Movies And TV Shows That Blew Everyone Away In 2019

To offer an idea of just how crowded the rest of the 2019 film and TV calendar is, we've rounded up a comprehensive list of the biggest (and hopefully best) releases that will be competing for your attention for the remainder of the year. From superhero action thrillers to down-to-earth dramas and everything in between, here are all the movies and TV shows that will blow you away in 2019.

Jon Favreau is traveling to a galaxy far, far away to write and executive produce The Mandalorian for exclusive release on Disney's soon-to-be-launched streaming service Disney+. Situated in a section of the Star Wars universe not yet explored on a screen of any size, The Mandalorian, as Favreau himself has described it, chronicles "the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic." 

Though one could easily assume that, due to its title and its gun-toting central character, The Mandalorian will follow the badass bounty hunter Boba Fett, they would be sorely mistaken. The Favreau-penned series actually takes place after Boba and his "father" Jango's prime, "after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order," when a new so-called "warrior" steps into the spotlight. That warrior-gunfighter, the eponymous Mandalorian, is played by Game of Thrones favorite Pedro Pascal. 

Beyond the details Favreau offered when the project was first announced, not much is known about the plot and the characters of The Mandalorian. However, Disney and Lucasfilm did confirm a sterling slate of stars who are attached to direct an episode of the new series. Thor: Ragnarok filmmaker Taika Waititi, Jurassic World star Bryce Dallas Howard, Dope helmer Rick Famuyiwa, and Jessica Jones director Deborah Chow will all get behind the camera and make some Star Wars magic with The Mandalorian.

No concrete release date has been set for The Mandalorian, but it's expected to premiere soon after Disney's streaming platform rolls out on November 12.

Netflix subscribers, get ready to meet Geralt of Rivia this year. The streaming giant is bringing the highly-anticipated television take on The Witcher, based on Andrzej Sapkowski's fantasy novels that spawned a massively popular video game series of the same name, to its content catalogue in 2019.

Lauren Schmidt Hissrich created The Witcher, which stars DCEU alum Henry Cavill as Geralt, the silver-haired monster hunter known as a Witcher who "struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts." Geralt's entire life trajectory is thrown off course when he meets a sorceress, Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra), and a princess, Ciri (Freya Allan), who harbors a powerful secret. 

Netflix CCO Ted Sarandos has indicated that The Witcher will arrive sometime in the fall.

Stock up on Twinkies — try not to blast bullets through the ones you've got saved for later – 'cause the Zombieland franchise is officially getting a double tap in 2019. 

After a decade of waiting, fans of director Ruben Fleischer's post-apocalyptic horror comedy can finally sink their teeth into a sequel that not only brings back the same filmmaker, but is also written by the same duo who penned the original (Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick) and features all four beloved lead actors that the world fell for back in 2009. That's right, gang: Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, Jesse Eisenberg, and Woody Harrelson are all returning for Zombieland: Double Tap.

This time around, things will be a little different for the scrappy and sarcastic pseudo-family. According to studio Sony Pictures, which gave the sequel the go-ahead in July 2018, Zombieland: Double Tap sees Wichita, Little Rock, Columbus, and Tallahassee trekking across the U.S. from the White House to the country's heartland, fighting against evolved undead flesh-eaters that are "larger, stronger, and more destructive than their first-wave counterparts," and forming alliances — and even friendships, perhaps? — with fellow survivors.

Zombieland: Double Tap will bow on October 11, 2019 — just over 10 years after the first Zombieland opened in theaters. 

They're creepy and kooky, mysterious and spooky, altogether ooky — and they're coming in October of 2019. Studio MGM and director Conrad Vernon, known for his work on Shrek 2, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, and the Seth Rogen film Sausage Party, are collaborating for the forthcoming Addams Family animated feature. 

The film, which is based on the original Addams Family cartoons created by artist Charles Addams that were printed in The New Yorker, follows the 1960s Addams Family series that starred John Astin as Gomez, Carolyn Jones as Morticia, Lisa Loring as Wednesday, and Ken Weatherwax as Pugsley, as well as the two 1990s films led by Anjelica Huston and Raul Julia.

Specific storyline details about the new Addams Family movie involve the clan battling a reality television host, and the voice cast has started to fill out, led by Star Wars: The Last Jedi vet Oscar Isaac as family patriarch Gomez Addams, joined by Charlize Theron as his wife Morticia, Chloë Grace Moretz as their daughter Wednesday, Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard as her brother Pugsley, and Nick Kroll as Uncle Fester. Allison Janney has signed on to play Addams family foe Margaux Needler, with Bette Midler also on board as Grandmama.

At last, audiences will get to see Donna Tartt's Pulitzer-winning novel come to life on the big screen. Warner Bros. Pictures is releasing a feature film adaptation of The Goldfinch, directed by Brooklyn and Intermission helmer John Crowley, this fall, and it's destined to dazzle, devastate, and do your heart good. 

Baby Driver actor Ansel Elgort leads The Goldfinch as Theodore "Theo" Decker, a native New Yorker who, at the age of 13, miraculously survived a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art — an act of terror that killed his mother, Audrey. In the aftermath of the attack and his mother's untimely passing, Theo travels to many places, passes through various phases, finds meaning in unusual people and things, and dives into the dark underbelly of art forgery on his journey to discover who he is and what life is truly about. Joining Elgort for the film are Nicole Kidman, Finn Wolfhard, Sarah Paulson, Oakes Fegley, Aneurin Barnard, Luke Wilson, and Jeffrey Wright. 

Tartt's novel has been described as telling a tale of "loss and obsession, survival and self-invention, and the ruthless machinations of fate" — and if the film is at all faithful to its source material, viewers should expect to experience the full range of human emotion when The Goldfinch debuts on October 11.

The horns and high cheekbones are returning this fall. Disney is slated to launch its Maleficent sequel, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, on October 18 — five years after the Robert Stromberg-directed original opened in theaters to much praise from fans and a steady influx of cash from the box office. 

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil brings back Angelina Jolie as Maleficent, who curses a young princess to fall into a deep and unshakeable slumber after her father betrays her. Also returning is Elle Fanning as that princess, Aurora, who is poised to become queen of the kingdom her father once ruled and views Maleficent as a godmother, as the horned fairy began caring for her when her designated guardians — a pack of fairies named Knotgrass, Thistlewit, and Flittle — failed to adequately do their job.

Picking up several years after the events of the first film, which ended with Maleficent breaking Aurora's curse by giving her true love's kiss, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is said to "explore the complex relationship" between Maleficent and Aurora as they "form new alliances and face new adversaries in their struggle to protect the moors and the magical creatures that reside within."

The sequel also has a new director (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales helmer Joachim Rønning) and several new cast members (Michelle Pfeiffer as Queen Ingrith and Harris Dickinson as Prince Phillip, plus Chiwetel Ejiofor, Robert Lindsay, Jenn Murray, and David Gyasi) in tow.

The Terminator will be back on the big screen in 2019 with Terminator: Dark Fate. Deadpool's Tim Miller is set to direct the latest installment of the franchise, while the original's James Cameron will produce. Some people may still be a little wary of the Terminator franchise since Genisys, but the new film looks like it's headed in the right direction, with Cameron saying it will ignore the events of the three films that followed T2: Judgement Day and treat them like they were in an alternate reality. 

The newest film will also bring back original stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, and it won't try to de-age its elder heroes — instead, it will fully embrace how seasoned the pair has become. In addition, the movie will introduce a young woman named Daniella "Dani" Ramos (Natalia Reyes) and an upgraded Terminator known as the Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna), as well as a badass human-cyborg soldier-assassin called Grace (Mackenzie Davis), to help the franchise tell new stories in the future. That's more than enough to convince us to give The Terminator another chance.

Elizabeth Banks is set to take a stab at rebooting Charlie's Angels in 2019. Banks won't just be in front of the camera starring as one of many (many, many) Bosleys, though — she'll also be behind it, marking her second feature film as a director following 2015's Pitch Perfect 2. 

For her new crew of Angels, Banks has rounded up Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska to portray Sabina Wilson, Elena Houghlin, and Jane Kano. The actress-director plays the trio's handler, with Djimon Hounsou and Sir Patrick Stewart portraying two other Boselys in charge of overseeing their own group of Angels. As if all that wasn't enough, Banks also added a draft of the screenplay, which means if these Angels don't fly, she won't have anyone else to blame. Judging by the trailer, thought, the reboot looks like it'll have no trouble soaring to great success — and Banks is clearly nothing but excited about her summer-slated passion project. 

"Charlie's Angels, for me, is one of the original brands to celebrate the empowered woman since its debut in the '70s," she enthused. "I couldn't be more excited to work with Kristen, Naomi and Ella to bring this chapter to fans around the world."

Stephen King rather famously hates Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining, despite the fact that it's widely acknowledged as one of the finest films ever made. King's personal feelings about his original 1977 novel led him to oversee a 1997 miniseries and eventually write a sequel in 2013. In Doctor Sleep, King catches up with an adult Dan Torrance, who has inherited his father's alcoholism and is still haunted by the ghosts of the Overlook Hotel. While he battles these literal and metaphorical demons, he must protect a young girl with a Shine of her own from an evil cult.

Adapting Doctor Sleep into a movie presents a pretty unique problem: how do you avoid comparisons to one of the most iconic films of all time when the creator of the source material despises it? Director Mike Flanagan (hot on the heels of his success with The Haunting of Hill House) has promised to acknowledge Kubrick's Shining while remaining faithful to King's world. It's not the first time Flanagan has adapted the horror master's work, either — he directed Gerald's Game for Netflix in 2017. 

Ewan McGregor will star as Dan Torrance when Doctor Sleep haunts theaters on November 8, 2019. Originally slated for a January 2020 release, Warner Bros. bumped the date up in what Deadline calls "a major vote of confidence," giving us even more cause for excitement.

Won't you be his neighbor? Tom Hanks plays the legendarily kind and endlessly talented children's television icon Fred Rogers in an all-new drama feature from director Marielle Heller. Written by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, the upcoming film, once tentatively titled You Are My Friend, chronicles the relationship that award-winning but rarely smiling journalist Lloyd Vogel, portrayed by Matthew Rhys, forms with Rogers after he begrudgingly agrees to profile the adored host of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood for Esquire magazine in 1998. The more time Vogel spends with Rogers, the more his understanding of the world and its people starts to change.

While A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood sounds like it has the makings of a biopic, it isn't one. Director Heller asserted to Entertainment Weekly that the film is instead "a movie that's largely focused on a reporter and [Mr. Rogers'] relationship to his life, and how [the reporter's] whole world changes when coming in contact with Fred Rogers... It's a story for our times, a story about kindness and family connection and trying to tap into our better self."

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood follows after the 2018 Mr. Rogers documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? – and will probably make viewers shed just as many tears as the Morgan Neville-directed film did when it debuts on November 22, 2019. 

Bundle up and grab your headphones, because Frozen 2 is also coming your way in 2019 and e're ready to guarantee it will feature at least a couple catchy songs that are sure to become karaoke mainstays for the rest of eternity. 

The sequel, helmed by returning directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, takes place three years after the original Frozen and sees Queen Elsa (Idina Menzel) hear a noise calling to her from the north of their kingdom of Arendelle. Elsa teams up with her younger sister Anna (Kristen Bell) team up with Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), their sentient snowman pal Olaf (Josh Gad), and Kristoff's goofy reindeer Sven on a journey to discover the true origin of Elsa's powers and the secrets of their family. 

As all sequels do, Frozen 2 will introduce a few new characters to the mix — namely ones voiced by Westworld's Evan Rachel Wood and This Is Us star Sterling K. Brown. We don't know anything about their characters as of this writing, but the sooner Frozen 2 gets to its November release date, the more likely it is that Disney will dish up some details. 

The original film also provided some of Disney's most engaging and feminist heroines to date, something we're definitely excited to see more of down the line. Frozen 2 is sure to warm your cold heart and leave you humming infectious tunes for months on end. 

Star Wars: The Last Jedi writer-director Rian Johnson will show us a new side of himself with Knives Out, an eccentric murder mystery that features a cast so bright, you'd be wise to wear sunglasses while reading the roster. Described as a "whodunnit like no one has ever dunnit," Knives Out zeroes in on the mysterious death of well-off crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer), who died during his 85th birthday party... in his own home... surrounded by members of his highly dysfunctional family whom he hoped would finally get along at the celebration. Enter Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), who arrives at Thrombey's mansion and begins investigating his death, which he believes was a murder carried out by his own flesh and blood. Everyone's a suspect — Ransom (Chris Evans), Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis), Joni (Toni Collette), Morris (Don Johnson), Walt (Michael Shannon), Meg (Katherine Langford), Jacob (Jaeden Martell), and Donna (Riki Lindhome) — and no one is safe from the hot seat of interrogation. 

The Agatha Christie-inspired feature drops on November 27.

We'll get to travel between dimensions with Rick and Morty again soon. The animated Adult Swim series has won lots of admirers for its wacky humor and surprisingly deep plotting, and fortunately for fans, the show is coming back to small screens in November 2019 for season 4.

Contract negotiations held Rick and Morty up for a while, with co-creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland hammering out a deal with Adult Swim's parent company Turner Broadcasting Systems. Although the renewal took time, luckily for fans of the series, the show wound up getting a massive 70-episode order, ensuring it will be around for quite a while. 

As for season four, Harmon has said that he's aiming to have 14 episodes, which is up from the usual 10 to 11. A specific premiere date for this batch of episodes has yet to be determined, but co-creator Justin Roiland promised that that 70-episode renewal order should translate to a much shorter wait between seasons.

"We're not going to do these long breaks, these chasms in between seasons anymore," he told Polygon. "We're going to schedule vacation time and just keep the machine going. It's going to be really cool."

Thought the magical, reality-bending board game bit the dust at the end of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle? Think again.

After Welcome to the Jungle stars Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Nick Jonas, and Karen Gillan all spilled their ideas for a sequel to the sequel that followed up the 1995 Robin Williams-led original, Sony Pictures gave the project the green light, bringing Jake Kasdan back into the director's seat, and Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Scott Rosenberg, and Jeff Pinkner into the writers' room.

Jumanji: The Next Level reunites the gang for another adventure that is a "continuation" of the video game concept that framed Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. The upcoming outing distances itself from the first Jumanji film and features a huge twist straight out of the gate: human characters wind up stuck inside different video game characters' bodies. It's a big avatar swap! Best of all, the narrative shake-up in Jumanji: The Next Level allows for Danny DeVito and Danny Glover to join the cast, respectively portraying Eddie, the grandfather of Alex Wolff's Spencer Gilpin, and Eddie's best bud Milo. Eddie ends up inside the avatar played by Johnson, Dr. Smolder Bravestone, and Milo is in the one played by Hart, Franklin "Mouse" Finbar. Hilarity is bound to ensue as the crew tries desperately to find Spencer inside the game and escape Jumanji once more.

Head back to the jungle when Jumanji: The Next Level movie launches on December 13.

There have been some shake-ups behind the scenes of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, with Lucasfilm dropping Jurassic World helmer Colin Trevorrow a few months before production was set to begin. They found someone who's definitely qualified to take over, however, with The Force Awakens' J.J. Abrams returning to write and direct. And boy, has Abrams cooked up something spectacular with the final installment of the current Star Wars trilogy.

If the title didn't give it away, The Rise of Skywalker will provide a resolution to the Skywalker saga while setting up a future of standalone movies and spin-offs — meaning that while we're undoubtedly in for the final appearances of some classic characters, this chapter will also serve as a launching pad for years of the franchise's future. If that doesn't strike your fancy, perhaps knowing Mark Hamill and the late Carrie Fisher are confirmed to return — alongside Billy Dee Williams, reprising his role as Lando Calrissian — will do the trick. And if you're somehow still not impressed, hearing that The Rise of Skywalker will see "ancient conflict between the Jedi and the Sith reach its climax" (i.e., there's going to be some epic fight sequences and huge revelations) should get you hyped beyond belief. 

Shrek 5 won't hit theaters until nearly nine years after Shrek Forever After, but Dreamworks is assuring viewers that the next movie in the hugely popular franchise will still blow everyone away. The fifth film is apparently set to launch a reinvented Shrek franchise, with a whole potential Shrek universe on the way as well. "Reinvention was sort of called for," said screenwriter Michael McCullers. "There's been four movies and a lot of material, so the characters are pretty beloved and they're great characters, but you also have to think of a pretty new take at that point." While it's unclear exactly what the reinvention will entail, there are quite a few storylines in the Shrek universe that have yet to be explored, and it will be interesting to see which fairy tale myths the franchise decides to mine next.

So long, friend. Mr. Robot will log off and shut down — with zero chance of restarting — with its fourth season on USA Network. Despite reportedly thinking of making a fifth season of the Rami Malek-led drama thriller, which took off like a rocket when it debuted in 2015, series creator Sam Esmail affirmed that the fourth season will provide the perfect end to cybersecurity engineer-slash-hacker Elliot Alderson's tale. "Since day one, I've been building toward one conclusion — and in breaking the next season of Mr. Robot, I have decided that conclusion is finally here," Esmail said in August 2018. "[We] didn't want to say goodbye, but we ultimately have too much respect for Elliot's journey to extend past its inevitable ending."

The bigwigs at USA Network and Esmail are keeping mum when it comes to Mr. Robot season 4 details, but fans can expect the return of Malek's Elliot, Christian Slater's Mr. Robot (of course), Carly Chaikin's Darlene, Grace Gummer's Dom DiPierro, Portia Doubleday's Angela Moss, Martin Wallström's Tyrell Wellick, Michael Cristoer's Phillip Price, BD Wong's Whiterose, and Bobby Canavale's Irving. Season 4 is said to pick up immediately where season 3 left off, and will explore "the pros and cons of Elliot hitting 'send' on the email that could reverse 5/9." Whatever happens when Mr. Robot returns, the series is certain to go out with a bang.

Hail to the new queen in season 3 of Netflix's The Crown. Claire Foy may be leaving her post as Queen Elizabeth, but someone equally decorated is assuming the throne: Golden Globe-winning star Olivia Colman, who will portray Her Royal Highness in her later years. Season 3 will see a slew of other actor replacements as well — like Helena Bonham Carter playing an older version of Queen Elizabeth's rebellious sister Princess Margaret, whom Vanessa Kirby porrayed in the first two seasons; Tobias Menzies assuming Matt Smith's role as Prince Philip; and Ben Daniels becoming the new Antony Armstrong-Jones (a.k.a. Lord Snowdon), succeeding Matthew Goode. Additionally, Josh O'Connor replaces Julian Baring as Prince Charles, while Marion Bailey succeeds Victoria Hamilton as the Queen Mother. 

And that's just the start of the newness to come in the third season of The Crown, which will chronicle the Aberfan disaster, Princess Margaret's five-year affair with Roddy Llewellyn that broke down her marriage in 1978, and Harold Wilson's time as the British Prime Minister. Fans will also get to get acquainted with Camilla Parker Bowles, the second wife of Prince Charles, and the late Princess Diana in season 3.

"Season[s] 3 and 4 are being mapped out and the closer the history comes — I now can say, 'God, I know exactly what I was feeling when that happened, I remember that and I remember this," The Crown producer Suzanne Mackie once said. "That's so exciting!"

Who watches the Watchmen? You do — on HBO in 2019!

The home of Game of Thrones, Westworld, True Detective, and Big Little Lies is adding another member to its prestige television family next year: Watchmen, the drama that brings Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' acclaimed comic series to the small screen. From the mind of Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof, Watchmen takes place in the same "alternate history where 'superheroes' are treated as outlaws" as featured in the comics, but it will make some noticeable changes to the source material.

Lindelof himself has rejected the notion that Watchmen is a straight-up adaptation, writing in a lengthy Instagram post that he has "no desire to 'adapt' the twelve issues Mr. Moore and Mr. Gibbons created thirty years ago." Instead, the series will "remix" the comics, which Lindelof called "sacred ground [that] will not be retread nor recreated nor reproduced nor rebooted." Billed as a "dark satirical and dystopian take on the superhero genre," Watchmen will "embrace the nostalgia of the original groundbreaking graphic novel while attempting to break new ground of its own."

With a logline like that and a cast that features Tim Blake Nelson as Looking Glass, Jeremy Irons as Adrian Veidt (a.k.a. Ozymandias), and Jean Smart as Agent Blake, as well as Regina King, Don Johnson, Louis Gossett Jr., Adelaide Clemens, Andrew Howard, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and a host of others, Watchmen sounds like one of the best superhero shows set to premiere next year.

Philip Pullman's fantasy novel series His Dark Materials materializes with the BBC and New Line Cinema's forthcoming television adaptation, set to air sometime in 2019. The series takes place in an alternate reality in which every human has their own animal companion, known as a dæmon, that represents the physical manifestation of their soul. A young orphan girl named Lyra Belacqua (Logan breakout Dafne Keen) is our protagonist, and we follow her as she uncovers a shocking truth about Lord Asriel (James McAvoy) and Mrs. Carisa Coulter (Ruth Wilson), two fellows at Jordan College where Lyra lives. Her journey grows more intense when her friend disappears, and Lyra learns of a string of kidnappings and human-dæmon experiments that are connected to Dust — a particle that the Magisterium organization believes is the root of all mortal sin.

Black Mirror and Peaky Blinders' Otto Bathurst directs His Dark Materials, and he previously promised that fans should expect a few deviations from the source material. Anyone thinking that this will be a cut-and-dry, beat-for-beat adaptation that won't offer anything new are sorely mistaken and would be foolish to skip out on the upcoming series.