Upcoming Sci-Fi Movies to Watch in 2024
Borderlands – August 9
An unhinged crockpot of talent simmers on the upcoming Borderlands movie. Based on Gearbox’s hit video game series of the same name, Eli Roth (Thanksgiving) directs Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Bobby Lee, and Jamie Lee Curtis in what is sure to be one of 2024’s most irreverent and bonkers sci-fi action comedies. Blanchett plays Lilith, a mysterious outlaw who has to return to her home planet Pandora (not that one) in order to find the missing daughter of the universe’s most powerful bastard. We’re in!
Alien: Romulus – August 16
Cailee Spaeny continues on her mission to become the busiest actress around. Following her star turns in Priscilla, Spaeny is in the main cast of two big sci-fi movies this year—Civil War and the upcoming Alien: Romulus, which is set between the events of Alien and Aliens. Originally, the movie was going to go straight to Hulu, but after Prey did so well on streaming, 20th Century Studios had a change of heart and switched it to a theatrical release. Romulus is still cloaked in secrecy, but we certainly hope it serves to reenergize the franchise like the most recent Predator movie did.
Slingshot – August 23
From 1408 director Mikael Håfström comes Slingshot, another lonely astronaut movie in the vein of Spaceman from earlier this year. Slingshot stars Casey Affleck as John, a space traveler who loses his sense of reality while on a mission to Saturn’s moon Titan. Joining Affleck are Laurence Fishburne, Emily Beecham from Into the Badlands, and veteran British actor David Morrissey. We don’t know much else about the movie yet, but that premise is enough to capture our attention.
Transformers One – September 20
The first animated feature-length film for the Transformers franchise in a very, very long time! Transformers One is a prequel story set outside the other movies, one that digs deeper into Megatron and Optimus Prime’s early years on Cybertron, and the war that consumed their planet. The film, which is an origin tale of sorts for Cybertron, has a stacked voice cast that includes Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Jon Hamm, Laurence Fishburne, and Keegan-Michael Key.
The Wild Robot – September 27
Animator Chris Sanders has spearheaded more than a few all-time classic cartoon movies, most notably Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon, so any project with his name deserves attention. Sanders has written and directed an adaptation of The Wild Robot, the hit picture book series by Peter Brown. The story of a robot adapting to life on a deserted island, The Wild Robot stars the voices of Lupita Nyong’o as the robot Roz, Pedro Pascal as the fox Fink, and Catherine O’Hara as the possum Pinktail. Even if that description doesn’t grab every reader, Sanders has more than earned the benefit of the doubt.
Venom: The Last Dance – October 25
With Marvel and DC largely sitting out 2024, Sony makes a play for superhero supremacy with yet another Spider-Man villain universe release. Honestly, we deserve to have Venom: The Last Dance come out this year. After all, our tongue-in-cheek embrace of a clunky franchise with a gonzo Tom Hardy performance gave Sony the confidence to make other non-spider Spider-Man movies. Hardy returns for his third outing as Eddie Brock and his symbiote partner Venom, as does screenwriter Kelly Marcel, who also steps into the director’s chair this time. Newcomers Juno Temple and Chiwetel Ejiofor join them to try to keep the absurdity going long enough to get Sony to green light a Gibbon movie.
