The Two Undisputed Kings of Sci-Fi Movies Are Returning in 2026 (& It’s Not Nolan & Villeneuve)

December 16, 2025, 4:01pm

2026 is shaping up to be a major year for Sci-Fi movies, with two legends returning to the genre after years away. The past 10-15 years or so have generally been pretty strong when it comes to science fiction on the big screen, thanks to movies such as Gravity, Ex Machina, and Everything Everywhere All At Once, to name but three of the many great movies to have graced theaters. There’ve also been strong franchises, like the rebooted Planet of the Apes. But two names have defined the genre more than anyone else in the last 15 years: Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve.

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Thanks to Inception, Interstellar, and Tenet for the former, and Arrival, Blade Runner 2049, and the two Dune movies for the latter, they’ve delivered not only some of the most thought-provoking Sci-Fi movies of the last decade and a half, but some of the biggest and most spectacular as well. Both have movies releasing in 2026: Nolan turns to epic fantasy with The Odyssey, and Villeneuve ends his Dune saga with Dune: Part Three. But when it comes to Sci-Fi, two even bigger icons of the genre are back next year: Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott.

Ridley Scott & Steven Spielberg Return To Sci-Fi In 2026

The Sci-Fi landscape of the last 30-40 years, and the lives and careers of Nolan and Villeneuve, would look very different without either Spielberg or Scott. That’s true of cinema as a whole, of course, but they’ve made an indelible mark on this genre: Spielberg with the likes of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., and Jurassic Park, and Scott with Alien and Blade Runner (and much later The Martian), they changed the game for alien invasions, space exploration, A.I., cyberpunk, and so much more. Neither has made a Sci-Fi movie in several years: Spielberg’s most recent was Ready Player One in 2018, and Scott’s was Alien: Covenant in 2017, and that changes in 2026.

Spielberg is bringing his first summer movie release in a decade (since The BFG in 2016), and while it had been shrouded in secrecy, it all sounds and looks very exciting. Initially revealed only as an untitled UFO project, it was finally revealed by the trailer that the title of the movie is Disclosure Day. Starring Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor, the movie involves some kind of alien or UFO discovery, and what it takes to reveal the truth of that to the entire world. While still pretty mysterious, it looks suitably twisty, inventive, and exciting, and the kind of Spielberg movie we’ve not seen in a very long time.

As for Scott, he’s back with The Dog Stars, which is an adaptation of Peter Heller’s acclaimed novel of the same name. It stars Jacob Elordi as Hig, and follows him just about surviving nine years after a flu-like virus wiped out the vast majority of humanity. When he picks up a message from another survivor, he sets out on a journey that’ll change everything. Also starring Josh Brolin and Margaret Qualley, this should be post-apocalyptic movie that’s both thriller and thoughtful, especially in Scott’s hands – he may not be consistent, but when he’s good, he’s still great.

2026 Will Be A Great Year For Sci-Fi Fans

Although Sci-Fi has been in a good place in recent years, 2025 hasn’t been a vintage one on the big screen, but it’ll almost certainly be a different story in 2026. The new releases from Scott and Spielberg alone should be enough to ensure that, and even more so when you add in Villeneuve’s Dune 3, given Part Two was a complete masterpiece.

There are several others, though, that add to the excitement fans of the genre should have. There’s the mysterious Flowervale Street (which will involve time travel and dinosaurs), Gore Verbinski’s latest movie Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, and plenty of franchise fare: 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, The Mandalorian and Grogu, Masters of the Universe, Supergirl, and Avengers: Doomsday.