I am copying this idea off Luke Muehlhauser, who publishes “Media diet” and “Media I’m looking forward to” lists each quarter. I wish more people did this – so why not be the change I want to see in the world?
Below is a list of movies and TV shows I look forward to coming out in the next year or three.
I figure making lists of things I’m looking forward to is also a good way of encouraging a higher degree of optimism. I’ll probably write about other things I’m looking forward to – books, technologies, etc, at some point in the future.
(Some notes/caveats are at the bottom of this article.)
Movies
Movies that I’ll almost certainly see (unless reviews are REALLY bad)
- Thor: Love and Thunder – Taika Waititi directs a follow-up to Thor: Ragnarok, which I think is my favourite Marvel movie. I’m interested in Natalie Portman returning as Jane Foster (possibly Lady Thor?), and what seems like the introduction of the Greek pantheon (Russell Crowe appears to be playing Zeus; Thor, Loki, Odin, & co are from the Norse pantheon).
- Topgun: Maverick – need I say more.
- Jurassic World Dominion – I really enjoyed Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom; I think it achieved what it tried to achieve (even if it wasn’t as ambitious as the original Jurassic Park).
- Spirited – Will Ferell and Ryan Reynolds in a musical adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. If it’s good, it has the potential to become a holiday classic. (I give it a 30% chance.)
- Avatar 2 – slated for release in December 2022. Whenever it’s released, I’ll see it! I have enormous reservations. But James Cameron is knocking his big projects out of the park.
- The Adam Project – time travelling with Ryan Reynolds. Count me in.
- The Batman – looks interesting.
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
- The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent – Nick Cage playing an exaggerated(?) version of Nick Cage.
- John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) – good, fun, brainless action
- Deadpool 3 – I loved the first two Deadpool movies.
- Live Die Repeat and Repeat – this has been in the pipeline for some time, and may still not happen. It would be a sequel to Edge of Tomorrow, which is a great movie. The main problem is that I can’t see how it lends itself to a sequel.
Movies I’ll probably see
- Killers of the Flower Moon – Scorsese and Leo, together again.
- The Flash – the reason I’m interested: Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton are in the cast list – as Batman. This looks like a “multiverse” movie.
- Moonfall – another Roland Emmerich disaster movie. I didn’t like 2012 and haven’t even bothered with Independence Day: Resurgence. But you can’t write the director of Independence Day off. I enjoyed The Day After Tomorrow for what it was, too.
- Morbius – another Marvel anti-hero. Looks interesting.
- Black Adam – a spin-off from Shazam! (which I enjoyed) starring Dwayne Johnson as an anti-hero, and Pierce Brosnan as his antagonist
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One) – I enjoyed Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, so I will probably like this one.
- Don’t Worry Darling – Olivia Wilde’s follow-up to Booksmart: “A 1950’s housewife living with her husband in a utopian experimental community begins to worry that his glamorous company may be hiding disturbing secrets.”
- Bullet Train – Brad Pitt in his first action film for a long time (with Sandra Bullock along for the ride)
- The Lost City – Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Brad Pitt. Looks fun.
- Peacemaker – looks funny.
- Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore– unlike the previous two Fantastic Beasts movies, the script has not been written by JK Rowling. It has been written by Steve Kloves, who wrote the scripts for the Harry Potter movies.
- Zombies 3 – this one is for my daughter, who loved the first two. (I enjoy them, too.)
- Dune Part Two – I refuse to watch the first Dune until part two comes out.
Movies that I’d love to see released, although that may or may not happen
- Avatar 3 (2024) – and any subsequent Avatar movies. This will depend on Avatar 2.
- Oppenheimer – appears to be Christopher Nolan’s current project, and I’ll always bet on Nolan delivering the goods.
- Bad Blood – current project for Adam McKay, who has my number (Don’t Look Up, The Big Short, Anchorman, Step Brothers).
- Triplets – who knows if it will get made. But a sequel with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito reprising their roles and finding out they are triplets (with their triplet played by Eddie Murphy): it’s the sort of movie that HAS to happen (although the odds are fairly low).
- Dark Matter – I love Blake Crouch’s book Dark Matter, and have seen Roland Emmerich attached to this for a long time. If it gets made I would love to see it.
- Kill Bill: Vol 3
- The Rosie Project – I enjoyed the books. Henry Cavill is attached as Don; in the past it was Ryan Reynolds.
TV
Genuinely interested
- The Time Traveler’s Wife – I hope this does justice to the source material. (It has been in development for a long time, but appears to have a lot of people confirmed as cast, and IMDB says it is currently filming.)
- Reacher – unlike Tom Cruise, the actor playing Jack Reacher looks like Jack Reacher. (Ie, someone who looks a little like Richie McCaw.)
- Percy Jackson and the Olympians – I loved the books, and hope it does better than the movies based on the same source material.
- The Last of Us – I didn’t play the game, but my sense is that it has a good premise for a TV show.
- The Devil in the White City – I think Leo was originally going to star in a Scorsese-directed movie version of this. It now looks like Keanu Reeves is going to be star in a TV version of it.
Pretty Interested
- Avatar: The Last Airbender – I understand there have been some issues with development. Hopefully it does better than the movie.
- The Sandman – based on Neil Gaiman’s comic book series.
- The After Party.
“Morbidly fascinated” (which might still be good)
- House of the Dragon – prequel to Game of Thrones. It’s unbelievable how bad season 8 for that show was – it has cost a LOT in terms of interest for future properties like this one.
- Lord of the Rings
- Obi-Wan Kenobi
- How I Met Your Father
Notes/caveats
A few notes:
- This is a list of movies and TV shows that are at varying stages of development. They may not all end up coming out.
- This isn’t a comprehensive list. It’s a list of what I’M interested in, and even then it doesn’t capture everything.
- My opinions on these may change as time goes on – it’s quite likely I’ll end up watching less than half of this list. Some of them might get reviewed as stinkers. For a lot of them, it’s probably more accurate to say that I’m “interested” rather than “excited”.
- In relation to TV shows, it only includes new TV shows. It doesn’t include shows that are already in existence, with new seasons to come.
- They aren’t in order of expected release or excitement.