 26
Avengers: Endgame – Heard of it.
May
May 10
Detective Pikachu – We’re pretty stoked to see what the Pokemon world looks like with realistic CGI and Ryan Reynolds’ voice coming out of a behatted Pikachu.
May 15
Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon – If you enjoy Shaun the Sheep, this is more of that.
May 17
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Keanu Reeves’ mega-assassin has to run away from the entire criminal underworld, and rides a horse at one point.
May 24
Aladdin – The second Disney live-action update, this one from Guy Ritchie and with Will Smith as the Genie. Sure! Why not!
Brightburn – What if Superman were evil, and not just the Zack Snyder version?
Minecraft – May is a big month for addictive video games getting turned into movies.
May 31
Godzilla: King of the Monsters – A big ol’ fight between all of Toho’s most beloved monsters.
Rocketman – The Elton John biopic you weren’t sure you needed but now are definitely getting.
June
June 7
X-Men: Dark Phoenix – We weren’t even sure this movie would come out given the Disney acquisition of Fox, but we’re definitely still stoked to see a hopefully more faithful attempt to do the Dark Phoenix saga.
The Secret Life of Pets 2 – Pets do weird stuff when we’re not around…again.
June 14
Men in Black International – We’re very jazzed to see Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth team up again, this time in dope suits and fighting alien menaces on the planet Earth.
June 21
Child’s Play – A reboot of the Chucky franchise, even though those movies are perfect and should never be touched.
Grudge – A reboot of the American remake of the J-Horror franchise about ghosts that make creepy clicky throat noises.
Toy Story 4 – Look, as much as we thought the last movie was a perfect ending to the story, we’ll watch Woody, Buzz, and all the toys go on a million more adventures.
July
July 3
Annabelle 3 – Who’d have thought this ugly doll spin-off of the first Conjuring movie would have more movies than the Conjuring movies?
July 5
Spider-Man: Far From Home – Presumably he comes back in Endgame, because Spider-Man needs to go overseas and do some cool-ass spy stuff for Nick Fury.
July 19
The Lion King – We’ll see if Jon Favreau can effectively travel the circle of life.
July 26
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Quentin Tarantino’s film about 1969 Hollywood which definitely features people who were killed by the Manson Family. Very intrigued to see if it’s done with the right tone.
August
August 2
Hobbs and Shaw – Maybe the most excited we’ve ever been about a movie fans willed into existence. The Rock and Jason Statham teaming up to battle WHOMEVER. We’re in.
The New Mutants – Oh, dear heavens, we just hope this movie—a horror version of the X-Men universe—actually comes out, having been delayed over a year, and multiple times.
August 9
Artemis Fowl – Disney’s hat-in-the-ring adaptation of a popular magical kid book series. The Harry Potter void is real.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark – Adaptation of the popular Alvin Schwartz book series of short but terrifying urban legends. Guillermo del Toro is producing and is one of six credited screenwriters.
August 16
Playmobil: the Movie – Sure.
September
September 6
It: Chapter Two – Very excited for the follow-up to the Stephen King adaptation from 2016. Bill Hader as adult Richie Tozier alone is worth the price of admission.
September 13
Spies in Disguise – Animated movie about spies getting turned into pigeons. Yes, really.
September 20
Downton Abbey – Get ready for more high-born angst than a TV screen could contain.
The Kitchen – Elizabeth Moss, Melissa McCarthy, and Tiffany Haddish play mob wives in 1970s Hell’s Kitchen who keep the business going when all their husbands are locked up. Not a comedy.
October
October 4
Gemini Man – Will Smith plays an aging hitman who faces off against a younger clone of himself. Ang Lee directing. Whaaaa?
Joker – Joaquin Phoenix in a gritty, ’70s-set origin of the Clown Prince of Crime.
The Woman in the Window – An agoraphobic woman (Amy Adams) living alone in New York begins spying on her new neighbors only to witness a disturbing act of violence.
October 11
Are You Afraid of the Dark – Movie based on the Nickelodeon series from the ’90s. Hope it’s proper scary.
Zombieland 2 – Long-anticipated second chapter in a saga about how silly the zombie apocalypse can be.
The Addams Family – Big screen reboot of the big screen adaptation of the ’60s sitcom based on the original comic strip series.
October 18
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood – Tom Hanks plays Mister Rogers and we’re already a heap of tears on the floor.
November
November 1
Charlie’s Angels – Big screen reboot of the big screen adaptation of the ’70s action series.
Untitled Terminator Reboot – Tim Miller directs this James Cameron-produced re-re-revamp of his confusing series, but we’ve got aging badass Linda Hamilton back as Sarah Connor.
November 8
Sonic the Hedgehog – It’s a sad time for adult Tumblr to be gone.Kingsman 3 – We didn’t love the second Kingsman, but we’re willing to give a third movie a shot because the first one was so good.
November 15
Last Christmas – A romantic comedy set in London at Christmastime, starring Emilia Clarke, Henry Golding, and Emma Thompson. Directed by Paul Feig and written by Thompson and Bryony Kimmings
November 22
Frozen 2 – Let it go all over again.
November 27
Knives Out – Rian Johnson going back to basics with a modern murder mystery done in the classic whodunit style.
November 30
Rambo 5 – We hear this time he’s strapped bazookas to his walker.
December
December 7
The Silence – “The Story of a family struggling to survive in a world terrorized by a deadly, primeval species who have bred for decades in the pitch darkness of a vast underground cave system, hunting only with their acute hearing.” Sounds vaguely familiar…
December 13
Jumanji 2 – I guess they go back in the video game, because the Rock and Kevin Hart are in it.
December 18
Masters of the Universe – Let’s do it, Mattel! Make a big ol’ Eternia epic.
December 20
Cats – A big screen version of the Broadway behemoth. These cats are Jellicle, so, that’s probably something cool.
Star Wars: Episode IX – J.J. Abrams wraps up the Skywalker saga and hopefully does justice to everything. Pretty minor ask, really.
December 25
Little Women – Adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott classic, written and directed by Greta Gerwig.
Superintelligence – Melissa McCarthy is selected for observation by the world’s first super-intelligent AI. And it’s voiced by James Corden.
Call of the Wild – Big screen adaptation of the Jack London classic.
West Side Story – Steven Spielberg’s remake of the Oscar-winning film adaptation of the Broadway musical based on Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet.
Cripes! That’s a lot of movies! Mark your calendars now!
Editor’s Note: Nerdist is a subsidiary of Legendary Digital Networks
Images: Marvel, DC, Warner Bros, Legendary, Paramount, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Fox
Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!
