Deadpool 3 – July 26

No movie on this list has as much weight on its shoulders as Deadpool 3. Not only does it bring Ryan Reynolds’s immensely popular Deadpool into the MCU, but it is the only film on the flagging franchise’s 2024 release calendar. Although Reynolds’s choice of director Shawn Levy doesn’t inspire much hope that the movie will renew any interest that Marvel lost after Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels, the movie does feature the return of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, as well as other figures from the Fox superhero movies, including (for some reason) Jennifer Garner as Elektra. Can Ben Affleck’s Daredevil be far away? How about Dolph Lundgren’s Punisher? Either way, we can expect the Merc with a Mouth to handle the pressure with a wink to the camera and an inappropriate joke. 

Alien: Romulus – August 14

If Deadpool 3 represents the upside to Disney purchasing studio 20th Century Fox, Alien: Romulus represents the risk. Director Ridley Scott used the franchise he started to explore heady themes about God and creation with the interesting but not completely profitable Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. Given its original design as a streaming movie on Hulu, Alien: Romulus likely won’t have such lofty goals. However, it is directed by Fede Álvarez, who helmed the excellent remake The Evil Dead and the slasher Don’t Breathe. If Alien: Romulus doesn’t have any big ideas in the script that Álvarez co-wrote with Rodo Sayagues, at least it will have some grimy fun. 

Beetlejuice 2 – September 6

Whatever one’s feelings on the controversial Best Picture winner Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), no one can deny that it’s good to have Michael Keaton back in the movies. Keaton’s been turning out solid work since his 2014 comeback and even brought some energy as a ragged Bruce Wayne in the otherwise dismal The Flash. But can the 72-year-old actor saddle the manic energy that made Beetlejuice so electric in 1988, especially when directed again by Tim Burton, whose best years are far behind him? Keaton and Burton hope to get some help by bringing back Catherine O’Hara and Winona Ryder from the first film and joining them with the always great Willem Dafoe and Monica Bellucci, as well as the goth it girl of the moment, Jenna Ortega. 

Joker: Folie à Deux – October 4

During the lead-up to 2019’s Joker, director Todd Phillips insisted that he wasn’t making a superhero movie. But for all the grime in the finished product, the script that he and co-writer Scott Silver produced still featured appearances by Bruce Wayne and Alfred, and even ended with the Waynes heading down Crime Alley. At first, making a sequel to Joker seems to further undermine Phillips’s attempts to distance the project from other superhero fare, especially as he casts Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn. However, the fact that the the sequel is a musical, and that it has the vainglorious title Joker: Folie à Deux, suggests that Phillips truly wants to do something different. Will Phillips break the confines of the superhero trope? Or will Folie à Deux end up an R-rated version of “Mayhem of the Music Meister”? 

Smile 2 – October 18

In a very good year for horror movies, Smile was the surprise hit of 2022. Thanks to a striking central image of characters flashing a menacing grin at the camera, writer/director Parker Finn’s elevated take on demons as generational trauma earned $217.4 million worldwide on a $17 million budget. No information about Smile 2 has yet been released, but it will likely follow Kyle Gallner’s Joel, who picked up the curse experienced by his ex-girlfriend Rose (Sosie Bacon) at the end of the original movie.