It’s an exciting time to be a fan of Sci-Fi movies. While 2025 has been a relatively quiet year for the genre, in what has otherwise been a great decade so far, there’s a strong end to things. Predator: Badlands continues that franchise’s recent run of form, Edgar Wright’s The Running Man is a fun Stephen King action movie, and biggest (and possibly best) of all, there’s still Avatar: Fire & Ash to come in December, which could give James Cameron yet another $2 billion+ hit. But even that is a precursor to what’s to come next year and beyond, at least in terms of excitement.
Videos by ComicBook.com
2026 is shaping up to be a vintage year for Sci-Fi, with new releases in the genre from the likes of Ridley Scott and Steven Spielberg. One of the most exciting of the bunch is Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Three. Given Dune: Part Two is comfortably one of the best Sci-Fi movies of the 21st Century, then it’s going to be thrilling to see just what he has conjured up for his next Frank Herbert adaptation. The movie recently received an exciting update from star Timothée Chalamet, who confirmed [via THR on X] that he has wrapped filming on the sequel.
Dune 3 Is One Of Many Exciting Sci-Fi Sequels In The Works
Chalamet having wrapped on Dune 3 is a good sign for the movie, because it leaves it with plenty of time for post-production. It’s currently scheduled for release in December 2026 (and going head-to-head with Avengers: Doomsday), so there’s over one year to work on what is a VFX-heavy film. As the actor notes, though, it’s also an emotional time for him, as it means – barring any reshoots – he’s likely played Paul Atreides for the last time, with Villeneuve not expected to make more Dune movies beyond this one.
Dune: Part Three will hopefully be a good way to go out: the book it adapts, Dune Messiah, gets even weirder (and some of it is harder to translate to the screen), but Villeneuve is one of the best Sci-Fi filmmakers of his generation, so there’s not much reason to doubt he’ll deliver yet another stunning sequel. And the next Dune installment is far from the only sequel for Sci-Fi fans to be excited about.
As mentioned, there’s Avatar: Fire & Ash, but Cameron also has plans for Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 (which will stretch the franchise into the 2030s). Will Smith’s I Am Legend 2, which will co-star Michael B. Jordan, is still in development and could expand upon that story in interesting ways. Alien: Romulus is getting a direct sequel, and after the box office, don’t bet against more Predator movies either (and perhaps, eventually, a new Alien vs. Predator installment). There are, meanwhile, still hopes for Edge of Tomorrow 2 with Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt returning, while Blade Runner will be getting another follow-up – but this time on TV, with Prime Video’s Blade Runner 2099.
Sequels aside, there are lots of highly anticipated Sci-Fi movies on the horizon. As mentioned, there are releases from Scott (the post-apocalyptic The Dog Stars) and Spielberg (an untitled UFO movie that sounds like it’ll harken back to his releases from the 1970s and ’80s). Masters of the Universe may revitalize that as a cinematic franchise. And there’s also Project Hail Mary, based on the book by Andy Weir (writer of The Martian), directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, and starring Ryan Gosling, which is one of the most exciting movies of 2026, period. Whether franchises or otherwise, there’s a lot to look forward to if you’re a fan of big-screen science fiction.
Dune: Part Three will be released in theaters on December 18th, 2026.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
Most Viewed
-
Image courtesy of Netflix -
Image Courtesy of Devolver Digital -
Image Courtesy of Netflix -
Image Courtesy of Netflix
