Every Upcoming Movie Sequel You Should Know About

If we know anything about the movie industry, it's that Hollywood loves its sequels. That much is obvious from the way we're constantly bombarded with trailers, posters, promos, and news stories about upcoming franchise films. But even as we're being inundated with info about retreads, revivals, and follow-ups, there are quite a few part twos (and beyond) that have successfully stayed under the radar. 

And while we may take it for granted that every superhero adventure and action blockbuster has more franchise filler to come, some long-gestating reunions or odds-defying continuations might totally surprise you. From indie comedies to action epics, let's take a look at some of the sequels you didn't know were being made.

Updated on October 9, 2024: Sequels are hitting theaters and streaming services all the time, and we've updated this list to keep you informed on all the future films that you might've missed out on. We've got the lowdown on part twos, threequels, and installments that are decades in the making. So keep coming back for all the latest info on these upcoming sequels.

One of the most notable entries in the horror sub-genre of killer clown movies, 2016's "Terrifier" indeed terrified audiences with the gruesome and murderous actions of Art the Clown, a dryly humorous prankster not unlike a mix of Pennywise and Freddy Krueger, determined to kill three women on a cursed Halloween evening. With an ultra-low budget of $35,000, "Terrifier" turned into a cult classic and prompted a 2022 sequel. "Terrifier 2," in which Art the Clown is brought back to life by evil forces to stalk and kill on Halloween again, took in $15 million — blockbuster numbers for an unassuming horror sequel.

Now, Art the Clown is coming back with "Terrifier 3." The horror flick will be set on Christmas Eve, with the evil prankster bringing gifts and gore to the unsuspecting citizens of Miles County. Despite the yuletide setting, director Damien Lone has told Variety that it will be more in line with the tone of the first film. "I want to shift back a bit to the tone of 'Part One,'" Leone said, "which I felt was a little more simplistic and old-school, gritty slasher. I want this one to go back in that direction, and I want this to be the scariest one of the trilogy. This one will actually have a little bit more of an evil overtone to it, so this is going to be hopefully the scariest and the darkest?"

David Howard Thornton will reprise the role of Art, and Lauren LaVera is coming back as Sienna Shaw. They'll be joined here by Elliott Fullam as Jonathan Shaw, Samantha Scaffidi as Victoria Heyes, wrestler Chris Jericho, reprising his part from "Terrifier 2" as a hospital attendant. Also keep an eye out for Jason Patric of "The Lost Boys" and special effects wizard Tom Savini. Art returns to theater screens on October 11, 2024.

A horror flick with a truly upsetting premise, "Smile" is one of the few non-franchise horror hits of recent years — one so successful that it's probably the first in what will be a whole series of movies. 

From writer-director Parker Finn, the original "Smile" mines terror and discomfort out of a usually friendly facial expression. The simple smile becomes twisted and unsettling when it's plastered on the faces of those possessed by an evil presence. As for the first movie's plot, after witnessing a college professor's inexplicable death, a student experiences haunting visions of a creepy, smiling creature. Thus, we bear witness to a string of horrific smiles and deaths, which force psychiatrist Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) to figure out how and why the evil virus strikes when she ends up cursed herself.

"Smile" grossed $217 million on a relatively meager budget, so it was a hit in every possible way for Paramount Pictures. And now, we're getting more gruesome, gleeful terror. Parker Finn is coming back to helm the sequel, and Naomi Scott of the recent "Charlie's Angels" and live-action "Aladdin" movie will portray a popstar terrorized by the grinning demon. We'll also see Lukas Gage of "Road House," Rosemarie DeWitt of "The Staircase," Dylan Gelula of "Dream Scenario," and a returning Kyle Gallner, among others. We'll see all the unsettling horror play out when "Smile 2" hits theaters on October 18, 2024.

Ridley Scott is heading back to ancient Rome. Nearly 20 years after the original "Gladiator" hit theaters, Scott is finally making a sequel to the story of Maximus Decimus Meridius. Of course, old Maximus is busy walking through wheat fields in heaven, so what's the sequel going to be about? 

Well, the film is going to start about 25 to 30 years after the original ended and will focus on Lucius, the son of Maximus' old flame, Lucilla. Instead of original actor Spencer Treat Clark, grown-up Lucius will be portrayed by Paul Mescal of "Aftersun." Similar to Maximus, Lucius will be looking for revenge when Rome invades his new home, and perhaps he'll quench his thirst for vengeance inside the Colosseum.

Connie Nielsen — who played Lucius' mom in the first film, Lucilla — is returning for part two. Derek Jacobi will also reprise his "Gladiator" role of Gracchus. Better still, two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington ("Glory" and "Training Day") will star as a plotting powerbroker, with "Gladiator 2" being sort of a reunion of sorts with Scott, his "American Gangster" director. Joseph Quinn of "Stranger Things" fame will play Emperor Caracalla, and Fred Hechinger of "The White Lotus" will portray Emperor Geta, vacated by Barry Keoghan after a scheduling issue. Pedro Pascal will take a break from killing zombies in "The Last of Us" to appear as a conflicted Roman general, and May Calamway of "Moon Knight" will also star.

As for the script, the initial screenplay for the film came from Peter Craig — whose previous credits include "The Town" and 2022's "The Batman" — but it was subsequently worked on by David Scarpa, who also wrote Scott's "Napoleon" film. "Gladiator 2" has received a release date of November 22, 2024.

We're heading back to a world of demigods, aquatic adventures, and adorable pigs. Yep, "Moana 2" is sailing for the big screen, with the animated flick releasing on November 27, 2024. Originally, we were supposed to get a "Moana" Disney+ series, but the head honchos at Disney decided to reformat the show into a feature-length film. And never fear — Auli'i Cravahlho is returning to voice the titular hero, and Dwayne Johnson will come back to play the one and only Maui.

As for the plot, three years after her last adventure, Moana will set out on a voyage to find a magical island, hoping its discovery will reunite all the people of the ocean. She'll be accompanied this time by a band of explorers — not to mention animal friends Oh and Hei Hei. Of course, that's all easier said than done, as the island is guarded by the powerful God of Storms. Behind the scenes, Dave Derrick Jr. — who worked in various capacities on titles like "Megamind," "Encanto," and the original "Moana" — directed the picture. While Lin-Manuel Miranda isn't involved musically this time around, "Moana" OGs Opetaia Foa'i and Mark Mancina have joined forces with Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear of "The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical" to pen the songs.

After the initial trailer sparked revulsion from fans and a hasty redesign by the studio thanks to a bizarrely rendered version of Sonic the Hedgehog, the first film to feature the character managed to win crowds over at the box office, enough to earn itself a sequel. Yet before "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" even zoomed on to screens in April 2022, a third film had already been greenlit by Paramount, which will once again bring together Ben Schwartz as the voice of the titular hedgehog and James Marsden as his endlessly patient and forgiving human best bud Tom, along with Jim Carrey as the villainous Dr. Robotnik.

Plot details about the third film are still sparse. However, we do know that Krysten Ritter ("Jessica Jones") has joined the cast, alongside familiar faces like Idris Elba (Knuckles), Colleen O'Shaughnessey (Tails), and Tika Sumpter (Maddie Wachowski). We'll also see new faces like Sofia Pernas ("The Brave"), Cristo Fernández ("Ted Lasso"), and Jorma Taccone of The Lonely Island. Perhaps the most exciting bit of casting is that Keanu Reeves of "John Wick" fame will play Sonic's rival Shadow. Much like the blue hedgehog himself, Paramount is moving fast, as the film is currently scheduled to speed into theaters on December 20, 2024.

After the massive commercial success of Disney's photo-realistic remake of "The Lion King," it seemed like only a matter of time until a sequel was announced. However, instead of Jon Favreau returning to direct, he's passing the reins over to Barry Jenkins, the Academy Award-winning director of critical darlings such as "Moonlight" and "If Beale Street Could Talk."

According to the official plot synopsis for "Mufasa: The Lion King," it's story time on the savanna, as Rafiki the baboon sits down with Simba's cub, Kiara, and regales her with the story of her grandfather, Mufasa. "Told in flashbacks," the synopsis explains, "the story introduces Mufasa as an orphaned cub, lost and alone until he meets a sympathetic lion named Taka — the heir to a royal bloodline. The chance meeting sets in motion an expansive journey of an extraordinary group of misfits searching for their destiny — their bond will be tested as they work together to evade a threatening and deadly foe."

Aaron Pierre of "The Underground Railroad" (also a Barry Jenkins project) will voice Mufasa while Kelvin Harrison of "Chevalier" will portray Taka. Donald Glover, Beyoncé, Seth Rogen, and Billy Eichner will all reprise their original roles while newcomers include Mads Mikkelsen ("Hannibal"), Thandiwe Newton ("Westworld"), and Beyoncé's daughter, Blue Ivy, as Kiara. You can also expect the musical styling of Lin-Manuel Miranda, as he's written the songs for the upcoming "Lion King" sequel.

"Den of Thieves" might have been a flop with critics, but this heist thriller got away with $80 million at the box office. And in Hollywood, crisp dollar bills talk way louder than rotten tomatoes, leading to the announcement of a sequel just weeks after the first film hit theaters. "Den of Thieves 2: Pantera" will reunite original film stars Gerard Butler, O'Shea Jackson Jr, and Meadow Williams with writer-director Christian Gudegast. Joining them for the sequel is Swen Temmel in an undisclosed role.

According to Deadline, the film will follow "Big Nick (Butler), this time on the hunt in Europe for Donnie (Jackson Jr.), who's embroiled in the dangerous world of diamond thieves and the infamous Panther mafia as they plot a massive heist of the world's biggest diamond exchange." Deadline further reports that once again, Gudegast spent time "with notorious thieves and the investigators that hunt them" as part of his research for the film. We also know that former UFC champion Michael Bisping is joining the cast, which means we should expect some pretty awesome fight scenes.

"Den of Thieves 2: Pantera" is aiming for release on January 10, 2025, so the wait for more pulse-pounding heist action shouldn't be long.

If anyone had predicted in the early 2010s that one of the most universally beloved and critically acclaimed franchises of the decade would center around a marmalade-loving CGI bear, people would have dismissed them as living in a fantasy world. Yet the two existing "Paddington" films managed to enrapture critics and audiences alike, and viewers can't seem to get enough of the sweet-natured bear and his kind-hearted family. So it's only fitting that a third "Paddington" is on the way, debuting in U.S. theaters on January 17, 2025.

However, while the first two "Paddington" films were helmed by director Paul King, the third will be helmed by Dougal Wilson, a veteran of commercials and music videos making his feature film directorial debut. As for the plot, the threequel will find Paddington going to visit his Aunt Lucy at the Home for Retired Bears. But when he and the Browns show up, Aunt Lucy is nowhere to be found, leading our heroes into an adventure in the Amazon rainforest.

As for the actors involved, Hugh Bonneville (Henry Brown), Samuel Joslin (Jonathan Brown), Madeleine Harris (Judy Brown), Julie Walters (Mrs. Bird), Jim Broadbent (Mr. Gruber), Imelda Staunton (Aunt Lucy), and Ben Whishaw (Paddington) are all set to return. Emily Mortimer ("Relic") replaces Sally Hawkins in the role of Mary Brown, while Oscar-winner Olivia Colman ("The Favourite") will play a chipper nun who runs the Home for Retired Bears. Rounding out the main cast, we've got Antonio Banderas ("The Mask of Zorro") as Hunter Cabot, a roguish riverboat captain who guides the Browns through the wilds of Peru, and newcomer Carlo Tous replacing Rachel Zegler (due to the now-concluded SAG-AFTRA strike) as the captain's daughter, Gina Cabot.

In 2016's "The Accountant," Ben Affleck put on a pair of glasses and picked up a sniper rifle to play Christian Wolff, an autistic accountant who works for some very dangerous criminals. Christian also has some very serious assassin skills, so when a group of hitmen are hired to take him out, he's more than capable of handling himself. While the movie wasn't a huge critical success, it fared well at the box office, and fans of the sleeper hit have been wondering for years if we'd ever get a second "Accountant" adventure.

Well, Christian Wolff is indeed returning to action. "The Accountant 2" is being produced by Amazon MGM Studios, and it will begin filming in 2024. Ben Affleck will reprise his mathematically-inclined character, and Gavin O'Connor will return to direct. In September 2021, O'Connor spoke with CinemaBlend's ReelBlend podcast and said he visualized an "Accountant" trilogy, saying, "I've always wanted to do three because what, the second one's going to be more with — we're going to integrate his brother into the story."

Yep, that means Jon Bernthal is back as Christian's rough-and-tumble sibling Braxton Wolff. He and Affleck will be joined by returning cast members J.K. Simmons as Treasury boss Ray King and Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Treasury agent Marybeth Medina. As for the plot, we know that Medina's old employer will wind up murdered, and she'll end up bringing the Wolff brothers in to help. As they investigate — per the plot summary — "the trio draw the attention of some of the most ruthless killers alive — all intent on putting a stop to their search."

Ready for more Ethan Hunt stunts? Can't wait to see if our IMF heroes can outsmart the coldly calculating Entity? Well, due to the now-concluded SAG-AFTRA strike, we'll have to wait a little bit as "Mission: Impossible 8" is scheduled to hit theaters on May 23, 2025.

Formerly titled "Dead Reckoning Part Two" before dropping that subtitle in October 2023, the plot of "Mission: Impossible 8" will directly follow the events of "Dead Reckoning," in which Ethan Hunt and crew got their hands on the cruciform key that can defeat the Entity. Their mission will then lead them to sunken sub in the Arctic Circle and also introduce several new faces to the franchise, including Holt McCallany of "Mindhunters," Janet McTeer of "Ozark," Nick Offerman of "Parks and Recreation," Katy O'Brian of "Love Lies Bleeding," Tramell Tillman of "Severance," and Hannah Waddingham of "Ted Lasso." We'll also see the return of faces like Pom Klementieff, Esai Morales, and Hayley Atwell in addition to the "M:I" regulars.

We'll also get to see someone from the original film — poor William Donloe, who was shipped off to Alaska after Ethan Hunt broke into Langley under his nose. Original actor Rolf Saxon will play the part. There will also be a stunt involving a biplane 2,000 feet up in the air, with Tom Cruise actually standing on the thing instead of sitting in it like a normal person, as well as some sort of underwater action. 

Hollywood loves the "Karate Kid" franchise. After the 1984 movie crane-kicked its way into our hearts, we were treated to two '80s sequels, a 1994 semi-reboot, the "Cobra Kai" TV series, and a 2010 remake starring Jackie Chan. Well ... that was a remake, right? A movie completely disconnected from the world of Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi? Well, as it turns out, all these properties not only take place in the same universe, but we'll be seeing two of their biggest stars team up together.

On May 30, 2025, we'll return to the world of "The Karate Kid" with a brand new adventure starring Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso and Jackie Chan as Mr. Han, reprising his Miyagi-like role from the Jaden Smith movie. As for the plot, The Hollywood Reporter has said, "The latest iteration will bring the story to the East Coast and focus on a teen from China who finds strength and direction via martial arts and a tough but wise mentor." Ben Wang of "American Born Chinese" will play the titular kid seeking some karate counsel, and he'll be joined by Ming-Na Wen of "The Mandalorian," Sadie Stanley of "Cruel Summer," and Joshua Jackson of "Dr. Death." Jonathan Entwistle of "I Am Not Okay With This" is directing, and Rob Lieber of "Peter Rabbit" is writing the script. 

These days, we all take zombies for granted thanks to projects like "The Walking Dead" and "The Last of Us." However, the resurgence of hungry, undead monsters is 100% thanks to "28 Days Later." The Danny Boyle horror film revitalized the genre for a post-9/11 world, making zombies incredibly fast and terrifyingly relevant. The movie inspired a sequel, "28 Months Later," but fans have long wanted to see what happens next in this world of fast-moving monsters.

Well, prepare to return to that grimy, gory universe with "28 Years Later," which will be the first of a brand new trilogy. Boyle is returning to direct, and original scribe Alex Garland (who afterward went on to helm movies like "Ex Machina" and "Civil War") will return to pen all three films. Jodie Comer ("Killing Eve"), Ralph Fiennes ("The Menu"), Aaron Taylor-Johnson ("Kraven the Hunter"), Erin Kellyman ("The Falcon and the Winter Soldier"), and Jack O'Connell ("Unbroken") will all star, but will Cillian Murphy return to the franchise after finding new levels of fame with "Oppenheimer?" 

Speaking with Deadline, Sony Motion Picture Group chairman Tom Rothman gave an interesting response when asked if Murphy would be back. "Yes, but in a surprising way and in a way that grows, let me put it that way." We're not exactly sure what that means, but it could imply the Irish actor could also appear in the sequel of the new trilogy, which will be under the direction of Nia DaCosta ("Candyman") and will start shooting right after the original is completed.

Killer dolls amass devoted cult audiences by combining innocent childhood playthings with evil, murder, mayhem, and usually a little comedy. Following in the steps of Chucky, Annabelle, and "The Boy" comes "M3GAN," a high-tech take on the formula. In this film, a toy company's roboticist (Allison Williams) creates M3GAN, an eerily life-like doll with sophisticated artificial intelligence on board. She's able to learn and adapt to make life better for the child she's imprinted upon — in this case, the roboticist's niece (Violet McGraw). Naturally, things go awry, and M3GAN becomes violently overprotective of her young charge.

"M3GAN" earned $30 million its January 2023 opening weekend, far exceeding industry prognostications. Just days later, Universal took the early steps to bring a sequel to the big screen. Allison Williams and Violet McGraw are returning for the sequel, alongside Jenna Davis as the voice of M3GAN. Shin Hati ("Ahsoka"), Jemaine Clement ("Moana"), Timm Sharp ("Percy Jackson and the Olympians"), and Aristotle Athari ("Saturday Night Live"). 

Akela Cooper, who penned the original script (as well as the wonderfully bonkers horror film "Malignant"), is coming back to write the screenplay, and director Gerald Johnstone is also returning. James Wan, Jason Blum, and Allison Williams herself will be producing. Speaking about the plot with Empire (via Collider), Wan elaborated a bit, saying, "M3GAN is coming back in a big way. The first film came just at the right time [when concerns about AI were mounting], and we're definitely leaning into that on the next one. We're exploring the AI universe even further."

Though it was once slotted for a May 16 release date, we can now expect "M3GAN 2.0" to dance into theaters on June 27, 2025.

Life finds a way — and so does the "Jurassic Park" franchise. After the series kicked off in 1993 with the Steven Spielberg classic, we got two proper "Park" sequels before we spun-off with the "Jurassic World" franchise. Nowe, we're heading back to this world of hungry dinos and terrifying theme parks with a new "Jurassic World" movie. Word has it that the upcoming film will focus on a new story, so chances are good we won't see any returning actors like Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, or Jeff Goldblum. However, we will see one of the biggest movie stars on the planet trying her best to outrun raptors.

Scarlett Johansson of Black Widow fame will star in the new "Jurassic World" movie, alongside Mahershala Ali ("Leave the World Behind"), Jonathan Bailey ("Bridgerton"), Rupert Friend ("Obi-Wan Kenobi"), and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo ("The Lincoln Lawyer"). Originally, David Leitch of "The Fall Guy" was meant to direct, but after leaving the project, he's being replaced by Gareth Edwards of "The Creator," "Rogue One," and "Godzilla," probably the perfect pick for a movie about oversized monsters. And with a script coming from David Koepp — who wrote the screenplay for the original "Jurassic Park" — we'll definitely return to the island for another prehistoric adventure.

You can't keep a bad guy down, even when they've gone straight. After "The Bad Guys" earned critical approval and $250 million in 2022, it seems those titular animal thieves are back in action. Sam Rockwell will return in a sequel as crew leader Mr. Wolf, along with Marc Maron as Mr. Snake, Craig Robinson as Mr. Shark, Awkwafina as Ms. Tarantula, and Anthony Ramos as Mr. Piranha. You can also expect to hear the returning vocal talents of Zazie Beetz (Diana Foxington), Richard Ayoade (Professor Marmalade), Alex Borstein (Police Chief Misty Luggins), and Lilly Singh (Tiffany Fluffit).

Pierre Perifel is coming back to direct, alongside JP Sans who previously worked as the head of character animation on the first movie. As for the plot, the official logline reads, "The Bad Guys are struggling to find trust and acceptance in their newly minted lives as Good Guys, when they are pulled out of retirement and forced to do 'one last job' by an all-female squad of criminals." If you're ready to see a bunch of cool animals commit some fun crimes, "The Bad Guys 2" will heist their way into theaters on August 1, 2025.

2021's "Nobody" stars unlikely action hero Bob Odenkirk — best known for his performance as Saul Goodman on "Better Call Saul" and "Breaking Bad" and his extensive comedy career — as seemingly unassuming dad Hutch Mansell. When his mundane life is upended by Russian mobsters, Hutch must get back in touch with the skills he cultivated as an assassin.

Conditions were ripe for a sequel. There's rage to spare in Hutch's heart, and "Nobody" was a rare hit of the COVD-19 era. In August 2022, "Nobody" director David Leitch told Collider that another film was in the (very early) works. "Everyone involved is like, 'Full steam ahead,'" Leitch said. "We are in the script process ... the studio loved the results, and it's happening. I mean, I think it's happening as fast as we can make it happen." 

However, Leitch actually won't be directing this time around. Instead, those duties will go to Timo Tjahjanto, the Indonesian filmmaker behind the incredibly gory action flick "The Night Comes for Us." With his involvement, perhaps the second film will go even harder than the previous film. The sequel will also see the arrival of Sharon Stone ("Basic Instinct") as the movie's big bad, and Colin Hanks ("The Offer") will reportedly play a corrupt sheriff, per The Hollywood Reporter. Plus, both Christopher Lloyd and Connie Nielsen will reprise their roles from the first film. We'll see all the gory action play out on August 15, 2025.

Not only one of the most consistently creepy franchises in recent years, the Vera Farmiga/Patrick Wilson headlined "Conjuring" universe is also one of the most lucrative series of any kind, raking in over $2 billion at the global box office. That includes the haunted doll "Annabelle" movies, "The Nun" films, and the original "Conjuring" trilogy, set off by the '70s-set modern horror classic from 2013 about paranormal investigators Lorraine and Ed Warren who look into claims of a dark and evil presence at a spooky rural farmhouse where a bunch of dark and evil acts once occurred. The Warrens' ghost-hunting continued in 2016's "The Conjuring 2" and 2021's "The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It."

With plenty more ghost stories to tell and a receptive, paying audience ready to watch them, "The Conjuring" franchise will expand again with a fourth movie, subtitled "Last Rites." Lead studio New Line has signed up David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, who penned both "Conjuring" sequels, to write the script for the fourth movie. Franchise-originating producers James Wan and Peter Safran will also oversee the new film, with Michael Chaves returning from "The Devil Made Me Do It' to direct. Farmiga and Wilson are once more playing the roles of Lorraine and Ed Warren, and we're assuming "Last Rites" will be connected to "The Nun" series, as the "The Nun II" ended with the Warrens getting a call to action. In other words, it looks like their battle with the demon Valak isn't over.

More importantly, will this be the final "Conjuring" movie? The film's title seems pretty ominous in that regard. Well, when asked that question in a January 2023 interview with Collider, Wan responded, "You never know. We'll see."

If you can't get enough of "Downton Abbey," then we've got some good news for you. There's a third Crawley film on the way, set to bring back basically everyone we all came to know and love on the TV show. Granted, Maggie Smith died in the previous film, so the chances of seeing her back as Violet Crawley seem slim. However, we will see the return of Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Michelle Dockery, Jim Carter, Joanne Froggatt, Robert James-Collier, Phyllis Logan, Laura Carmichael, Brendan Coyle ... you get it — the gang is back.

Paul Giamatti will also reprise his role as Cora Crawley's free-spirited brother, and Dominic West will return as silent movie star Guy Dexter. We'll also see new faces such as Joely Richardson ("Nip/Tuck") and Alessandro Nivola ("Jurassic Park III"). Series showrunner Julian Fellowes returns to write the script, and Simon Curtis — having helmed "Downton Abbey: A New Era" — will be back in the director's chair. We aren't sure what the plot will be, but there are rumors this could be the last "Downton Abbey" movie. The upstairs/downstairs drama will play out on September 12, 2025.

Released in 1982, Disney's "Tron" was the first film featuring long sequences rendered entirely with computers. Starring Jeff Bridges as a video game designer trapped in one of his own projects, the film became a cult classic, so much so that Disney released "Tron: Legacy" in 2010, starring Garrett Hedlund as Flynn's son, who enters the dangerous cyber dimension to retrieve his lost father.

Now, "Tron: Ares" is officially on the way, with Jared Leto ("Blade Runner 2049") playing the titular Ares, an A.I. entity that enters the human world. Greta Lee of "Past Lives" has been cast as a programmer who helps Ares into our world, and "American Horror Story" actor Evan Peters will co-star as a character named Julian Dillinger, most likely the son of Ed Dillinger, the human villain from the original movie. Perhaps most importantly, series stalwart Jeff Bridges is returning for the threequel — after all, what's a "Tron" movie without the Dude?

You can also expect to see Jodie Turner-Smith of "Queen & Slim," Gillian Anderson of "The X-Files," Sarah Desjardins of "Yellowjackets," and Cameron Monaghan of "Shameless." Joachim Rønning, a live-action Disney favorite who helmed "Maleficent: Mistress of Evil" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales," is set to direct. The score will hail from Nine Inch Nails, which means it's going to rock as members Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross also composed scores for movies like "The Social Network" and "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." The third "Tron" film will light cycle into theaters on October 10, 2025.

"The Black Phone," which hit theaters in 2022, was a truly terrifying horror movie with a memorable, sinister villain, as well as a hero who audiences could champion. It was also a critically acclaimed film, winning the Saturn Award and Hollywood Critics Association Film Award for best horror movie to go along with its $160 million box office haul. 

In Scott Derrickson's film — based on the short story by Joe Hill — Ethan Hawke played a kidnapper and murderer known only as The Grabber, who terrorizes his young victims by locking them in a basement where they can't be seen, heard, or found before he kills them. Mason Thames played 13-year-old Finney, nabbed and detained by The Grabber. He's got just one means of escape — listening to the coaching and counsel of the ghosts of The Grabber's murder victims, who speak through a broken phone in the basement.

With critical approval, commercial success, and a novel plot, a sequel was a probability ... and now it's a certainty. In October 2023, Universal and Blumhouse announced that they'd ordered a sequel to "The Black Phone," one with which they hope to start a new franchise.  Blumhouse further revealed that many original cast members would reprise their roles in "The Black Phone 2." Hawke, Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, and Miguel Mora will all be back. Screenwriters Scott Derrickson (who also directed the original movie) and C. Robert Cargill will tackle the script for the sequel, with Derrickson reprising his role as director. The film will ring throughout movie theaters on October 17, 2025.

Although 2021's "Mortal Kombat," based on the hit video game franchise, didn't wow the critics, it performed well enough at the box office and on HBO Max to get a sequel greenlit. The script for "Mortal Kombat 2" will come from "Moon Knight" creator Jeremy Slater, with Simon McQuoid returning to direct. 

Lewis Tan will reprise the role of martial artist Cole Tan, and basically everybody from the first film is coming back for part two. Expect to see Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Josh Lawson as Kano, Mehcad Brooks as Jax, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Max Huang as Kung Lao, Tadanobu Asano as Lord Raiden, and Chin Han as Shang Tsung. Plus, the epic rivalry continues, as Joe Taslim is back as Sub-Zero and Hiroyuki Sanada is returning as Scorpion.

The sequel will presumably pick up where the first film left off, with Cole on a mission to seek out the martial artist and movie star Johnny Cage. Cage is set to play be played by "The Boys" lead Karl Urban, and we can also expect to see Tati Gabrielle ("You") as Jade, Adeline Rudolph ("Chilling Adventures of Sabrina") as Kitana, Martyn Ford ("F9") as Shao Khan, Desmond Chiam ("Joy Ride") as King Jerrod, Ana Thu Nguyen ("The Spy Who Never Dies") as Queen Sindel, and Damon Herriman ("Once Upon a Time in Hollywood") as Quan Chi. 

The first film released simultaneously on HBO Max and in theaters, but we're expecting this one to play exclusively on the big screen. As for its current status, filming began in June 2023 and wrapped in January 2024. However, there's going to be quite a bit of post-production work on the film, so it will still be a minute before we see the violent martial arts action play out.

It's no trick — another "Now You See Me" is in the works. The newest take on the magician-heist fantasy will be directed by Ruben Fleisher of "Venom" and "Zombieland" fame, with a script coming from Eric Warren Singer ("Top Gun: Maverick"), Seth Grahame-Smith ("The Lego Batman Movie"), and Mark Lesslie ("The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes"). 

And yep, the movie's core group of actors are coming back. We're talking Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, and Mark Ruffalo. They'll be joined here by Rosamund Pike ("Saltburn"), Dominic Sessa ("The Holdovers"), Justice Smith ("Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves"), and Ariana Greenblatt ("Barbie"). We're not sure what the plot will be about, but as the first two films involve magicians pulling off elaborate heists, we're assuming the threequel will have a similar story.

Earning more than $1 billion at the global box office in 2016, "Zootopia" presented a bustling city populated by talking animals, with the plot centered around idealistic rookie rabbit police officer Judy Hopps and scrappy small-time fox crook Nick Wilde. Together, they solve a mystery with links to the city's most powerful mammals while gently suggesting allegorical lessons about the importance of tolerance and diversity.

Disney expanded the "Zootopia" universe in 2022 with the "Zootopia+" series of shorts for its Disney+ streaming service in advance of a full-fledged big-screen sequel. But now, we're getting a proper sequel with "Zootopia 2." The upcoming animated film will see the return of Ginnifer Goodwin as Judy and Jason Bateman as Nick. Plus, Ke Huy Quan of "Everything Everywhere All At Once" will play a snake named Gary, who also happens to be a wanted reptile. Somehow, he'll play a part in what the official logline describes as "the most perilous and intricate" case that Nick and Judy have faced yet. The film bounds into theaters on November 26, 2025.

"Five Nights at Freddy's" first started prowling the halls of Hollywood back in 2015, and it took nearly a decade for the monstrous movie to make its way to the screen. And it was worth the wait — for studio executives anyway — as the movie became the highest-grossing film in Blumhouse history. With that impressive haul (and plenty of games to draw inspiration from), it should come as no surprise that we're returning to Freddy Fazbear's for several more nights.

We got the official word on a "Five Nights" sequel at CinemaCon 2024, where big-time producer Jason Blum confirmed the film would come out during fall 2025. Hollywood scooper DanielRPK has also reported the movie will try to be scarier than the first film, which wasn't quite as intense as the famously freaky video game. On top of all that, Blumhouse tweeted an image courtesy of Jim Henson's Creature Shop, which showed someone working on a new creature that might be the terrifying toy robot Mangle, who hails from the "Five Nights at Freddy's 2" video game. It also appears that Matthew Lillard will return as the villainous William Afton, as he revealed he'd be shooting the "Five Nights" sequel in October 2024 while doing an interview on the JayBee and Milly YouTube channel.

With its mix of blue-skinned aliens, environmental messages, and incredible action sequences, James Cameron's "Avatar" series has grossed billions of dollars at the box office. The first two "Avatar" films are among the highest-grossing movies of all time, and Cameron is gearing up for a third trip to Pandora. The man has plans for a five-film series, and we already know quite a bit about the upcoming third installment.

In January 2023, the director spoke to Deadline about "Avatar 3" (now titled "Avatar: Fire and Ash"), saying, "Fire has a symbolic purpose in the film, and there's a culture that is specifically around that concept. ... You're going to meet two completely new cultures in the next film." Evidently, this fire nation will be a bit different from your normal Na'vi. Led by Oona Chaplin from "Game of Thrones," the "Ash People" will actually be a villainous bunch, with Cameron telling 20 Minutes (via /Film), "I want to reveal the Na'vi from another angle because [so far] I have only shown their good sides. In the early films, there are very negative human examples and very positive Na'vi examples. In 'Avatar 3,' we'll do the reverse." 

We also know that instead of Jake Sully doing voiceover, "Fire and Ash" will be narrated by his son, Lo'ak (Britain Dalton), and we can also expect to see the return of Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco, Jack Champion, and Dileep Rao, among others. Plus, David Thewlis ("Wonder Woman") and Michelle Yeoh ("Wicked") are also set to join the cast. Expect to see "Fire and Ash" light up theater screens on December 19, 2025

Static Media owns and operates /Film and Looper.

In his "Great Movies" review, Roger Ebert hailed the original "This Is Spinal Tap" as "one of the funniest movies ever made." The 1984 mockumentary tells the story of fading band Spinal Tap, desperately searching for musical glory in a world that's forgotten them. And the whole time, they're being filmed by the not-so-talented documentarian Marty Di Bergi — played by the film's actual director, Rob Reiner.

With its so-terrible-they're-amazing songs ("Big Bottom," "Stonehenge") and its improvised jokes, it's no wonder that "This Is Spinal Tap" became an instant classic. Now, Reiner is getting the band back together. Original stars Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer will all return as aging and increasingly obsolete British heavy metal musicians Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins, and Derek Smalls, respectively. Reiner will reprise his role as Marty Di Bergi in what he envisions as a conscious parody of "The Last Waltz," the 1976 concert film by Martin Scorsese that chronicled the final shows of The Band. Non-fictional musical icons including Elton John, Paul McCartney, and Garth Brooks will appear in the sequel, too.

Speaking about the film (via Deadline), Reiner said the movie had started filming in February 2024 and had nearly finished by July. The director then revealed he expects the movie to release next year and rock us all.

Eli Roth has been directing horror films for quite a while, and none of them garnered much critical respect. But that all changed with 2024's "Thanksgiving," the film based on the fake trailer Roth made for 2007's "Grindhouse." The feature-length movie won massive praise for being a fun throwback to '80s slashers. Audiences ate it up too, with the holiday-themed fright flick grossing $46 million against a $15 million budget.

And like any good slasher, you can't keep John Carver down. "Thanksgiving 2" is in the works, with Eli Roth and Jeff Rendell returning to pen the sequel. While not confirmed, it also seems that actors Nell Verlaque and Rick Hoffman — who played protagonist Jessica and Jessica's dad, respectively — will return for part two. At the moment, the hopes are that "Thanksgiving 2" will be served up sometime in 2025, so prepare for more Turkey Day terror in the near future.

"Freaky Friday" follows a mother and daughter who magically switch bodies and come to understand one another better after literally spending some time in each other's shoes. It's an easily repeatable formula, as evidenced by the multiple versions of the movie released in 1976, 1995, and 2018. The 2003 take, which stars Jamie Lee Curtis as stressed-out mother Tess Coleman and Lindsay Lohan as wannabe rock star daughter Anna Coleman, earned $160 million at the box office and launched Lohan's post-child star career.

While hitting the awards show circuit for 2022's "Everything Everywhere All at Once" (for which she won an Academy Award), Curtis repeatedly mentioned that she'd like to play Tess Coleman again, and that she'd already engaged in preliminary talks with Disney about a sequel. The movie became official in May 2023, when Curtis and Lohan announced "Freaky Friday 2" (now titled "Freakier Friday") in a New York Times retrospective on the first film. 

As for who's working behind the scenes, the screenplay is coming from Jordan Weiss ("Dollface") while directing duties go to Nisha Ganatra ("Welcome to Chippendales"). The plot will reportedly see Lohan's Anna engaged to a restaurateur. Unfortunately, Anna's daughter doesn't approve of the match, and the restaurateur's own teenage daughter doesn't really care for her future step-sister. Things take a wacky turn when Anna and her mother, Curtis' Tess, swap bodies with the two teenage girls as the wedding draws closer. The movie is headed to theaters in 2025 and features names like Manny Jacinto ("The Acolyte"), Julia Butters ("Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"), and Sophia Hammons ("Under Wraps"), as well as returning cast members like Chad Michael Murray, Mark Harmon, and Stephen Tobolowsky.

In 2019, "Knives Out" came out of nowhere and was the sleeper hit of the year, impressing critics and earning a tidy $312 million at the box office. It also introduced audiences to the lovable Benoit Blanc, a modern-day Hercule Poirot with a Southern drawl. The movie was so popular that Blanc returned in 2022 with "Glass Onion," a Netflix film that featured an equally impressive cast as "Knives Out" but changed the location and style of the mystery at hand.

Now, Blanc is back for a third closed-room mystery, with "Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery" hitting Netflix sometime in 2025. Rian Johnson will once again write and direct, and Daniel Craig will return as his famous dapper detective. Joining Craig, we'll see Josh Brolin ("Avengers: Infinity War"), Glenn Close ("Fatal Attraction"), Kerry Washington ("Django Unchained"), Mila Kunis ("That '70s Show"), Jeremy Renner ("Hawkeye"), Andrew Scott ("Ripley"), Cailee Spaeny ("Civil War"), Thomas Haden Church ("Spider-Man 3"), Daryl McCormack ("Good Luck to You, Leo Grande"), and Josh O'Connor ("Challengers").

As for what style of mystery we'll be getting, Johnson wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter), "I love everything about whodunnits, but one of the things I love most is how malleable the genre is. There's a whole tonal spectrum from [John Dickson] Carr to [Agatha] Christie, and getting to explore that range is one of the most exciting things about making Benoit Blanc movies."

Universal and Blumhouse had big hopes when they bought the rights to the "Exorcist" franchise for $400 million. Their first crack at demonic glory came with "The Exorcist: Believer," a 2021 installment in the series directed by David Gordon Green and starring Leslie Odom Jr. and Ellen Burstyn. Sadly, "Believer" was met with great skepticism by critics, and audiences simply weren't scared by the sequel Green had to offer.

As a result, Green left the series, and the upcoming sequel — "The Exorcist: Deceiver" — was seemingly scrapped. However, Universal and Blumhouse are now pivoting to someone who just might be able to put Pazuzu and company back in the cinematic spotlight. Mike Flanagan will direct a new "Exorcist" movie, which will take the franchise in a new direction and provide "a radical new take," per Deadline. Flanagan is a master when it comes to horror, having directed films like "Doctor Sleep" and "Hush," as well as critically revered miniseries such as "The Haunting of Hill House," "Midnight Mass," and "The Fall of the House of Usher." We can't wait to see what devilish delights he'll conjure up here.

During a quarterly earnings call in February 2023, Disney CEO Bob Iger delivered some news designed to get investors hyped about the future of the entertainment conglomerate — sequels to some of Disney's biggest movies were on the way. Along with new "Zootopia" and "Frozen" movies, the Disney-owned Pixar will produce and release "Toy Story 5."

The upcoming film will have to find a way to reunite the franchise's characters, as "Toy Story 4" ended with Woody leaving his toy gang to build a life with Bo Peep while the rest returned to live with Bonnie, their human overlord since "Toy Story 3." Pixar creative chief officer Pete Docter told Variety in June 2023 that both Woody and Buzz would be back, the former presumably voiced by Tom Hanks as usual and the latter by Tim Allen, who went on "The Tonight Show" and confirmed Disney had reached out to both himself and Hanks.

This time around, the plot will involve the toys finding themselves up against their biggest threat: electronics. With kids so engaged with iPads, how is a toy to compete? The story will also involve a villainous army of programmable Buzz Lightyear toys. The whole thing will be overseen by director Andrew Stanton, who previously helmed classics such as "Finding Nemo" and "Wall-E." As for when "Toy Story 5" will hit movie theaters, we'll return to the world of Buzz, Woody, and Jessie on June 19, 2026.

Back in 2001, Disney dominated the animated blockbuster market. Then DreamWorks came along with the first entry in a franchise tailor-made for millennials. Part fractured fairy-tale, part pop culture reference parade, and all wacky comedy, the first "Shrek" stars Mike Myers as the titular grumpy ogre, Eddie Murphy as his excitable sidekick, Cameron Diaz as a princess with a big secret, and many other celebrities playing skewered storybook tropes. "Shrek" earned nearly $491 million and won the first Academy Award for best animated feature. It went on to spawn three sequels and two spinoffs, for a global box office haul of more than $4 billion.

DreamWorks hasn't put out a proper "Shrek" movie since 2010's "Shrek Forever After," but the studio is about to return to the world of ogres, swamps, talking donkeys, and fairy tale magic. In 2016, "Shrek 5" entered pre-production, scheduled for a 2019 release. Development has obviously stalled since then, but in April 2023, DreamWorks Animation consultant Chris Meledandri told Variety that contract discussions with cast members were underway. Things got even more official in July 2024, when it was announced that "Shrek 5" would be hitting theaters on July 1, 2026. Better still, Myers, Murphy, and Diaz are all reprising their classic characters. Brad Ableson ("Minions: The Rise of Gru") will be co-directing with Walt Dohrn, who's been involved as an artist and writer on "Shrek 2," "Shrek the Third," and "Shrek Forever After."

After "Scream" revived the slasher genre in 1996, screenwriter Kevin Williamson kept the blood flowing with his follow-up script, "I Know What You Did Last Summer." Boasting a cast of young names and a killer title, "Last Summer" revolves around four teens who accidentally kill a pedestrian in a hit-and-run and cover up their crime. A year later, they find themselves taunted and stalked by a hook-wielding psycho who witnessed the crime and wants revenge. The movie gave way to two sequels, a TV show, and countless people screaming, "What are you waiting for, huh?"

Now, we're returning to the franchise with a new "Last Summer" sequel, which will feature original stars Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. In true legacy sequel fashion, it appears they'll be in supporting roles — think of Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox in the new "Scream" movies — while a group of younger actors find themselves getting carved up by a crazed fisherman. The leads will be played by Camila Mendes ("Riverdale"), Madelyn Cline ("Outer Banks"), Sarah Pidgeon ("Tiny Beautiful Things"), Tyriq Withers ("Atlanta"), and Jonah Haur-King ("The Little Mermaid").

Jennifer Kaytin Robinson of "Do Revenge" co-wrote the script and will also direct the upcoming slasher. Interestingly, the movie seems to be diverging from a recent horror sequel trend. Unlike, say, the David Gordon Green "Halloween" films that ignored all previous Michael Myers movies except the original, Robinson has said on X that 1998's "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" is indeed canon, so it'll be interesting to see if and how that impact this new story. The seaside horror plays out on July 18, 2025.

After Matt Reeves' gritty version of Batman swooped into theaters in 2022, earning praise for Robert Pattinson's performance as the Caped Crusader, it seemed a foregone conclusion that there would be more movies to come. After all, since when has a Batman movie not gotten a sequel? Sure enough, "The Batman Part II" will bring back Reeves and Pattinson. We know that Andy Serkis is returning as Alfred Pennyworth, and Colin Farrell is coming back as the Penguin. It's also been rumored that Paul Dano and Zoë Kravitz are returning to their respective roles of Riddler and Catwoman.

But who will be the main antagonist? Well, similar to how Reeves transformed the Riddler from a catsuit-wearing supervillain into a serial killer, Reeves has said he'd possibly like to reimagine another classic Batman villain, Mr. Freeze. "That is such a great story, right?" Reeves said during a 2022 press event. "I think there's actually a grounded version of that story, which could be really powerful and could be really great." Pattinson himself said he'd like to see the Court of Owls — a behind-the-scenes organization calling the shots in Gotham — appear in the story, while there have been rumors that possibly Clayface, Hush, or Harvey Dent might show up.

However, none of the Reeves-Pattison "Batman" movies will tie in with the rebooted DCU. When announcing their plans in January 2023, co-franchise head James Gunn explained that darker and more mature DC films, such as "The Batman Part II," would be released as standalone entities under the "DC Elseworlds" banner.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been part of pop culture for decades. Starting out as the stars of a darkly funny underground comic book, these four mutated turtles are named after Renaissance artists, study with a wise old rat named Splinter, and fight a crime lord named Shredder — when they aren't living in the sewer and eating pizza, that is. Following multiple animated TV series and seven theatrical movies, the Turtles returned to animation with 2023's critically acclaimed "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem."

Days before the projected blockbuster opening of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem," Paramount got ahead of the demand. The studio announced development of a two-season, 2-D animated series on Paramount+, "Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," as well as another theatrical film in the rebooted franchise. "Mutant Mayhem" director and co-screenwriter Jeff Rowe is set to return to the second movie, as will franchise overseer Lukas Williams on behalf of production company Point Grey Pictures. The primary voice actors of "Mutant Mayhem" — Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, and Brady Noon — have signed up for the connected TV series, which means they're likely to come back for the yet-to-be-subtitled film sequel.  

While we don't have solid plot details, Rowe told Collider that the movie will be "a villain-forward film." He also explained that he and his fellow creatives are trying to figure out the proper way to introduce the Turtles' most iconic villain — Shredder. So it looks like the infamous antagonist will be the main baddie of the next film, and we can't wait to see his Foot Clan wreak some serious havoc.

Since it started making animated features back in 1937 with "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," Disney has produced a lot of classics that have made a lot of money. The most recent addition to that rarified canon was "Frozen." Released in 2013 and based on a story by Hans Christian Andersen, "Frozen" earned $1.2 billion by combining a plot about self-acceptance (Queen Elsa's ice touch inadvertently creates a permanent winter) with unforgettable characters (Olaf the self-aware snowman) and showtunes (the Oscar-winning "Let It Go"). 

The global embrace of "Frozen" — and probably the $122.7 billion in merchandise sales — made "Frozen II" a given for Disney. The enchanted road movie, in which Elsa, sister Anna, Olaf, and others leave their kingdom to discover the secret behind the queen's freezing powers, out-earned its predecessor with a $1.4 billion box office haul.

Clearly, the people want more "Frozen," and Disney is more than happy to provide it. During a 2023 investor call, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that "Frozen 3" was in the early stages of production. Cast members Josh Gad (Olaf) and Idina Menzel (Elsa) have publicly confirmed that they'll return to the franchise. Meanwhile, "Frozen" and "Frozen II" co-director Jennifer Lee announced in June 2023 that she won't helm "Frozen 3," but she'll remain on the production in some way,

Disney has yet to say much about the plot of "Frozen 3," but they have revealed the movie will hit theaters sometime in 2027. As Disney has plans to release an animated movie on November 24, 2027, that's probably when we're returning the land of Arendelle.

Denis Villeneuve's "Dune" duology has been a massive success, particularly the sequel that follows Paul Atreides' journey into messianic darkness. Granted, if Villeneuve wanted to stop right there and walk away, "Dune: Part Two" would work as a proper ending to the story. However, the filmmaker wants to delve even deeper into Paul's galactic jihad, which means that a third "Dune" movie — "Dune: Messiah" — is on the way.

The sequel found Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) becoming the Fremen's Lisan al Gaib, unseating Christopher Walken's emperor, spurning Chani's (Zendaya) love to make a political marriage with Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), and launching a crusade against the houses that refused to acknowledge his rule. And that's all despite the fact that Paul keeps having disturbing visions about the pain and suffering he'll unleash with his upcoming holy war. With Legendary confirming a third "Dune" movie in April 2024, it looks like we're going to see that galactic horror play out very soon. We know that Villeneuve's next movie is set for December 18, 2026, and many believe this will be the arrival of "Messiah."

Speaking about the third film all the way back in March 2022, screenwriter Jon Spaihts told The Playlist what he and Villeneuve had in mind for a threequel. Talking about the novel that will inspire their new film, Spaihts said, "'Dune Messiah' is a very interesting book, which in some ways, deconstructs 'Dune' and plays as a cautionary tale, even more than 'Dune' does, about the dangers of blending religion and politics, the hazards of following charismatic leaders, and the dangerous struggle that's always alive between the individual and institutions."

As the "Fast & Furious" series comes to a close, Vin Diesel is bringing another old franchise back to life. Yep, the man is donning those goggles for a fourth time, playing the sci-fi antihero Richard B. Riddick in the upcoming "Riddick: Furya."

The title is a reference to the character's homeworld of Furya. The new sequel will find Riddick heading back to his old planet, but he'll receive a less-than-joyful reception. Per Variety, Furya is "a place he barely remembers and one he fears might be left in ruins. But there, he finds other Furyans fighting for their existence against a new monster — and some of these Furyans are more like Riddick than he could have ever imagined."

Diesel will be teaming up again with David Twohy, who wrote and directed "Pitch Black," "The Chronicles of Riddick," and "Riddick." While we don't know when the film will hit theaters, we do know that production will begin in August 2024.

Mel Brooks is the king of satire and the emperor of parody thanks to classic movies like "Young Frankenstein" and "Blazing Saddles." Of course, "Star Wars" fans might know him best for his sci-fi send-up "Spaceballs," which took aim at George Lucas' beloved series and introduced us to Lord Dark Helmet, Yogurt, and the Schwartz. Interestingly, Brooks has been feeling nostalgic about his own work lately, as he recently released "History of the World Part II," the sequel to his 1981 "History of the World Part I." And now, he's heading back to a galaxy far, far away with the upcoming "Spaceballs 2."

Here, Brooks will be co-producing alongside Olaf the snowman himself, Josh Gad. Famous for his work in the "Frozen" franchise, Gad will also be starring in the sequel and co-writing the script with Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez. While you might question the wisdom of a "Spaceballs" sequel, Samit and Hernandez have written some pretty funny screenplays, a la "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" and "Pokémon Detective Pikachu." The film will be directed by Josh Greenbaum of "Strays" and "Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar."

When "The Blackening" hit theaters in 2022, the movie was a hit with critics and audiences, earning over $18 million against its $5 million budget. The horror comedy focused on a group of Black friends who decide to spend the night at a cabin in the woods. The horror kicks in when a mysterious killer begins questioning their African-American cred and demands they determine the blackest member of the group for sacrifice.

The movie was created by Dewayne Perkins and Tracy Oliver, and it looks like they're cooking up a sequel. "The Blackening 2" is on the way, with Perkins telling Variety that several members of the original cast will be returning. "Same group, sprinkle in some new people," he said. "I feel like we've got something good, and I love the dynamic, but fresh blood always turns things up a little bit." Returning actors could include Perkins, Grace Byers, Melvin Gregg, X Mayo, Antoinette Robertson, and Sinqua Walls.

Now that we've all seen "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse," we have a pretty good idea of what to expect in the third installment, titled "Beyond the Spider-Verse." Gwen Stacy and her cadre of Spider-Pals have to rescue Miles from an alternate dimension where he's been kidnapped by a version of himself who happens to be that universe's Prowler. To make matters worse, the all-powerful Spot is preparing to murder Miles' dad while a furious Miguel O'Hara is doing everything in his power to prevent Miles from saving his father.

There's a whole lot of drama going on, so when will see the third film play out? The film was at one point scheduled to hit theaters on March 29, 2024, although the directing trio of Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson weren't 100% sure they're going to hit that date. With all that gorgeous, complex animation, it takes a while to make a "Spider-Verse" movie. In July 2023, Sony officially gave the film a release date of "TBD," as additional voiceover work was needed from actors, which they couldn't provide during the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Fortunately, it now looks like things are moving forward, as co-producer and co-writer Chris Miller (who penned both previous film with Phil Lord and David Callaham) revealed at an FYC Event, "We're in production. We're really excited about where the story is going, I think it's a very satisfying conclusion to the trilogy and it's as emotional as the other ones. ... We're knee-deep in it." Speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Miller also said the third movie will be "the end of the Miles Morales trilogy and this whole thing is like working towards that."

In 2005's "Constantine," Keanu Reeves portrayed the titular world-weary exorcist, a dying man who can talk to demons and angels while moving between Earth and the underworld. Budgeted at a steep $100 million, the movie only earned $75 million at the domestic box office (with $220 million worldwide). Considered a disappointment at the time, "Constantine" has since been majorly re-evaluated and has found its fan base. And now, we're crossing our fingers that John Constantine is coming back for a sequel.

In September 2022, Deadline reported a follow-up was on the way, with Reeves set to reprise the role of John Constantine and original film director Francis Lawrence coming back as well. Oscar-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman was tapped to pen the script and produce. However, in March 2023, Keanu Reeves gave a disappointing update on the movie to CinemaBlend, saying, "We're trying [to make it]. I don't know if it's gonna happen." His "Constantine" costar Rachel Weisz echoed that pessimism  telling ComicBook.com in April 2023, "Nobody's mentioned anything to me."

But since then, we've heard some positive news. After the writers' strike ended, director Francis Lawrence spoke to GameSpot and said, "Keanu and Akiva Goldsman and I have been in meetings and have been hashing out what we think the story is going to be, and there's more meetings of those that have to happen. The script has to be written." He also added this won't be some sanitized version of "Constantine," as they're aiming for an R rating. Then in July 2024, Akiva Goldsman spoke to Collider at San Diego Comic-Con and revealed he was in the middle of writing the screenplay and confidently asserted, "It's good."

It's been nearly 20 years since we last saw Miranda Priestly cutting down assistants with withering glares and savage insults. However, it looks like "Runway" magazine will be hitting the shelves again, as "The Devil Wears Prada 2" is currently in the works.

The script will hail from Aline Brosh McKenna, who wrote the original movie, co-created "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," and also penned "27 Dresses" and "We Bought a Zoo." According to Puck, the story will find Priestly on shaky ground, as the current landscape isn't so great for traditional print media. With her magazine in trouble, she'll need the help of her old assistant, the snarky Emily Charlton, who's now a big-deal with the big bucks working for a group that sells luxury goods. Of course, as Priestly wasn't exactly kind to Emily, we're assuming these two are going to trade barbs and butt heads.

With Priestly and Emily featuring in the story, we're assuming that means both Meryl Streep and Emily Blunt will return. We're unsure if Anne Hathaway is coming back — her character seemed pretty done with this world at the end of the first movie — but Stanley Tucci better return as Nigel Kipling or what's the point of doing a sequel at all?

In August 2022, "Fall" was released with little fanfare, but this little indie thriller became a hit anyway, in large part thanks to its captivating premise. Grace Caroline Currey and Virginia Gardner play friends who decide to climb all the way up a 2,000-foot-tall radio tower in the middle of the desert. The scares don't come from the ascent but from the aftermath, when the two find themselves trapped on the tower without any clear means of getting down. "Fall" earned nearly $22 million against its $3 million budget, and it was also super popular on streaming.

Clearly, there exists an audience eager for intense movies about people getting caught in high and precarious places, and those people are in luck. We're getting two "Fall" sequels from Tea Shop productions, with original director Scott Mann producing both movies and helming the third film, while Michael and Peter Spierig of "Jigsaw" will direct "Fall 2." It also seems like Grace Caroline Currey will be coming back, as The Hollywood Reporter announced, "'Fall 2' and 'Fall 3' will bring back original characters from the first film, while also leaving room for new ones to be introduced.'"

"Fall 2" begins shooting in June 2024, so prepare for the franchise to take the terror to new heights in the very near future.

For fans of 1970s-style new American cinema and crime epics like "The Godfather," the cinematic event of 1995 was "Heat." Featuring the rare and precious on-screen pairing of two of the most acclaimed tough-guy actors of their generation, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, "Heat" is a lengthy film noir about professional thieves who make a big mistake during a high-profile heist, and the LAPD officers closing in on them. "Heat" performed moderately well at the box office, earning $187 million worldwide, but it has since become a cult phenomenon.

"Heat" is also a project close to the heart of writer-director Michael Mann, who fashioned the film out of his overlooked made-for-TV movie called "L.A. Takedown." In 2022, Mann released a sequel, "Heat 2," in the form of an original novel. The book is like "The Godfather Part II" in that there are two timelines — one years before "Heat" and one after the events of the film. That tome will serve as source material for "Heat 2" the movie. Original "Heat" studio Warner Bros. entered into talks in early 2023 to produce the sequel, and in October 2023, Mann was speaking at Deadline's Contenders London event and confirmed that the "Heat" sequel would be his next project.

So who might join the crime thriller? Well, Adam Driver of "Marriage Story" and "Star Wars" fame is reportedly at the top of the studio's list of preferred actors to play the young Neil McCauley, portrayed by De Niro in the first "Heat." There are also whispers that Austin Butler of "Dune: Part Two" might play a younger version of Val Kilmer's gunfighting thief, Chris Shiherlis. When an Associated Press reporter brought up this rumor, Butler said he could "neither confirm nor deny" it.

Based on Richard Matheson's novel, 2007's "I Am Legend" starred Will Smith as Robert Neville, a survivor of an apocalyptic plague that transformed most of the world's humans into a terrifying cross between zombies and vampires. However, the film's ending didn't leave a lot of room for Smith to return for a sequel, as he sacrificed himself at the end of the horror flick.

However, an alternate ending found Neville and two new allies heading to a survivors' camp in possession of a cure. According to the original film's writer, Akiva Goldsman, the upcoming "I Am Legend 2" will follow that unused ending. "This will start a few decades later than the first. We trace back to the original Matheson book and the alternate ending," Goldsman told Deadline. "What Matheson was talking about was that man's time on the planet as the dominant species had come to an end. That's a really interesting thing we're going to get to explore." 

Michael B. Jordan of "Creed" and "Black Panther" is set to headline "I Am Legend 2," along with Smith. Alice Braga, who portrayed survivor Anna in the original film, would also love to appear. "I was very excited to hear that they were continuing with the movie. I hope they do," Braga told Complex in 2023. "I was almost jumping on the phone and saying, 'Can I please be in it? Can I please be in it?'"

At this point, we also know that Akiva Goldsman has written the second draft of the script. Deadline has also reported that Warner Bros. is eyeing a potential director — Steven Caple Jr., who previously worked with Michael B. Jordan on "Creed II." Caple Jr. also helmed the most recent movie in the "Transformers" series, "Rise of the Beasts."

When speaking to Deadline writer Pete Hammond, legendary director Quentin Tarantino revealed that his favorite movie of 2019 was most likely "Crawl." Yep, the creature feature directed by Alexandre Aja, where a young woman and her father find themselves trapped in an alligator-infested house during a Category 5 hurricane. Tarantino wasn't the only one who enjoyed the film, as it earned $91 million against a $17 million budget and racked up plenty of impressive reviews.

Now, Paramount Pictures is throwing us back to the gators with "Crawl 2." Aja returns to direct, with the script coming from Andrew Deutschman and Jason Pagan, who previously wrote "Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension." The scaly sequel will focus on an all-new cast, and it will also take place in a fun new location. While the original movie was set in Florida, The Hollywood Reporter says the sequel will find a bunch of angry alligators taking a bite out of the Big Apple. Yeah, that's right — we're getting gators in New York City, which sounds like an absolute blast.

A very dark drama about the morally and legally questionable practice of international arms dealing, "Lord of War" was a solidly received minor box office hit of 2005. Nicolas Cage stars as Yuri Orlov, a notorious Queens-based criminal who tries to avoid capture by federal agents and keep his business afloat. This involves a lot of interplay and ethical juggling between Orlov and his younger brother, Vitaly (Jared Leto). Now a sequel is coming, which will feature a similar dynamic. Here, Yuri meets and wages war against Anton, the son he supposedly never knew he had, played by "It" and "John Wick: Chapter 4" star Bill Skarsgard. 

In this "Lord of War" sequel, titled "Lords of War," Anton is driven to take down his father's enterprise — for totally selfish purposes — and aims to build an army of soldiers of fortune to participate in U.S.-led military operations in the Middle East. Laura Harrier of "Spider-Man: Homecoming" and Hulu's "White Men Can't Jump" has also joined the cast. Produced by Vendome Pictures and Cage's Saturn Films, "Lords of War" will begin filming in March 2024 with a script and direction from Andrew Niccol, Oscar-nominated screenwriter of "The Truman Show" and the filmmaker behind the first "Lord of War."

With the open-ended conclusion of the 2020 Charlize Theron action hit "The Old Guard," it seemed as though the film was begging for a sequel. Sure enough, "The Old Guard 2" is in the works for Netflix, which will bring back star Charlize Theron as Andy, the millennia-old mercenary who, in the first film, realized her immortality was finally beginning to wane. Also returning will be Marwan Kenzari and Luca Marinelli, who played Joe and Nicky, respectively, life partners for centuries who were also part of Andy's group. We'll also get to see the return of KiKi Layne as new recruit Nile Freeman, Matthias Schoenaerts as the traitorous Booker, Veronica Ngo as a very angry immortal, and Chiwetel Ejiofor as the CIA agent who becomes their handler. Plus, Uma Thurman ("Kill Bill") and Henry Golding ("Crazy Rich Asians") will join the cast.

Victoria Mahoney is directing, and while no plot details have been released yet, the first film set up some intriguing possibilities. Spoiler alert: After betraying the other members of their group and being punished with a century of exile, Schoenaerts' Booker comes face to face with Ngo's Quynh, a former member of their immortal squad who they had thought was lost forever at the bottom of the ocean. Although Quynh used to be Andy's closest ally, who knows whose side she'll be on after centuries of drowning? 

While a firm release date hasn't been locked down, Charlize Theron The Hollywood Reporter in December 2022 that filming had wrapped. After a good period of time passed by, Theron gave Variety an update in July 2024, saying that a behind-the-scenes shakeup at Netflix — coupled with the writers' and actors' strikes in 2023 — slowed things down a bit. However, the star did give us some good news, saying, "We finally picked it back up, and I'm really excited about it."

Despite its simple title, 2023's "Plane" is anything but a straightforward thriller about stuff going haywire on a jet. First, commercial pilot Brodie Torrance (action movie stalwart Gerard Butler) has to save his passengers from death after their plane absorbs a bolt of lightning. Then, he discovers that the island where he makes an emergency landing is engulfed in a war. The passengers quickly become hostages. Torrance's only ally and muscle is Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter), an elite French soldier and accused killer who is mid-extradition. 

"Plane" turned out to be exactly what audiences were craving: It grossed $74 million at the worldwide box office. Thus, in September 2023, production moved forward on a "Plane" sequel, with filmmakers agreeing to an interim deal with SAG-AFTRA, the striking actors union. "Plane 2: Stowaway" won't be set on an airplane, however. Colter will once again portray Gaspare as he sneaks onto a cargo ship and does battle with a human trafficking ring. "Plane 2" director Jean-Francois Richet will helm the sequel, while Butler will return only as a producer.

The rare supernatural horror movie that's also a 1980s period piece and something of a biopic starring an Oscar-winning actor, "The Pope's Exorcist" was a solid hit, earning a tidy $66 million in spring 2023. Russell Crowe stars as Father Gabriele Amorth, a character based on the very real person of the same name, who allegedly spent years casting out demons on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church.

"The Pope's Exorcist" tells just a small part of Amorth's story — specifically, the time during which he claimed to have expelled tens of thousands of demons. That makes for a lot of sequel potential, and indeed, just two weeks after "The Pope's Exorcist" hit movie theaters, Screen Gems began development on another movie about Amorth's demon-hunting adventures. Producer Jeff Katz confirmed the movie was a go in May 2024, tweeting, "Amorth Nation — I just got the call. It's officially happening!" No word yet on whether Crowe will return to the role, or if the original film's helmer Julius Avery is in line to direct the sequel, but we're assuming the lead star is coming back. Without Russell Crowe on a Vespa, what's the point?

Widely hailed as one of the best horror movies of 2024, "In a Violent Nature" feels like the unholy yet brilliant union of "Friday the 13th" and Terrence Malick. The film focuses on a masked killer named Johnny, awakened when a group of teens steal a magical locket. Furious, Johnny proceeds to hunt them down and get the locket back. However, the movie literally follows Johnny through his march across the woods, making it equal part slasher and nature documentary, as we witness beautiful vistas amongst all the brutality.

The movie was quite the hit for distributor IFC, becoming one of the studio's top 10 highest-grossers. And since this is a slasher movie, Johnny is coming back to tromp across more scenic woodlands and slaughter more unsuspecting victims. "In a Violent Nature 2" is on the way, with original writer/director Chris Nash penning the script and — presumably — returning to the director's chair.

Speaking about the upcoming film, producer Peter Kuplowsky said in a statement, "'In a Violent Nature' was originally conceived as a meta-sequel within a fictional slasher series, so we were always imagining mayhem beyond the scope of the original film. That we now have the opportunity to continue following Johnny on his restless walk has us feeling incredibly grateful to our incredible partners at IFC Films / Shudder who believed in [Chris Nash's] vision from day one. We are thrilled to return for a new chapter and are excited to deploy Johnny as a conduit to further experiments in the genre."

Monster film "Troll" hit Netflix in December 2022. Soon after, it became the streaming service's biggest non-English movie ever, with a whopping 103 million views and a place in Top 10 lists all over the Netflix-using world. "Troll" concerns the efforts of brave paleontologist Nora (Ine Marie Wilmann) who finds clever ways to stop a monstrous troll. Said troll has been unhappily awakened from a very long slumber by an industrial explosion in the Norwegian mountains, and sets off on a trail of destruction and chaos.

There are many more Norwegian folk, fairy, and monster tales to explore. Since "Troll" was such a smash, a follow-up will start filming in 2024. All the creative principals from "Troll" will return for "Troll 2," including director Roar Uthaug, screenwriter Espen Aukan, producers Espen Horn and Kristian Strand Sinkerud, and Norwegian production studio Motion Blur.

Dave Stevens' '80s cult comic book "The Rocketeer" clearly took inspiration from mid-century movie matinee adventure serials, and in 1991, things came full circle when Disney brought the story to the big screen. Billy Campbell starred as Cliff Secord, a stunt pilot living in Los Angeles in 1938 who finds a jet pack that allows him to soar through the sky while evading the FBI, its inventor Howard Hughes, and the Nazis who want it badly. Before "The Rocketeer" was even released, Disney (parent company of the production companies that made the movie) thought it could launch a trilogy. But shortly after the film hit theaters in 1991 and performed only moderately well at the box office, Disney discontinued sequel plans, star Billy Campbell told MTV News. 

Ever since then, Disney has been trying to get another "Rocketeer" off the ground, and now, they're taking flight with "The Return of the Rocketeer." Eugene Ashe of the Tessa Thompson movie "Sylvie's Love" will write the script, and David Oyelowo of "Selma" and "Lawmen: Bass Reeves" will both produce and star in the upcoming movie. Speaking with The Wrap, Oyelowo described the adventure flick, saying about the new hero, "In our film, he's going to be an ex-Tuskegee airman, so it's still in that 1940s milieu. We know we have to adhere to the things that people loved about the first one. But that was 30 years ago, so we want to make a film that's going to resonate for the next 30 years and especially for the now. That's the needle we have to thread, and we're working hard to do so."

"Hocus Pocus" was only a moderate hit during its initial release in 1993. It told the not-too-scary story of teenager Max, who's new to Salem, Massachusetts. Along with his little sister Dani and his crush Allison, Max accidentally awakens the Sanderson sisters — a trio of witches who've been lying in wait for 300 years to wreak havoc, lure children, and become immortal beings. However, in the years after its release, "Hocus Pocus" became a classic family Halloween film, popular enough to inspire a sequel.

"Hocus Pocus 2" hit Disney+ in September 2022, racking up 2.73 billion minutes of watch time over its first three days of availability. Evidently, the head honchos at the House of Mouse were impressed because they've ordered up a "Hocus Pocus 3." Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, screenwriter Jen D'Angelo has dished a bit on what we might see in the threequel, saying, "We have so many directions in which to go and so many new characters to explore. We've only scratched the surface of Hannah Waddingham's mother witch."

So it looks like we might be seeing the "Ted Lasso" star back in action for part three. D'Angelo also said she wants the three big stars — Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy — to reprise their roles of the Sanderson sisters, and they'd have to, right? What would a "Hocus Pocus" movie be without those three delightfully wicked witches?

After delving into producing original content to go along with its vast catalog of streaming options, Netflix developed a bona fide blockbuster franchise worthy of the multiplex. In April 2020, Marvel Cinematic Universe star Chris Hemsworth headlined Netflix's "Extraction," portraying black ops mercenary Tyler Rake, who embarks on a perilous mission to rescue the son of an international crime boss. "Extraction" swiftly became Netflix's most-watched original film ever to that point, viewed at least in part by 99 million homes in its first month of availability, and remained a popular choice well into the summer.

It was so widely captivating with such a repeatable premise — Rake gets into and out of a seemingly unsurvivable situation involving ruthless criminals and thrilling action sequences — that Netflix ordered "Extraction 2," debuting on the service on June 16, 2023. Just one day later, at the streamer's Tudum festival, Hemsworth and franchise director Sam Hargrave appeared to break the news that "Extraction 3" was in the works. No details beyond the involvement of Hemsworth and Hargrave have leaked yet, including a release date. If the trajectory of past films holds true, "Extraction 3" will likely hit Netflix three years after its predecessor, which would mean sometime in mid-2026.

The original "Scream" was one of the biggest smash hits of 1996, earning $173 million. Starring the era's biggest young stars, the movie lays out the rules of what has become an enduring franchise: A series of murders take place, with every move the killer makes evoking a different slasher movie trope. What ensues are some seriously bloody, gory, and frightening horror films, but they're also self-aware, clever, and utterly savage parodies.

Like an undead horror movie villain who's back for more mayhem, the "Scream" franchise has returned from dormancy multiple times. 2022's "Scream" and 2023's "Scream VI" were both successful enough to ensure further flicks, and Spyglass entered preproduction on "Scream 7" in August 2023 ... although the film has suffered multiple setbacks since then. Melissa Barrera won't be returning to the franchise as Sam Carpenter because she was let go for comments in response to the Israel-Gaza conflict, and Jenna Ortega has stepped away from the role of Tara Carpenter due to her work on "Wednesday" Season 2. Director Christopher Landon has also left the film, so what will happen now?

Well, "Scream 7" is still moving forward, with franchise creator Kevin Williamson now directing. (Williamson wrote the first, second, and fourth entries in the series.) Better still, Neve Campbell is returning as Sidney Prescott, the series' long-suffering hero who will once again do battle with Ghostface, as well as Courteney Cox as the unkillable reporter Gale Weathers. The screenplay will be penned by Guy Busick, who co-wrote the fifth and sixth installments.

"Talk to Me" was a breakout hit of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival's Midnight Selections showcase. Zeitgeist-capturing indie film company A24 grabbed the theatrical rights, and the modestly-budgeted horror movie emerged as a robust and unexpected hit, earning more than $50 million at the box office in its first month in theaters in summer 2023. The plot: Mia (Sophie Wilde) honors the anniversary of her mother's death with a séance, aided by her friends and a ghastly embalmed hand. The séance works too well, the lines between worlds crumble, and Mia and her gang are soon pestered and attacked by viciously violent supernatural pests.

Less than two weeks after "Talk to Me" hit theaters, A24 asked for a sequel. Like its predecessor, "Talk 2 Me" will be directed by former YouTube filmmakers and twins Danny and Michael Philippou. Danny Philippou and "Talk to Me" co-writer Bill Hinzman will collaborate on the screenplay. There could also be even more entries in the "Talk to Me" cinematic universe on the way: "We actually shot an entire Duckett prequel already," Danny Philippou told The Hollywood Reporter, of another film featuring the character portrayed by Sunny Johnson. "It's told entirely through the perspective of mobile phones and social media, so maybe down the line we can release that."

The 2014 horror movie "It Follows" at first resembled a classic slasher movie, but that's just so filmmakers could send up the tropes of the genre and make something innovative, new, and thoughtful. Playing on the oddly prudish '80s horror movie cliché of teenagers who explore their sexuality immediately meeting their ends via brutal murder, "It Follows" involves a young woman who gets intimate with her boyfriend and then contracts a sexually transmitted hex, one that can appear in various forms and aggressively and viciously keeps trying to kill her. 

Shot far from Hollywood in and around Detroit on a budget of less than $1 million, "It Follows" became a cult hit, earning about $22 million at the box office before hitting streaming. Now, the curse has returned, it would seem. In October 2023, film production and distribution company Neon announced that it had started production on a sequel to "It Follows," at the time titled "They Follow." Writer-director David Robert Mitchell will return to handle both tasks, and Maika Monroe will once more portray main character Jay Height. Speaking about the sequel with Collider, Monroe described it as "bigger and darker" than the first film," and speaking with IndieWire, she revealed the movie will begin shooting in 2025.

While Paul Feigh usually directs straight-up comedies — think "Bridesmaids" or "Spy" — he got a little bit darker with "A Simple Favor," a crime thriller that's part mirth and part mystery. The 2018 film followed Anna Kendrick's hopeful blogger, Stephanie, who befriends Blake Lively's upper-class fashion PR Emily. The two somehow strike up a friendship ... and then Emily disappears, taking us down a path full of twists and turns.

The first movie was pretty popular, so we're returning to this world of murder and martinis with "A Simple Favor 2." Kendrick and Lively are returning — along with cast members Henry Golding, Kelly McComrack, Andrew Rannells, Ian Ho, Bashir Salahuddin, and Joshua Satine — and the sequel will take place in Italy, with Emily getting married to a wealthy businessman. Needless to say, the nuptials don't go smoothly, and instead of rice and bouquets, you can expect wrongdoing and backstabbing. Paul Feig returns to the director's chair, along with original screenwriter Jessica Scharzer.

Nearly 40 years after the first "Top Gun" flew into theaters, "Top Gun: Maverick" became the second highest-grossing movie of 2022, earning $1.5 billion and six Oscar nominations. With those impressive stats, you know that Hollywood executives are feeling the need for speed yet again. So it should come as no surprise that "Top Gun 3" is in development.

At the moment, things are very much in the early stage, but it's been reported that Ehren Kruger is writing the screenplay. Kruger co-wrote "Maverick," as well as titles such as "Arlington Road," "Scream 3," and "The Skeleton Key." According to The Hollywood Reporter, the plan is for Tom Cruise to take to the skies alongside Miles Teller (Rooster) and Glen Powell (Hangman), with Joseph Kosinski hopefully directing again or producing. 

Of course, Cruise is a very busy man, with titles like "Mission: Impossible 8" and Alejandro Iñárritu's upcoming film on the docket. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer also said as much in May 2024, telling Total Film, "We had preliminary stuff [with Cruise]. We're not there yet. [There's] ways to go." However, filming might not be too far off, as Glen Powell told the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast that he has a start date for shooting. So we're not exactly sure when we'll see "Top Gun 3," but whenever it hits the big screen, we'll be ready for another high-flying adventure.

While he's been reinventing himself lately with dramatic turns in movies like "Uncut Gems" and "Spaceman," Adam Sandler's most beloved work is no doubt his run in the '90s where he starred in projects like "Billy Madison," "The Wedding Singer," and "The Waterboy." And now, Sandler will revisit one of his most famous '90s classics with a sequel — yep, we're getting "Happy Gilmore 2."

Sandler confirmed as much in April 2024 when appearing on "The Dan Patrick Show." The comedian said that he and longtime collaborator Tim Herlihy were working on the script, and that when the golf movie is eventually released, it will play on Netflix. When it comes to the direction, What's On Netflix has reported that Kyle Newacheck will helm the comedy, and he'll be bringing plenty of side-splitting experience from his work on the Sandler hit "Murder Mystery," as well as TV shows such as "Community," "Parks and Recreation," and "What We Do in the Shadows."

As for the plot, we're not sure what to expect, but it seems possible that Christopher McDonald will return as Shooter McGavin. The actor was the first one to break the news of a "Happy Gilmore 2," earlier announcing that Sandler had shown him a screenplay. Sadly, "Happy Gilmore 2" will be missing two iconic players from the first film — the late Carl Weathers and the late Bob Barker. While it's unfortunate they won't be in the film, we're hopeful that Sandler will be able to recapture the magic of the first movie, complete with fist fights, hilarious tirades, and hungry alligators.

Whether you loved or hated "The Matrix Resurrections," the fourth film in the series seemed to tie a bow on the world of Neo, Trinity, and Agent Smith. However, it looks like we're taking that red pill again, as a new "Matrix" movie is about to give us some serious deja vu. Only this time around, neither Wachowski will be directing or writing. True, Lana Wachowski will be producing, but creative duties will go to Drew Goddard, who previously penned the script for "The Martian" and also helmed "The Cabin in the Woods."

Evidently, Goddard is the one who came up with the idea for a new "Matrix" and approached Warner Bros. with quite the pitch. At this moment, we're unsure of what the movie will be about, and we also don't know if we'll see any returning stars, a la Keanu Reeves and Carrie Anne-Moss. Will Goddard's film be like the unmade "Matrix" prequel that was rumored to revolve around a young Morpheus? Will it focus on one of the earlier forms of the Matrix that went horribly wrong and were scrapped by the Architect? Or will the plot be so new and revolutionary that we couldn't even guess what might happen? We'll be sure to update you as soon as we find out.

Indian films rarely find success in the Western world, but evidently, nobody told that to "RRR." The movie has become a phenomenon thanks to its over-the-top action, incredible dance choreography, and bromance between NTR Jr.'s Komaram Bheem and Ram Charan's Alluri Sitarama Raju as they flip motorcycles and unleash big cats in their battle against the British. And if you need more numbers like "Naatu Naatu" in your life, never fear. It looks like the Tollywood sensation is getting a sequel, as Variety confirmed with director S.S. Rajamouli that his father, V. Vijayendra Prasad — who wrote the first film — will pen part two. We also know that NTR Jr. and Ram Charan Teja will be returning to fight their English enemies. 

Prasad told Bollywood Hungama that his son is too busy with another film for the time being, and would approach "RRR 2" when his schedule clears. It's possible that Rajamouli could use his father's idea and completed script for the sequel. "The story continues with Sitarama Raju and Komarem Bheem set in Africa," he said (via Koimoi). That's all the information that exists at the moment, but we're incredibly psyched for three more hours of epic fight scenes and glorious dance sequences.

In an act of divine providence, it looks like Sister Mary Clarence will be donning her habit once again. "Sister Act 3" will premiere on Disney+, and Whoopi Goldberg will return as both star and producer, with Tyler Perry also producing, Madhuri Shekar penning the script, and "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series" creator Tim Federle directing.

Released in 1992, the first "Sister Act" sees Goldberg play Deloris Van Cartier, a lounge singer who goes into witness protection at a convent after witnessing a murder. There, in the guise of Sister Mary Clarence, Deloris transforms the convent's humdrum choir into an upbeat musical sensation. 1993's "Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit" finds Deloris stepping in as a music teacher for a group of low-achieving students at a Catholic school. Goldberg suggested in a 2021 Variety profile that we could even possibly see some of those kids again. "Maybe there's gonna be some of the kids [from 'Sister Act 2']," Goldberg teased. "Who can say?"

So what's the sequel's status? In November 2022, Goldberg went on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" and said, "The script came in yesterday. I really like it, but it has a whole lot of adults to go through." Unfortunately, it seems the Disney machinery is moving slowly on this one, as Tyler Perry told Entertainment Tonight in February 2024, "I'm a little annoyed with how long this has taken me. It's taking so long — like, I've done four movies since we started talking about this."

Plus, there's another caveat. "I want to let Maggie Smith know that I'm holding the part of Mother Superior for you," the actor said on the British talk show "Loose Women" (via Entertainment Weekly). "Because I just can't do it with anybody but you." 

Ready for another trip to Genovia? Well, it looks like Disney is preparing for a new adventure full of romance and royalty with "The Princess Diaries 3." It was reported in November 2022 that Aadrita Mukerji — best known for her TV work on series like "Supergirl," "Reacher," and "Scorpion" — is working on a screenplay.

We don't know any plot details yet, and while no one has officially joined the cast, it does look like Anne Hathaway is involved. The Mia Thermopolis actress gave an interview to V Magazine in April 2024 where she was asked about the status of the sequel. Her response? "We're in a good place."

It seems like Julie Andrews, on the other hand, plans on sitting this one out, as she told The Hollywood Reporter in June 2022, "[For] especially me, it's too far down the line now to go back to it. It's a lovely thought, but I don't think it would probably be possible."

Sylvester Stallone's first era as an A-lister who drew huge crowds came to an end shortly after the release of "Cliffhanger." One of the biggest box office hits of 1993, it stars Stallone as Gabe Walker, a mountain ranger, expert climber, and rescue hero who braves treacherous peaks to save a group of lost hikers searching for the stolen fortune they lost in an airplane accident. Also starring John Lithgow and Janine Turner, the dizzying action flick was one of the last original hit movies for Stallone before he started revisiting and rebooting earlier franchises like "Rocky" and "Rambo."

After revitalizing his career with a string of "Expendables" movies, Stallone will now look to the past once more: A sequel to "Cliffhanger" will be arriving more than 30 years after the original film's release. Replacing Renny Harlin in the director's chair is Ric Roman Waugh, best known for "Greenland" and "Angel Has Fallen," working from a script by Mark Bianculli. 

Waugh told Collider that the film will be a legacy sequel as well as a franchise expansion, in the style of "Top Gun: Maverick" or "Creed." "We are gonna be doing a very similar thing with 'Cliffhanger,' but what I think also makes this unique is this guy named Sylvester Stallone, who's created some of the most iconic characters of all time, but he's also been really gracious in passing the torch," Waugh said. In the contemporary "Cliffhanger," Stallone's character and his daughter run a mountaineering firm in the Italian Alps. "Tragedy strikes that's very similar to what happened in the original movie, so that father and daughter have to deal with that," Waugh said. "And of course, there might be some nefarious bad guys that show up."

With a darkly funny name that described the film perfectly and used a bit of Christmas carol-ribbing wordplay, "Violent Night" became a holiday hit in late 2022, earning $75 million. The rare Christmas movie that wasn't a comedy, romance, or warm family feature, "Violent Night" was an unhinged action extravaganza, sort of a skewed take on Christmas-set movies like "Die Hard" as it depicted Santa Claus ("Stranger Things" breakout David Harbour) as a mighty mythological warrior who in contemporary times fights off deadly mercenaries and invaders to save Christmas for one unlucky-then-lucky family.

Such a novel premise proved immediately profitable — it earned three times its budget— meaning a sequel is on the way. "Violent Night" director Tommy Wirkola is all set to direct the next installment in the series, which will expand and explore the mythology surrounding Santa Claus, including Mrs. Claus, the toy-making elves, and what goes on at the North Pole.

It doesn't sound like "Violent Night 2" will arrive in time for Christmas, however — at least not the next Christmas season. "We're just making deals and getting everything in order," Wirkola said, adding that the first movie's screenwriters, Pat Casey and Josh Miller, will pen the sequel. "We have time to really crack the script and figure out the story."

Now one of the most beloved stars who's ever kicked his way across the silver screen, Jackie Chan found Hollywood success with the action-comedy "Rush Hour." The 1998 film paired Chan's martial arts-savvy Hong Kong detective with Chris Tucker's joke-a-minute Los Angeles cop. Together, the two rescued the kidnapped daughter of a Chinese diplomat, starred in the eighth highest-grossing movie of the year, and kicked off two sequels.

Well, better make that three sequels. At the Red Sea International Film Festival, Jackie Chan revealed that he's in talks to make a "Rush Hour 4." He even added that he was about to go talk with the director about the upcoming film. However, he didn't clarify the filmmaker's identity. The previous installments in the series were all helmed by Brett Ratner, but as Ratner is now persona non grata in Hollywood, you'd think a new director would be stepping up to bat. However, back in 2018, Ratner claimed he'd be making a fourth "Rush Hour" film, so it remains to be seen who'll be helming the new martial arts comedy.

However, it does look like Tucker is coming back. Speaking with V-103's "Big Tigger Morning Show," Tucker talked about his upcoming work schedule, saying, "You're going to see a lot of good stuff coming, but it's going to be on a whole other level. ... 'Rush Hour 4,' that's something I definitely will probably drop in there because I love working with Jackie."

Not long after the Christmas Day premiere of the 2020 superhero film "We Can Be Heroes" on Netflix, the streamer announced that a sequel was already on the way. Featuring characters from both "Spy Kids" and "The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl," "We Can Be Heroes" is a similar sort of family adventure film focusing on superpowered kids tasked with saving the day when the adults go missing. According to Netflix's own internal metrics, "We Can Be Heroes" was viewed by 44 million households during its first four weeks.

With such impressive numbers, it's no surprise that writer and director Robert Rodriguez was already planning the sequel by January. Speaking to Collider in December 2020 about a part two, Rodriguez said, "I've already got ideas in mind because we'd have to jump right into it." Of course, kids grow up quickly, meaning that the sequel would need to move into production rapidly in order to keep its young stars relatively the same age. But it's been several years since the first film, and we've yet to see a sequel. 

Aware of the tricky time element, Rodriguez sat down with Collider again in September 2023 to discuss his thoughts on the follow-up film, saying, "The bigger rush is to do a sequel for that because of the kids growing up. Although the script always kind of took that into account, they're supposed to be kind of next-level. And I like the idea of kids seeing their favorite characters grow so exponentially on screen, and it makes them realize how time works. ... They can picture themselves growing and developing and their brains expanding in leaps and bounds like that. So I think the time works in our favor."

When Netflix ponied up its largest chunk of cash yet for the star-studded globe-trotting heist film "Red Notice," some wondered if the hefty investment could possibly pay off for the streamer. Apparently, the answer is yes, as Netflix has signed up for two more "Red Notice" films, most likely to be filmed back to back with writer and director Rawson Marshall Thurber. The first film saw FBI agent John Hartley (Dwayne Johnson) teaming up with art thief Nolan Booth (Ryan Reynolds) in order to apprehend the even more wily thief Sarah Black (Gal Gadot).

The sequel will reportedly bring back the main mega-star trio of Johnson, Gadot, and Reynolds and add a number of new characters who will team up to pull off an ensemble heist in the spirit of "Ocean's Eleven." Presumably, the third film would build on that idea even more, with even grander heists and more spectacular action.  In June 2023, Gadot told Collider that she'd read the finished script for "Red Notice 2," but in November 2023, Netflix's then-head of film, Scott Stuber, implied that maybe the screenplay wasn't ready to rock just yet, as he explained to Collider, "We've got one that we're working on, so we're gonna get that script relatively soon."

As bizarre action movie premises go, it doesn't get much weirder than the original "Face/Off," which starred Nicolas Cage and John Travolta as a terrorist and an FBI agent, respectively, who literally swap faces in order to each take the other's place. Yet even though (spoiler alert) Cage's villainous Castor Troy is killed at the end of the first film, a direct sequel is now in the works from filmmakers Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett. 

Wingard and Barrett have previously worked together on pulse-pounding films such as "You're Next" and "The Guest," suggesting they're more than capable of taking on the violently wacky tone of a "Face/Off" sequel. Speaking to the Associated Press, Cage expressed enthusiasm at the possibility of reprising his role, saying, "I would love to get back into that character and to work with Travolta," adding that the first film was "such a fun movie to make." Wingard has also expressed interest in seeing Cage return, telling Empire Online, "A couple of years ago, the studio maybe would have wanted a hot, young, up-and-coming actor or something. Now, Nicolas Cage is one of the hottest actors in Hollywood again."

Speaking about the upcoming sequel, Cage told Collider there's a whole lot going on in with the new script, saying, "It's almost like if you factor in the idea of offspring and Castor and Sean having children and these children grow up, then it becomes like three-dimensional chess, and then it's not just the two, John Travolta and myself, it's four of us ping-ponging and going at different levels, and it becomes even more complex. I think there's a lot of fertile ground there. I had maybe one meeting in an office, but I haven't heard anything since, so I don't know."

Before John Boyega was known for fighting intergalactic space battles in "Star Wars," he was fighting unsettling monstrous aliens in the urban sci-fi adventure "Attack the Block." Written and directed by Joe Cornish, the 2011 film starred Boyega as Moses, the leader of a teenage street gang in South London — a gang that decides to rid their neighborhood of vicious extraterrestrials after they unexpectedly start falling from the sky.

The sequel will reunite Boyega and Cornish, who's once again both writing and directing. This time, Boyega will also be acting as co-producer, in addition to reprising his role as Moses. Speaking to Deadline, Boyega said, "It's been a decade since 'Attack the Block' was released, and so much has changed since then. I'm excited to see this heightened story return to the streets of London. Moses has remained one of my favorite characters to play and bringing him back is a huge honor."

According to Deadline, the "Attack the Block" sequel will find Moses nearing the age of 30 and reflecting on a London changed by real-life events like the riots of 2011 and rampant gentrification. "We go back and look at the locations where we shot the first movie — once dodgy areas — and we find that it's all gleaming, high-end apartments and Starbucks," Boyega said. "There's a whole world that we're about to explore here with a whole new take on that universe, building and revisiting those characters."

Partially live-action and partially CGI, the visually arresting "Alita: Battle Angel" hit theaters in 2019. "Avatar" and "Titanic" filmmaker James Cameron produced and adapted the classic manga series for the screen, while "Spy Kids" and "Grindhouse" auteur Robert Rodriguez directed a cast that included Oscar winners Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, and Mahershala Ali. Relative newcomer Rosa Salazar led the picture, playing Alita, an amnesiac cyborg looking to find her place in the post-apocalyptic world and discover the truth about a robotic parts trafficking operation.

"Alita: Battle Angel" earned $404 million worldwide against a massive $170 million budget. It wasn't exactly a blockbuster, but in an August 2023 interview with Forbes, Cameron let slip that multiple sequels were in the works. The filmmaker announced plans to sell his Santa Barbara ranch because work would take him too far away, and during that conversation, he revealed, "On 'Avatar,' I'm working in Wellington and Los Angeles. And on the new 'Alita: Battle Angel' films, I'll be working in Austin, so it just didn't make sense for us anymore."

Robert Rodriguez commented on the film as well, although he sounded a bit more guarded. Speaking with The Wrap in October 2023, the "Alita" director said, "Yeah, Jim [Cameron] and I always talk about how we'd love to do another 'Alita.'  That studio [20th Century] was bought by another studio [Disney]. They're starting to make movies now. But that for a while 20th Century wasn't making any of their movies. I think now you're seeing a few rolling out. We would love to."

The MacManus Brothers first burst onto the screen back in 1999, killing mobsters left and right in "The Boondock Saints." They returned in 2009 for a sequel, and ever since then, we've been hearing whispers of an upcoming third film. Now, after many starts and stops, it looks like the threequel is indeed coming our way, albeit with some big changes behind the scenes.

The movie hails from two production studios — Dragonfly Film (which owns the rights to the franchise) and Thunder Road Pictures (which is behind the "John Wick" movies). Together, they'll be creating a movie they're labeling more of a "reimagining" than a straight-up sequel. Having said that, both Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flannery will be reprising their tatted-up, gun-toting characters.

However, Troy Duffy won't be writing or directing this time around. Duffy created the series and was instrumental in the first two films, but here, he'll just be producing, although we aren't sure who's sitting in the director's seat for part three. We do know that the movie will pick up with the MacManus brothers in prison ... although they won't be there for long. Speaking to ScreenRant, Norman Reedus divulged a little info about the screenplay, revealing the action flick would kick off with the Saints breaking out from behind bars.

Fans of Charlize Theron in action roles are in for a treat. The "Mad Max: Fury Road" and "The Old Guard" star will soon be slipping back into the platinum wigs of Lorraine Broughton, her enigmatic character from "Atomic Blonde." Theron told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview in July of 2020 that an Atomic Blonde sequel was in active development, and that the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic was actually helping move the process along, giving Theron and the writers more time to work on the script over Zoom.

Theron elaborated in an interview with Total Film that "Atomic Blonde 2" would likely be headed to Netflix this time around, the home of the actress' 2020 smash action hit, "The Old Guard." "[Lorraine Broughton] was set up in a way where she didn't really reveal much of herself," Theron said, speaking of her character's journey in the first film. "So I feel like there's a lot of potential there. The bar's pretty high, but we're excited about it."

Also starring John Goodman, James McAvoy, and Sofia Boutella, the first film found Theron's ruthless MI6 agent investigating a murder and dodging double-crosses coming from every angle in Cold War-era Berlin. "Atomic Blonde" director David Leitch isn't sure whether he'll be involved with the sequel, but sounds as though he'd be game if asked to return. No details have yet been revealed about the plot of "Atomic Blonde 2," but if the first film is any indication, we expect another twisting spy caper with plenty of hard-hitting action.

Every few years, another "Cloverfield" movie comes along. As recounted by Deadline, "Cloverfield" sequels have historically been developed under codenames, and aren't revealed to be part of the popular franchise until their trailers hit the big and small screens — or, in the case of 2018's "The Cloverfield Paradox," just before the film hit Netflix on Super Bowl Sunday. All three "Cloverfield" movies are dramatically different from one another: 2008's "Cloverfield" is a found-footage horror movie about a stampeding monster, 2016's "10 Cloverfield Lane" takes place almost entirely in a bunker, and "The Cloverfield Paradox" is a space thriller.

Considering this history of secrecy, it's likely nobody will know what the fourth "Cloverfield" movie is really about until just before it's released, which will be some time in the next few years. According to The Hollywood Reporter, franchise producer J.J. Abrams hired "The Ritual" scribe Joe Barton to write the screenplay in January 2021. In September 2022, Babak Anvari landed the director's job, following his well-received work on thoughtful and unsettling fare including "Under the Shadow" and "I Came By." Almost everything else about the movie, in true "Cloverfield" fashion, remains a mystery.

The crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise has had their fair share of setbacks during their galactic travels, but perhaps their most difficult mission has been trying to get "Star Trek 4" onto the big screen. The project was first announced in 2015, and we're still waiting to see the return of Chris Pine as Captain Kirk.

Paramount has taken multiple stabs at this project, with each attempt eventually falling apart. Most recently, Matt Shakman exited to direct "Fantastic Four," and Chris Pine has been throwing some serious shade at Paramount, telling Esquire that the franchise felt "cursed" and telling ComicBook.com that none of the actors involved with the series have seen a script for the fourth film.

Well, hopefully that last bit changes soon, as Paramount has tapped Steve Yockey to pen the script for a "Star Trek 4." Yockey was the showrunner for "The Flight Attendant," and he also worked on "Doom Patrol" and "Dead Boy Detectives." Hopefully he'll be able to crack the "Star Trek" code, and if he does, word has it that Paramount will try to round up the original Kelvin Timeline cast.

However, it doesn't seem like all the stars have been kept in the loop. Right around the time the Yockey news broke, Uhura actress Zoe Saldana spoke to Collider about a potential fourth film, saying, "I know that they're always trying to sort of aim to wrangle everybody together, but I also know that Paramount is working on a new sort of fresh take on 'Star Trek,' which I think is such a wonderful franchise that should live for a very long time, whether or not us as the original remake cast can come back. I don't know, but I certainly hope so."

It's been two decades since the "Frat Pack" dominated Hollywood comedy. Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn, stalwarts of that scene, collaborated in many mid-2000s movies, notably 2004's "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story." A broad and wacky sports movie that simultaneously satirizes sports movie clichés, "Dodgeball" is a tale of good vs. evil set on the dodgeball court. In the world of this film, dodgeball a popular sport for spectators and adults, not just a grade school gym class activity. Vaughn portrayed Peter La Fleur, a good-guy slacker and leader of the Average Joes, the motley team of weirdos representing his workout center. Stiller played the cartoonish, fitness-obsessed and downright evil White Goodman, playing on behalf of Globo Gym. The Joes win, of course, staving off a takeover of Peter's gym by Goodman.

"Dodgeball" wraps up happily and conclusively, but since it was a massively profitable hit (netting a $168 million box office take against a $20 million budget) and an enduring favorite on cable TV, a sequel is on the way. In April 2023, Deadline reported that 20th Century Studios had ordered another round of "Dodgeball." "The Binge" screenwriter Jordan VanDina will pen the script, taking over from original writer (and director) Rawson Marshall Thurber. A director is yet to be announced, but Vaughn has already agreed to reprise the role of Peter, having successfully pitched an original idea for the movie to VanDina.

Released in 1987, "Lethal Weapon" introduced audiences to the buddy cop duo of Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Murtaugh (Danny Glover), and the action-comedy kicked off an entire franchise, with three sequels and a TV series. However, with no new "Lethal Weapon" films since "Lethal Weapon 4" in 1998, it was a surprise to learn at the beginning of 2020 that Warner Bros. intended to reinvigorate the franchise with a new entry.

Prior to the death of acclaimed director Richard Donner — who directed the first four "Lethal Weapon" films — producer Dan Lin said that the fifth film was particularly special to Donner, who at the time was attached to direct. "We're trying to make the last 'Lethal Weapon' movie," Lin told The Hollywood Reporter in 2020. "Donner's coming back. The original cast is coming back. And it's just amazing. The story itself is very personal to him and to the cast, and so I really want to make that one." Lin also produced the "Lethal Weapon" television series and claimed that "Lethal Weapon 5" will be a continuation of the existing films, with Glover and Gibson both set to reprise their roles.

Of course, none of that may pan out now, as Donner passed away in 2021. However, Mel Gibson has since confirmed that he's in talks to take over directorial duties. In September 2022, Gibson also told Screen Rant that things could be moving in a positive direction, saying, "It's [coming along] great, we've got a really good screenplay." Gibson confirmed that the script had been worked on by both Donner and himself, among others. In June 2024, Gibson spoke about the project with the "Inspire Me" podcast, repeating that he'd be sitting in the director's chair when cameras started rolling. 

Although it's been over 30 years since "Young Guns II" hit theaters, it sounds like a third film may be on its way. "Yeah, it's definitely in the works," star Emilio Estevez said, when asked by Collider about the possibility of a threequel in March 2021. "There's a lot of speculation about what happened that night, in 1881 in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Did he die? Did he not? And so, there's a lot of mythical, historical, and actually some factual things that we can examine, if we're serious about going back to that franchise."

The plot of a third "Young Guns" is a bit of a mystery since the first film ended with the historical account of Billy the Kid's death, and then the 1990 sequel was forced to walk that back. Whatever "Young Guns 3" looks like, Lou Diamond Phillips has already said he's on board. "If they can make it happen, I'll be there," he told Forbes. It's unknown who else would return for a third film — tentatively titled "Guns 3: Alias Billy the Kid" — but Phillips did say on the "Inside of You" podcast that the characters "whose deaths were off-camera get to come back." The actor also revealed that Estevez will be the one directing.

In May 2023, Estevez told Uproxx that a script is ready, but they're having to sort out the rights to the project. "It all comes down to the legal minds that work out IP," Estevez said. "So it's just a question of when." Lou Diamond Phillips said something very similar about the film's slow development, telling Entertainment Weekly, "It's in limbo right now. It was chugging along there for a minute, but then I think they got into a rights situation. ... It's not dead, but it's not happening right now."

In 2022, Netflix premiered "The Sea Beast," an adventurous folk tale from Chris Williams. "The Sea Beast" is set in a time where giant ships rule the global economy, scary beasts roam the sea, and fearsome monster hunters explore the far corners of the Earth. Jacob Holland (Karl Urban), the greatest hunter of them all, gets an unexpected sidekick when a lost little kid named Maisie (Zaris-Angel Hator) stows away on his vessel.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, "The Sea Beast" quickly became one of Netflix's biggest-ever in-house hits, and now, director Chris Williams is working on a "Sea Beast" sequel. The follow-up film will pick up after the events of the first installment, and it will likely feature some kind of seafaring adventure. Interestingly, Williams won't say if Red, the titular monster from the first film, will make an appearance in the new movie.

Williams has some ideas of where a follow-up could go, and they've informed his scriptwriting. "I kept thinking about that image of Jacob and Maisie on the dock and the fact that they're this new family. And that image, it doesn't tell the entire truth of what it is to be a family. A family's much more complicated than that," he told /Film. He's also intrigued about what would happen to the hunting community after the events of the first film. "I started wondering, 'Would every single hunter in the world be so willing to lay down their lance and give up their source of income and their identity and their source of pride and their sense of history? ... Maybe not all of them would be."

After writing and directing the classic indie horror movies "The Evil Dead" and "Evil Dead II" but before he became the A-lister behind blockbusters like the first "Spider-Man" trilogy, Sam Raimi ventured into the superhero realm for the first time with "Darkman." It's a dark, comic book-like revenge thriller about a scientist presumed dead, who dons a hat, trench coat, and thick facial bandages to get his revenge on the bad guys who nearly burned him to death. Oh yeah, he's also super strong and can create new faces out of experimental skin, but these disguises never last long as they're sensitive to light. 

Not only was it directed by Raimi, it was one of the first major movies for future superstar Liam Neeson and three-time Oscar winner Frances McDormand. A couple of obscure sequels to "Darkman" already exist in the form of the straight-to-video "Darkman II: The Return of Durant" and "Darkman III: Die Darkman Die" starring Arnold Vosloo in lieu of Neeson. Raimi didn't have anything to do with those, and he'd love to revisit the "Darkman" world with a sequel set many years after the events of the first film. In 2022, he told TheWrap that the sequel was in the extremely early stages of development. "There's a producer attached. I haven't heard the story yet or gone into it," Raimi said, adding, "But I think it's cool." Nothing in the way of creative crew, cast, or release date has officially been confirmed quite yet.

Mere days after the 2021 Chris Pratt sci-fi action film "The Tomorrow War" dropped on Amazon Prime, Amazon Studios and Skydance were already talking about a sequel. The first film — which also starred Yvonne Strahovski, Betty Gilpin, Sam Richardson, Edwin Hodge, and J.K. Simmons — centered around Pratt's character, who's recruited as a soldier to travel to the future and fight a war to save humanity. The sequel would reportedly bring back the entire main cast, along with director Chris McKay and writer Zach Dean.

"The Tomorrow War" earned an enthusiastic reaction from Amazon Prime subscribers, who viewed it enough for it to debut as the number one film across streaming platforms over the July 4 holiday weekend. So it's no wonder that the studios would be eagerly circling a sequel, although no plans are confirmed yet. And while we don't yet know what the story of a potential "The Tomorrow War 2" would be, we have no doubt it will be just as thrilling and action-packed as the first film.

With a roughly $200 million price tag, "The Gray Man" is one of the most expensive movies Netflix has ever made. The streaming-only title boasts an all-star cast in Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, and, most prominently, Ryan Gosling. Gosling anchors the action thriller as Six, an elite CIA operative who runs for his life after revealing highly classified state secrets.

Netflix hadn't even released viewership numbers for the film's opening weekend when it announced a sequel to "The Gray Man." According to Deadline, star Gosling and directors Joe and Anthony Russo will all return for the second film. Though screenwriters Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus shared writing duties with Joe Russo for the first movie, McFeely will be going it alone for the second. A "Gray Man" spin-off is also in the works, with "Deadpool" and "Zombieland" writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick taking a crack at the screenplay. According to Joe Russo, this spin-off will more than earn its R rating.

However, it does seem that feelings towards the straight-up sequel are shifting at Netflix. When discussing the movie with Collider in November 2023, then-head of Netflix Films Scott Stuber was asked if "The Gray Man 2" was indeed happening. His response? "I think that's a maybe." He also admitted the first movie had a little too much action, and that if the sequel does go forward, it will spend more time focusing on Ryan Gosling's character, Six. 

While 2021's "Cruella" was set up to serve as a prequel to Disney's animated film "One Hundred and One Dalmatians," by the time the end credits rolled on the high fashion film, it was clear that there was plenty more of Cruella's story to tell. Sure enough, "Cruella 2" is in the works, which will see Emma Stone returning to the role of Estella and her ruthless alter ego, Cruella de Vil. Also coming back is director Craig Gillespie and writer Tony McNamara.

The first film sees aspiring fashion designer and petty criminal Estella scheme her way to the top of the fashion industry and usurp the reign of fashion queen Baroness von Hellman (Emma Thompson). By the end of the film — which is part "The Devil Wears Prada," part "Joker" — Cruella fully embraces her dark and semi-villainous persona. Yet she still has a great love of dogs — even Dalmatians — which begs the question of just how she transforms into someone who wants to make coats out of puppies. Perhaps we'll find out — or perhaps this version of Cruella will decide to ditch the dog-skinning altogether — when "Cruella 2" eventually struts into theaters.

But when exactly will we see the sequel? Well, in October 2023, Craig Gillespie spoke to The Times of India and gave an update on the movie, saying, "You know, we're really hoping that 'Cruella 2' will work out. And obviously, the strike has impacted that. And so we'll have to wait and see how everything lands once. But, you know, I'd love to be doing that." After the strikes ended, Emma Stone gave something of an update to Variety in January 2024, saying that shooting will start "hopefully sooner rather than later."