Top 15 Movies Coming Out in 2018

While we’re only a little over halfway through 2017, it’s never too early to look forward to 2018, especially when it comes to movies! We live in the age of the super-hero film and while that may be the main reason to live for some people, it also seems to rub some the wrong way. So, it looks like 2018 will continue (and increase) the trend of those films dominating the industry, however, there are also a lot of other movies from other genres coming out as well that should provide hope to those that didn’t grow up arguing which was better DC or Marvel. So, with that in mind let’s take a look at the top 15 movies that are coming out in 2018!

15. Scarface (August 10th)

They say you shouldn’t touch or remake classic movies, but somehow/some way, Scarface is getting remade in 2018. While we haven’t seen anything from the movie yet, in terms of even a poster (let alone a trailer), the movie is set to be released in about a year from now. This movie does have one thing going for it (besides the fact that it’s based on one of the best movies of all time) and that’s that they cast Diego Luna in the role of Tony Montana. The hard thing about remaking classic films is that if you do a shot for shot remake, people will complain that it didn’t bring anything new to the table but if you make any changes, people will complain that you changed a perfect movie. So, that’s really why people typically avoid doing that (outside of Sony, with its Ghostbusters reboot (which turned out… You know how it turned out)). So, it’ll be interesting to see how people react to the fact that this movie is coming out but considering the original film is so popular and omnipresent (especially on MTV Cribs), it had to get a spot on this list.

14. Pacific Rim: Uprising (February 23rd)

The first Pacific Rim movie was a surprise hit and while it wasn’t the largest success at the box office (especially in North America) it made enough to justify a sequel. Pacific Rim: Uprising Stars one of the biggest new stars in Hollywood (thanks to his role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens), John Boyega. Despite the fact that the movie comes out in February, we’ve really yet to see much from the film outside of a short… You can’t even call it a teaser as it was more like a commercial from the movie. Meaning, that it was about Jaeger’s and how powerful and necessary they are, all done with a robotic voice-over and some words on the screen (nothing else), that was followed by Boyega in a suit saying: “Join the Jaeger Uprising”, which in turn was followed by a brief glimpse of his Jaeger, with graphics that left much to be desired (it honestly looked like a video game follow-up). Now, there has been a tendency from studios to show far too much about their movies in trailers as of late and so I can applaud a movie for keeping things simple, especially if they have a movie that is going to make a ton of money regardless, but considering the fact that this movie (while definitely a cult film) didn’t perform that great at the box office you’d think that we’d have more to go on by now. That being said, the first film was awesome and so while these complaints are valid, they’re directed at the marketing department, not the filmmaker/actors and considering the fact that Hollywood is desperate for new franchises that aren’t based on Marvel or DC characters, Pacific Rim: Uprising could really be one of the more fresh sequels to come in 2018 and that’s something that we should all be very excited about.

13. A Wrinkle in Time (March 9th)

Speaking of movies based on fresh properties, A Wrinkle in Time just recently dropped its own teaser trailer. “Fresh” in this case refers to a book written in the early 60’s, so it more means that it’s something that hasn’t been adapted before and thus will be a brand new entity when it drops in theaters in March. It’s a classic sci-fi property and again, a teaser-trailer was recently released and while it followed the new trailer cliche of having a sort of broken down, creepy version of a classic song (Suicide Squad did it with The Bee Gees’ “I Started a Joke” and really it seems to have stemmed from The Avengers: Age of Ultron‘s creepy rendition of “I’ve got no Strings” from Pinocchio), which in this case is “Sweet Dreams” from the Eurythmics. Now, some will say that this isn’t that fresh as it was adapted into a made for TV movie on ABC back in 2003, but, that doesn’t count (it does explain why this movie is a Disney property as ABC is owned by Disney), really. This movie is very, very hyped and has an A-List cast that includes Oprah of all people. It looks pretty trippy and should do pretty well, despite the fact that it does sort of resemble the criminally underrated Tomorrowland (in terms of how they are able to jump from one reality to another, not unlike what happened when the girl in Tomorrowland touched her Pin). Perhaps that’s why it’s coming out in March, or really, perhaps the reason is that Disney owns Marvel and Star Wars and Pixar so they don’t want to step on their own toes. Really, if you think about it, Disney is responsible for a ridiculous amount of properties on this list, so, 2018 could very well be a $10 billion dollar year for Disney, something no studio has ever done before. Walt Disney would be rolling over in his grave right now if it wasn’t filled to the brim with gold… And he wasn’t cryogenically frozen.

12. Star Wars: Han Solo (May 25th)

Speaking of Walt Disney’s treasure filled tomb, Star Wars: Han Solo (Which is the working title) is coming out next year and while a lot of you may assume that that movie will be yet another slam dunk for the Disney owned Lucasfilm, that may not actually be the case. Back when this movie was announced it was met with skepticism at best and claims of just pure greed and cash-grabbery at worst. It’s really the one Star Wars movie that Star Wars fans didn’t ask for and thus don’t want to see. There were open petitions to replace it with a movie about Obi Wan Kenobi and his life on Tatooine after the events of the prequel trilogy (leading up to the events of the original trilogy). If there was one actor that made it through the prequel trilogy unscathed it was Ewan McGregor and his portrayal of a young Obi Wan. Beyond the initial malaise when it came to the subject of the movie (which apparently will cover his days as a smuggler and perhaps his (in)famous record breaking Kessel run) there was some shake-up recently when the directors of the film, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, were fired mid-shoot and replaced with Ron Howard. As always the cliche “Creative Differences” were cited and what it really boiled down to is that they were just a terrible choice for a movie of this size, scope and importance. Miller and Lord are known for an improvosational style of filming and that’s not something that you think of when you think of Star Wars. So, while many people are rushing to say that the film is in trouble, especially considering the complete lack of any marketing materials or even an official name (which is troubling but expected when you have to bring in an entirely new director), these things do happen and it doesn’t mean that the movie is doomed. Just ask the cast of Ant-Man. So, because it’s Star Wars and Han Solo, it gets a spot on this list. Let’s just hope it doesn’t implode like the Death Star(s).

11. Ready Player One (March 30th)

Like A Wrinkle in Time, Ready Player One is a movie based on a sci-fi novel that has a ton of money and clout behind it. Instead of Disney this time, though, RPO is being produced and directed by Steven Spielberg himself. Considering Speilberg’s track record, one could argue that this movie could be a lot higher on this list. But, that’s really all we know about the movie so far in terms of marketing material (there has been some neat pictures from the set released but that’s about it) and backstory. Speaking from a general audience point of view, this isn’t a super well-known property even if the book was very popular when it was released back in 2011. It’s recency helps and that’s why it’s above A Wrinkle in Time on this list. The movie stars Tye Sheridan (who most audiences would know as Cyclops from X-Men: Apocalypse), Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelssohn (who was the bad-guy in the first Star Wars anthology spin-off, Rogue One), Mark Rylance, Simon Pegg and T.J. Miler (for some reason). Like many sci-fi stories, this is set in a dystopian near-future, where people live in gigantic slum like cities and spend a lot/most of their time in a virtual reality environment. The story follows Sheridan’s character as he enters that world (called the OASIS, clever) in an attempt to find the Easter Egg left behind by OASIS’ creator (if he does he’ll essentially win $240 billion dollars and take over OASIS). Every indication is that this movie is going to be amazing and because people are very excited about it, it has to make this list. But because we haven’t seen a trailer and don’t really know the story outside of that, it doesn’t crack the top-ten.

10. Venom (October 5th)

Sony’s planned Venom movie, which cast Tom Hardy (as presumably Eddie Brock) ranges from being a confusing movie at best to an infuriating movie at worst. It’s on this list because of it’s potential and because some people are holding out hope, but also because it spawned the meme of last month in Kevin Feige’s response to former Sony head Amy Pascal’s description of the Venom (and Black Cat/Silver Sable) film(s) relationship to Spider-Man. Obviously, Venom is one of the (if not the) biggest villains that Spider-Man has. Especially considering that the Venom symbiote has similar powers to Spider-Man because it learned those powers from … You guessed it… Spider-Man, and you’d have to think that this film is related to … You get the idea. So, they really only have one option and that’s to go the Agent Venom route, but that is also tricky as the Agent inside Venom (at least in the comics) is Flash Thompson and he was just introduced in Spider-Man: Homecoming (as definitely not Tom Hardy). Now, keep in mind that Sony does still own the rights to Spider-Man, they’ve just created an agreement that Marvel Studios basically controls him creatively, but the movies are still Sony movies and they get all of the money from those movies. So, they have the right(s) to do whatever they want but it seems really short-sighted to create some Spider-Man villain universe with an anti-hero Venom when they’d make a ton more money if they just waited and let the symbiote story (including Carnage) develop with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man. Considering how many heroes it took to stop Carnage and company during the Maximum Carnage arc in the 90’s, you’d think that that could be an amazing (pun?) follow-up to 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War (especially considering the sequel to Homecoming is the first film to be released after Avengers: Infinity War). So, hopefully, Pascal was speaking the truth in that interview and Feige just didn’t want to announce it yet, as Tom Hardy is an amazing actor and for him to be wasted in a Venom movie that no one wants, or at the very least isn’t as great as it should be (sounds like another Hardy related comic book movie), seems like a gigantic waste. But, because there’s hope that it is connected to the MCU, it gets a top ten spot (keeping in mind that if it were confirmed as part of the Holland Spider-Man universe it’d be top 2).

9. X-Men: The New Mutants (April 13th)

Back in 2008, Marvel Studios’ Iron Man created the idea of an expanded universe in film that has been replicated now by Warner Brothers’ DC Comics, Universal’s Dark Universe, there’s a Lego Movie Universe, Sony’s planned Spider-Verse and now Fox is getting into the game with a somewhat disjointed but still, I guess, a universe of their own surrounding the X-Men. Outside of Deadpool and the Wolverine movies, there hasn’t been another team based X-universe film (which is what they do most in the comics with all sorts of X-teams like X-calibur, X-Force, etc.) until now. The New Mutants movie was announced back in 2015 and some of the characters (at least from the comics) were used in X-Men: Days of Future Past a year before that. Little know characters like Wolfsbane, Magik, Mirage, Cannonball, Sunspot and Warlock are apparently going to be in the film. James McAvoy’s Professor X is rumored to be in the movie, which will be the connective tissue to the X-Men, but the year of the movie hasn’t really been made known (which will be interesting considering each new X-Men movie jumps ahead a decade while the actor’s age two years). While people may yawn reading or hearing about this movie it is apparently going to be more like a horror-movie than any other super hero movie has ever been and Fox has had success playing with different types of tone with its X-Men related films as of late (with Deadpool being almost a parody and Logan a Western), so it’d be really neat to see a group of young people with new powers in a Fox movie that feels like a horror film… Said the people behind the rebooted Fantastic Four… Haha. No, really, that does sound like an interesting take and considering that they announced the main baddie as Demon Bear and that they’re taking cues from Chris Claremont’s run with Demon Bear (Google it!), this could end up being a great spin-off film.

8. X-Men: Dark Phoenix (November 2nd)

The X-Men franchise started out a lot like the Sam Raimi/Tobey McGuire Spider-Man franchise. A good first movie that introduced us to the character(s) and was good enough to get us excited for a sequel. A sequel that was amazing and still considered one of the top movies ever made in its genre, and a third movie that was just plain terrible and pretty much destroyed the franchise as a whole. The X-Men franchise rebooted before Spider-Man did but because it did it in a pretty novel way, it got a lot less flack than Amazing Spider-Man did (even if it made a lot less money) for doing so. X-Men: First Class and it’s follow-up, X-Men: Days of Future Past, were both great movies that were perfectly cast. For whatever reason, the third movie is very hard to make in the X-verse for some reason and X-Men: Apocalypse was a let down when compared to the brilliance that was Days of Future Past, especially. so, people were rightly concerned when it was announced that they were again going to attempt to do the story of the Dark Phoenix, which was the main antagonist in that third original X-Men film (Titled: The Last Stand). Perhaps original X-Men Director, Bryan Singer, who left the franchise to direct Superman Returns, wants a crack at the Dark Phoenix saga but considering the fact that people didn’t really like his take on Apocalypse it seems like a bad move to re-do a story we saw back in 2006 with a lot of the cast members from Apocalypse. Not that they’d recast, again, but there are countless other stories out there in the X-Men world that they could cover. Either way, rumor has it that this will bring the X-Men to space, something we’ve never seen before and with Hugh Jackman hanging up (or retracting?) the claws in this year’s Logan, it’ll be interesting to see if/how they handle his departure. 

7. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (June 22nd)

For Millenials, Jurassic Park holds a special spot in our hearts as one of the movies from our childhoods that were just epic and amazing. It was that attachment that lead to the first Jurassic World to break all sorts of records, including becoming one of only a couple of movies to crack the $2 billion dollar box office mark. While critics ate up the movie, as well, there are a lot of people who were extremely disappointed by the movie as it just didn’t really feel like one of the original Jurassic Park movies. The dialogue, the use of CGI over practical effects, all of it, really changed what was more of a horror franchise with dinosaurs into an action movie with dinosaurs (sure the original JP movies were action movies as well, but there was a lot more suspense and a lot less trained Raptors who followed a tough guy on a motor cycle). But, because that movie was one of the top three or four movies of all time, box office-wise, it’s going to be a top-ten most anticipated movie of 2018. The thing about cashing in on nostalgia is, it’s really hard to do again… Especially two years later. So, the people behind Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom are smart enough to understand that and that’s why they’re bringing back one of the most beloved characters from the original movie(s), Jeff Goldblum. So far, in terms of marketing, all we’ve really gotten was a pretty cut and dry poster but the tag-line showed how hard they’re going to sell Mr. Goldblum’s involvement, as it was “Life Finds a Way”. Now, how the movie plans to explain getting Dr. Ian Malcolm back on an island full of dinosaurs for the third time is another question, but knowing that he’ll be back and that there’ll be dinosaurs involved means that people will line up to buy tickets. This writer included.

6. The Incredibles 2 (June 15th)

The first Incredibles film is considered the gold standard of all computer animated movies and for the longest time, while fans of the first movie begged for a follow-up, it didn’t look like there was going to be a sequel. Obviously, since it’s on this list, a sequel was finally green-lit and there was some footage shown recently at Disney’s D23 and it apparently gave fans everything they’ve wanted (by showing the hyper powerful Jack Jack using his wide range of powers to fight a raccoon that is in their front yard). While many consider the video game that came out after the movie to be a sequel of sorts (because it included the villain from the end of the movie, named the Underminer), the film will supplant the game and start right after the end of the first film. Pixar’s chief creative officer, John Lasseter, said that the sequel will start “a minute” after the first movie, which means they’ll most likely have to deal with the Underminer as well (at least at first), especially as John Ratzenberger (Cliff from Cheers), who voiced Underminer in the first film, has been cast (again) in the sequel. Considering Pixar took their time creating this you know that it has to be good (and not a cash-grab like a lot of the Cars sequels are), but will it live up to the hype? Looks like we’ll find out next year!

5. Fantastic Beasts 2 (November 16th)

The first Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was the first Harry Potter film not to come directly from a book (Well, it is a book, but a text book the students at Hogwarts use (not a story like in the film)). It was, however, still written by JK Rowling and while it divided Harry Potter fans, it was still really enjoyable. Really, if you’re into Harry Potter, it’s great to know that while those movies are done (unless they adapt Cursed Child in a few years, which the original cast has voiced their opinions on (as have the fans, who loath Cursed Child more than Fantastic Beasts)) there is still an entire universe to explore. While some people are tired of the expanded universe idea in film, the Harry Potter universe is just that, a universe. The characters that are in Fantastic Beasts aren’t new, they were mentioned in the original books/movies and therefore while you could consider every movie a cash grab, this one is on the level of the new Star Wars expanded universe in terms of cash grabbery. Considering that the end of the first Fantastic Beasts essentially plugged that we’re going to get a young Dumbledore (who has already been cast with Jude Law taking that role) who will eventually end up fighting his former friend/potential lover in Johnny Depp’s Grindelwald (which in the books was called the best wizarding duel ever), you have to be excited about that prospect (even if it’s going to probably take another three movies after Fantastic Beasts 2 to get there).

4. Ant-Man and the Wasp (July 6th)

The first Ant-Man movie had everything going against it. The story behind the development of that movie is a long one, as it began development way back in 2006! It was supposed to be one of the first movies released by Marvel Studios, as Ant-Man was one of the original Avengers. Because of the just bad decision to give the movie to Edgar Wright (not because he was a bad Director, he’s not, but because he’s too creative and thus unable to deal with any external notes/influence/control) the movie took forever to actually get made and eventually Wright left and was replaced by Peyton Reed. Also, Ant-Man as a character has always been made fun of by general audiences that don’t read the comics, which never really made any sense as an ant is really no different than a spider, or bat, or wolverine for that matter. The movie ended up actually being amazing, even if it didn’t gross as much as other Marvel movies. That was mainly due to the amazing casting, from Paul Rudd to Michael Pena (and Evangeline Lily and Michael Douglas) and the hilarious and self-aware script (a lot of which was thanks to Wright). The after credit scene teased Lily’s character becoming the Wasp and recent news is that Michelle Pfeiffer was cast as Hank Pym’s wife, Janet Van Dyne. Considering where she was in the first film (the Quantum Realm), it looks like Ant-Man and the Wasp will be exploring that realm more (which is awesome) and also introduce Bill Foster (played by Lawrence Fishburn) who, as comic book fans know, is Goliath/Giant-man. Considering that Ant-Man also became Giant-Man during Captain America: Civil War, it looks like this film has a lot on its plate, in a good way!

3. Black Panther (February 16th)

Black Panther was originally supposed to be released in 2017 in the same slot as Spider-Man: Homecoming, but because Marvel ended up getting the rights to Spider-Man after they decided to include Black Panther (heavily) in the plot for Captain America: Civil War, they obviously decided to release Homecoming before Black Panther. However, one could argue that Black Panther ended up stealing the show in Civil War (Even with Spider-Man slinging his webs during that epic airport battle scene). The teaser trailer for Black Panther has been released and it was so amazing that it boosted Black Panther to the near-top of this list. It showed Wakanda as Wakanda should be, a technologically advanced civilization that has to deal with internal and external strife constantly. Because of the success that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has had they’ve been able to get more and more faithful to the comics and Black Panther appears to be the best example of that yet and because of that (and that final scene from the teaser where Black Panther flips from that car), this movie gets a top three nod.

2. Deadpool 2 (June 1st)

Thank god for Deadpool. The first R-rated Superhero movie since the Marvel/DC Superhero movie era started in 2008 (Punisher: War-Zone notwithstanding)) was so successful (and good) that it allowed Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine to sail off into the sunset (or die on a tree stump) with the movie that he always deserved in Logan. While Deadpool gets a ton of credit for that, it was a really great movie in its own right and it, like Guardians of the Galaxy before it, brought something new to the table that was fresh, funny and so culturally impactful that even a movie with Batman and Superman released an R rated version of their movie. As stated above, Logan gave Wolverine the movie that he deserved, but Deadpool also gave … Deadpool the movie he deserved (ironically after he debuted in a Wolverine movie that was so terrible that it almost killed the character’s chance for his own movie), and considering that the post-credit scene announced that Cable will be in the sequel (and that they cast Josh Brolin as Cable) you’d have to think that this movie is going to be amazing, and considering the self-awareness the first film showed, you know there’s going to be at least one reference to Thanos or the Infinity Gauntlet in Deadpool 2.

Speaking of which…

1. Avengers: Infinity War (May 4th)

It’s hard to argue against the third Avengers film getting the top spot on this list, considering that the Marvel Cinematic Universe will have been around for over ten years when this film comes out and it’s essentially the culmination of all three “phases” that have taken place during that decade (plus). The first teaser trailer recently leaked (and was subsequently deleted from the internet, which shows you how powerful Marvel Studios has become) and it was exactly what we all hoped it would be (you can read the description of that trailer HERE). The first Avengers film made cinematic history for combining characters from essentially four different films in Iron Man 1 & 2, the Incredible Hulk, Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor. Avengers: Infinity War? It’ll have characters from those movies and their sequels plus Spider-Man, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man and more! Not to mention that the bad-guy in the movie, Thanos, will be wielding a weapon that essentially combines every McGuffin from multiple MCU films as well. With all of that going on, plus the promise that not every member of the Avengers will survive, and really, next May can’t come soon enough.

Next Next: Top 15 Star Wars Characters Spanning Forty Years