While the movies released towards the end of any given year are often those vying for awards consideration, the summer movie season is an entirely different beast, as studios unleash their most bombastic experiences at a time in which audiences typically have more free time. Given the ways in which movie theaters have suffered in recent years due to closures related to the coronavirus pandemic, studios are pulling out all the stops this year, offering up some of the most exciting releases in recent memory. Whether they be long-awaited sequels, properties hoping to revive dormant franchises, or entirely new experiences, there’s something for everyone in theaters this summer.
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The summer movie season used to kick off with Memorial Day weekend, but with more studios delivering more projects each year (and with Avengers: Endgame‘s late April release), that timeline has shifted forward. This means that throughout all of May, June, July, and August, fans have a lot to look forward to each weekend.
Scroll down to see all of the best movies being released this summer, including Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4, Deadpool & Wolverine, and Alien: Romulus.
The Fall Guy – Released on May 3rd
Officially kicking off the summer movie season is the Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt-starring adaptation of the ’80s TV show The Fall Guy, directed by David Leitch. The filmmakers must have known they had a hit on their hands, as it premiered all the way back in March during the South by Southwest Film Festival, generating weeks of positive buzz leading up to release.
With Leitch being a former stuntman himself, he injects a unique perspective into this story of stuntman Colt Seavers (Gosling) being brought out of retirement when the star of a big-budget film goes missing and Colt volunteers to not only find the actor, but also aims win back the love of the movie’s director, Jody Moreno (Blunt).
Also starring in the film are Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Winston Duke, Hannah Waddingham, and Stephanie Hsu.
Unfrosted – Released on Netflix on May 3rd
Recent years have seen even the most mundane of real-life events earning the feature-film treatment, the latest of which is Netflix’s Unfrosted, a project that not only stars but also was directed by Jerry Seinfeld.
Set during the ’60s, Unfrosted explores the battle between Kellogg’s and Post Cereal to become the first cereal brand to pivot into the world of breakfast pastries, ultimately resulting in the development of the beloved Pop Tarts.
Joining Seinfeld on the hilarious journey are stars Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Amy Schumer, James Marsden, Jack McBrayer, Thomas Lennon, Bobby Moynihan, Maria Bakalova, Max Greenfield, Bill Burr, Dan Levy, Christian Slater, and Hugh Grant.
Tarot – Released on May 3rd
Bombastic action movies aren’t the only staple of the summer movie season, as horror, sci-fi, and other genre films also offer audiences alternative fare from the more mainstream outings. The first major horror film of summer will be Tarot, inspired by the famous playing cards that some say possess supernatural properties.
When a group of friends use a deck of tarot cards to harmlessly predict one another’s futures, the figures from the cards begin to stalk and kill them, cementing their grisly fates.
Tarot comes from writers/directors Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg and stars Harriet Slater, Jacob Batalon, Avantika Vandanapu, Adain Bradley, Humberly González, Olwen Fouéré, Wolfgang Novogratz, and Larsen Thompson.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes – Released on May 10th
Marking the first new installment in the franchise since 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes serves not only as a follow-up to that experience, but also as an experience that aims to set its sight on a new generation of characters that can pave the way for even more stories to be told in this beloved world.
Centuries after Caesar led apes to their freedom from humanity, the king Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand) rules over a community in which he manipulates the legacy of Caesar to tighten his control on the remnants of humans, which have grown feral over the years. When Noa (Owen Teague) realizes what lengths Proximus is willing to go to in order to maintain control while also witnessing the potential of humanity, a conflict grows.
Also starring in the film are Freya Allan, Peter Macon, and William H. Macy. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes was directed by Wes Ball.
I Saw the TV Glow – Released on May 17th
In their follow-up to We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, writer/director Jane Schoenbrun delivers the surreal, hypnotic, and enlightening I Saw the TV Glow. Similarly to how World’s Fair took what could be considered the premise of a genre film and expanded that into being an exploration of loneliness, isolation, and the human condition, TV Glow could seem like it was merely replicating nostalgic feelings for ’90s kids shows and goes into much more cerebral realms.
Both feeling ostracized from their family and peers for different reasons, teens Owen (Justice Smith) and Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine) come together over their shared love of the TV show The Pink Opaque, a surrogate for shows like Are You Afraid of the Dark? or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In the wake of the series’ unexpected cancellation, the pair confront their inner truths and the pain and vulnerabilities such quests bring with them.
Harkening back to films of the ’90s, A24’s I Saw the TV Glow also boasts an impressive soundtrack featuring Sloppy Jane (featuring Phoebe Bridgers), Caroline Polachek, Snail Mail, King Woman, Yeule, Florist, Bartees Strange, The Weather Station, Drab Majesty, Hop Along’s Frances Quinlan, Proper., and Sadurn.
IF – Released on May 17th
John Krasinski pulls quadruple duty on IF, as he stars, directs, writes, and produces the family-friendly comedy about imaginary friends. Not to be confused for the much more frightening Imaginary from earlier this year, IF doesn’t explore quite as sinister of a concept.
With many kids abandoning their imaginary friends (IFs) as they get older, this leaves countless figures with no one to accompany them, leaving Bea (Cailey Fleming) to try to use her abilities of seeing IFs to try to get them to reunite with their now-adult companions.
Joining Krasinski and Fleming in the film are Ryan Reynolds, Fiona Shaw, Alan Kim, and Liza Colón-Zayas, while stars Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Louis Gossett Jr., and Steve Carell all contribute their voices.
The Strangers: Chapter 1 – Released on May 17th
At a time when gruesome films like the Saw series were dominating the world of horror, 2008’s The Strangers focused much more on tension than abject gore, with the movie going on to become a staple of the home invasion subgenre and earn a cult following. While 2018’s The Strangers: Prey at Night was a standalone sequel, the new The Strangers: Chapter 1 aims to revive and reinvent the concept, serving both somewhat as a prequel and as a reboot.
When a young couple celebrates their anniversary in a remote cabin, they find themselves at the center of a nefarious group of masked tormentors who have targeted them for seemingly no other reason than because they were home.
Starring Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez and directed by Renny Harlin, The Strangers: Chapter 1 is just the first entry in an already-filmed trilogy of terrors.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – Released on May 24th
Back in 2015, after 30 years of waiting, fans were given a new entry into the Mad Max franchise with Mad Max: Fury Road, and while there was some apprehension about how effective such a film could be, George Miller’s high-octane adventure became not only a hit with fans, but also scored more Academy Awards nominations than any other film that year. Fury Road introduced audiences to Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa, and now fans will learn how she became the person we saw in that installment with the prequel Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.
Miller returns to direct the prequel, chronicling how Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) was kidnapped from the Green Place of Many Mothers by Warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), forcing her to fight to survive.
The Garfield Movie – Released on May 24th
Chris Pratt continues his quest to voice every animated character imaginable, this time taking the reins of the Lasagna-loving and Monday-hating Garfield in an all-new animated adventure. While previous big-screen outings for the feline utilized CGI to blend an animated cat (voiced by Bill Murray) with live-action performers, The Garfield Movie will opt to go an entirely animated route.
This new adaptation of the character will see Garfield (Pratt) reuniting with his long-lost father Vic (Samuel L. Jackson) for an outdoor adventure.
Joining Pratt and Jackson in the film are Hannah Waddingham, Ving Rhames, Nicholas Hoult, Cecily Strong, Harvey Guillén, Brett Goldstein, Bowen Yang, Janelle James, and Snoop Dogg.
Hit Man – Released June 7th on Netflix
As proven in both Top Gun: Maverick and Anyone But You, Glen Powell has become one of the hotter new performers who manages to blend a snarky charm with leading-man sensibilities, resulting in director Richard Linklater tapping him to star in the all-new romantic action comedy Hit Man. While it was more of an ensemble piece, Powell previously worked with Linklater in the 1980-set Everybody Wants Some!!.
Based on a true story, when a professor Gary Johnson (Powell) realizes his untapped potential of inhabiting different identities, he’s enlisted by local authorities to pose as a variety of different hit men in hopes of apprehending would-be criminals. Complications arise when he falls for one such criminal (Adria Arjona), forcing Gary to balance his own identities, that of his fake hit men, and also woo his newfound love interest.
Bad Boys: Ride or Die – Released on June 7th
Even with the disappointment that the fourth entry into the series couldn’t embrace the “Bad Boys 4 Life” moniker, fans are still looking forward to the latest installment of the franchise with Bad Boys: Ride or Die, bringing back Will Smith’s Mike Lowrey and Martin Lawrence’s Marcus Burnett for an all-new adventure.
This time around, the unconventional detectives discover that their former captain, Conrad Howard (Joe Pantoliano), is posthumously framed for working for a drug cartel, which ignites a mission to uncover the truth of the conspiracy to find out who set up their late superior.
Joining Smith and Lawrence are Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Paola Núñez, Jacob Scipio, and DJ Khaled, with Ride or Die being directed by Bad Boys for Life and Batgirl directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah.
The Watchers – Released on June 7th
For more than two decades, the name “Shyamalan” has been synonymous with twisted tales of terror, thanks to filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan having given us movies like The Sixth Sense, Signs, The Visit, and Knock at the Cabin, but with the upcoming The Watchers, his daughter Ishana Night Shyamalan shows that the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.
Keeping in line with her father’s filmmaking sensibilities, the actual plot of The Watchers has been kept under wraps, with trailers showing a bizarre world in which people are living out their lives in a strange shelter in the middle of the woods that is equipped with a massive two-way mirror, allowing strange “watchers” to witness their daily activities despite the inhabitants not being able to see their audience.
The Watchers stars Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan, and Olwen Fouéré.
Inside Out 2 – Released on June 14th
It’s been a challenging few years for Pixar, as many of their releases were stifled of reaching their potential due to the coronavirus pandemic, as films like Onward, Soul, and Luca all had their theatrical releases compromised. The Toy Story spinoff Lightyear then had to overcome a complicated premise that fans had trouble grasping, while Elemental earned mixed reactions from critics and audiences, though ultimately proved to be a long-time earner at the box office. While their latest effort has been years in the making, Inside Out 2 marks a return to one of the studio’s more ambitious narratives of the last decade and a storyline that is rife with storytelling opportunities.
The first Inside Out explores the inner workings of the young Riley struggling with adolescence and her family making a major move, with this sequel bringing back Riley (Kensington Tallman) to explore the emotions of a 13-year-old girl. Amy Poehler (Joy), Phyllis Smith (Sadness), and Lewis Black (Anger) return to reprise their roles, while Tony Hale takes over for Bill Hader (Fear) and Liza Lapira takes over for Mindy Kaling (Disgust), while all-new emotions are voiced by Maya Hawke (Anxiety), Ayo Edebiri (Envy) Adèle Exarchopoulos (Ennui), and Paul Walter Hauser (Embarrassment).
A Quiet Place: Day One – Released on June 28th
A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place Part II became hits with both audiences and critics alike, and while both of these films focused on the harrowing events that the Abbott family endured, A Quiet Place: Day One marks the first spinoff in the franchise, as it explores what other characters in this world experienced on the first day of an alien invasion.
The first two films highlighted relatively suburban locales and how the remote nature of these settings allowed the Abbott family to avoid monstrous creatures that hunted by sound a bit more easily due to isolation, yet Day One instead heads to New York City, chronicling how terror unfolded in a metropolis.
A Quiet Place: Day One was directed by Michael Sarnoski and stars Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff, and Djimon Hounsou.
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter I – Released on June 28th
Kevin Costner has spent the last few years playing the patriarch of the Dutton family in the fan-favorite Yellowstone, and while the actor is exiting the popular franchise, he won’t be straying away from the world of Westerns for long, thanks to his upcoming epic Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter I.
Directed by, co-written by, and starring Costner, this first chapter of the sprawling saga will chronicle the four years of the American Civil War, depicting the trials and tribulations of the hardships faced by families between from 1861 to 1865.
Joining Costner are Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Giovanni Ribisi, Jena Malone, Abbey Lee, Michael Rooker, Danny Huston, Luke Wilson, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jeff Fahey, Will Patton, Tatanka Means, Owen Crow Shoe, Ella Hunt, Jamie Campbell Bower and Thomas Haden Church.
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2 is set to hit theaters on August 16th.
Despicable Me 4 – Released on July 3rd
The latest entry in the Despicable Me franchise was 2022’s Minions: The Rise of Gru, with the upcoming Despicable Me 4 marking the first new entry in the proper series since 2017’s Despicable Me 3.
Gru (Steve Carell), wife Lucy (Kristen Wiig), their three adopted daughters Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Agnes (Madison Polan), as well as Gru Jr. are back for another adventure, with the latest movie seeing them become the target of up-and-coming supervillain Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell) and his girlfriend Valentina (Sofia Vergara).
Joey King, Chloe Fineman, Stephen Colbert, and Steve Coogan all also lend voices to the movie.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F – Released on Netflix on July 3rd
Back in 2021, Eddie Murphy delivered the Prime Video movie Coming 2 America, the long-awaited sequel to 1988’s Coming to America. The actor is once again returning to a familiar property to develop a new story for a fan-favorite character, this time reviving Beverly Hills Cop‘s Axel Foley.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, the first new installment since 1994’s Beverly Hills Cop III, sees Murphy’s Axel returning to the posh California locale when he discovers that his daughter’s life has been threatened.
Murphy isn’t the only veteran of the franchise returning for the new adventure, as he’s joined by Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot from the original films, while also adding Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Taylour Paige, and Kevin Bacon into the fray.
Space Cadet – Released on July 4th on Prime Video
After playing the iconic role of Mary Parker, Peter Parker’s mother, in Madame Web earlier this year, Emma Roberts is getting to revive her comedic chops for Prime Video’s Space Cadet. Back in 2020, Roberts’ Holidate on Netflix was one of the streamer’s bigger hits of the year and Space Cadet looks to find similar success on Prime Video.
In hopes of turning her life around and fulfilling her dream of going to space, Tiffany “Rex” Simpson (Roberts) gets into NASA, thanks to a bit of “doctoring” on her application. Despite her resume embellishments, Rex uses her passion for her dream and her quick thinking to stand out in the highly competitive program to prove herself. Also starring in the film are Tom Hopper, Poppy Liu and Gabrielle Union, Kuhoo Verma, and Desi Lydic.
MaXXXine – Released on July 5th
Filmmaker Ti West, a fan-favorite in the indie horror community, earned one of his biggest releases in 2022 with X, thanks to his collaboration with A24, and while that project was intended to be a standalone experience, the unique quarantine protocols of filming a horror movie during the coronavirus pandemic led he and Mia Goth to also develop the prequel Pearl, which was released later that year.
MaXXXine is set to close out the trilogy, serving as a sequel to X in which Goth’s Maxine aims to make a name for herself in Hollywood after all of her friends were brutally murdered, all while the real-life Night Stalker murderer stalks Los Angeles in the process.
West once again serves as the writer/director, with this new installment adding Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Lily Collins, Halsey, Giancarlo Esposito, and Kevin Bacon.
Longlegs – Released on July 12th
Based solely on the pedigree of those involved with Longlegs, this project is one of the most anticipated indie horror movies of the year. Starring Nicolas Cage and The Guest and It Follows star Maika Monroe, Longlegs was written and directed by Osgood Perkins, who previously delivered audiences The Blackcoat’s Daughter and Gretel & Hansel. The film also comes from studio NEON, who delivered this year’s Immaculate and previously having offered up Possessor and Infinity Pool.
Little is known about the intricacies of the plot of Longlegs, outside of it exploring the pursuit of a serial killer by an FBI agent, but the previously released teasers and images offer up eerie and unsettling imagery, leaving our imaginations to run wild when it comes to the terror that Longlegs will contain.
Twisters – Released on July 19th
The original Twister was a seminal summer blockbuster of the ’90s, as it was released at a time in which practical and CG effects were blended seamlessly to create an action-packed adventure that was also full of plenty of humor. With that film focusing on a group of storm chasers researching tornados, it didn’t seem to inherently require a sequel, though Twisters aims to recapture the spirit of the original without necessarily including much narrative connection.
Twisters comes from Minari director Lee Isaac Chung and stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell as a pair of storm chasers with entirely different approaches to capturing the power of tornados, though they become intertwined when they each offer one another unique insight into harnessing the intensity of the weather.
Also starring in the film are Anthony Ramos, Maura Tierney, Brandon Perea, Daryl McCormack, Sasha Lane, Kiernan Shipka, and Nik Dodani.
Deadpool & Wolverine – Released on July 26th
With Deadpool & Wolverine being the third entry into the financially and critically successful Deadpool film series, that’s already reason enough for audiences to be excited for this outing, but when you add in the fact that this is Deadpool’s first official entry within the Marvel Cinematic Universe and that it sees Hugh Jackman coming out of his seeming retirement of playing Wolverine, and this movie is arguably the defining comic book event of the year.
As the title implies, Deadpool & Wolverine sees the return of Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson to team up with Wolverine on an adventure like no other. According to trailers, Deadpool will be tasked with trimming a number of timelines in the MCU, igniting a journey that will take the Merc with a Mouth through every cinematic timeline and colliding with a variety of stars from Marvel’s past.
Deadpool & Wolverine was directed by Shawn Levy and also stars Emma Corrin, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Leslie Uggams, Karan Soni, and Matthew Macfadyen. Making the experience even more exciting is that there are a number of cameos that are expected from the most unlikely of performers from all of Marvel’s cinematic legacy, with the full roster of stars likely to rival the cast of Avengers: Endgame.
Harold and the Purple Crayon – Released on August 2nd
Based on the 1955 children’s book of the same name, fans are looking forward to this live-action adaptation of Harold and the Purple Crayon for a variety of reasons. A key component of the excitement is based on how beloved the original book is, having earned a number of fans over the decades, but another component of that anticipation is that the movie was originally intended to hit theaters last year. Based on those delays, it means anticipation has only built further over the past year, with fans now set to see all of the adventures that await audiences.
Rather than being a direct adaptation of the original book, this movie serves more as a sequel, exploring how the now-adult Harold (Zachary Levi) possesses a magical crayon that causes anything he draws to come to life.
Joining Levi in the experience are Lil Rel Howery, Benjamin Bottani, Jemaine Clement, Tanya Reynolds, and Zooey Deschanel.
Trap – Released on August 2nd
It’s an exciting summer to be a Shyamalan fan, as we not only start the season with Ishana Night Shyamalan’s The Watchers, but we also get M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap.
While the trailer for the film started off as a relatively endearing outing where a father (Josh Hartnett) takes his daughter to see a pop concert, the promo revealed that the entire experience was a ruse to capture a sadistic killer who is known to be a fan of the singer headlining the show. Viewers then witnessed this seemingly normal father check his home security cameras, depicting someone trapped in his basement, implying that it is actually this father who is the murderer.
M. Night Shyamalan has a penchant for delivering audiences twisted tales of terror, so whatever an audience might think about the terror that Trap will offer us, it’s safe to assume that this trailer is only the tip of the iceberg.
Borderlands – Released on August 9th
Based on the beloved game of the same name, Borderlands has been in development for so long that some audiences began doubting that the project would ever become a reality. With reports of a movie dating back nearly a decade, the adaptation bounced around between filmmakers and suffered delays due to the coronavirus pandemic, but as confirmed by an actual trailer, Borderlands is finally set to be released to audiences.
Much like the game, the new movie sees Lilith (Cate Blanchett), Roland (Kevin Hart), Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt) Krieg (Florian Munteanu), Dr. Patricia Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis), and Claptrap (voiced by Jack Black) coming together for an unlikely intergalactic excursion.
Directed by Eli Roth, the movie also stars Edgar Ramírez, Bobby Lee, and Gina Gershon.
Cuckoo – Released on August 9th
Longlegs isn’t the only summer horror release from NEON, as Cuckoo is similarly one of the more exciting releases for indie horror fans that comes from a fan-favorite filmmaker. Hailing from Luz filmmaker Tilman Singer, Cuckoo also features an exciting cast, which includes Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, and Jessica Henwick.
When the American Gretchen (Schafer) leaves her family behind to live with her father in the Alps, only for a variety of bizarre experiences to begin to unfold all around her.
Cuckoo premiered earlier this year at the Berlin International Film Festival, while also screening at the South by Southwest Film Festival and the Overlook Film Festival, with Bloody Disgusting writing, “[Writer/Director Tilman Singer] boldly marches to the beat of his own drum, examining heady themes of grief, reproduction, and gendered expectations through inventive, playful horror.”
Alien: Romulus – Released on August 16th
The first big-screen Alien movie since 2017’s Alien: Covenant, Alien: Romulus serves as a spinoff within the core franchise as opposed to being a direct continuation of any specific storyline.
Coming from director Fede Álvarez (Evil Dead, Don’t Breathe), the new movie is set between the events of Alien and Aliens, exploring a group of young colonists who must deal with the deadly threat of xenomorphs.
Initial glimpses at the upcoming film teased that the experience will be a brutal and thrilling horror movie set within the franchise, with Romulus starring Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu. While Alien: Romulus doesn’t look to explore the headier concepts previously seen in other corners of the Alien franchise, it looks to be a brutal and relentless experience in horror.
The Crow – Released on August 23rd
30 years after the first adaptation of James O’Barr’s The Crow landed on the big screen, a new take on the material will be unleashed, this time from director Rupert Sanders.
A year after Eric Draven (Bill Skarsgård) and his fiancée Shelly (FKA Twigs) were murdered by a gang of thugs, the supernatural spirit of The Crow brings him back to life to avenge their deaths, no matter how many brutal kills he must commit along the way.
The original The Crow from Alex Proyas starred Brandon Lee (who tragically died during production) and has earned a passionate cult following over the years, thanks to its gothic spirit and gritty storyline. The nature of the premise allowed new figures to be revived for subsequent films, though none of them matched the effectiveness of the original installment. This new take on the material marks the first high-profile attempt to bring the franchise back to life.
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Images courtesy of Paramount
