New movies 2020: what you can watch when theaters reopen

[Karlston]

New movies 2020: what you can watch when theaters reopen

New movies in 2020, plus the releases that'll rule 2021

(Image credit: Marvel; MGM; Disney)

 

New movies have had a torrid time in 2020 so far. The widespread global lockdown in the wake of coronavirus caused theaters around the world to close, first in China, and then in countries like the US and UK. Now, though, as governments start to ease lockdown measures, there are loads of exciting new movies in 2020 to look forward to. With many of them delayed from release dates earlier in the year, the big-hitters are coming thick and fast.

 

In this list, we'll explain which exciting new movies are coming in 2020 (with their updated, post-lockdown release dates), and which big films – some of them originally scheduled for this year – are now releasing in 2021. You won't find every single movie on this list, but we will highlight all the biggest and best upcoming movies that we think you'll want to check out as theaters reopen. If there's a trailer, too, you'll find it below.

 

Mulan

Release date: July 24, 2020
(Put back from March 2020)

 

Disney's highly lucrative mission to turn its animated classics into live-action hits continues with Mulan. This looks set to be less of a fairytale than the likes of Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast, however, with the emphasis shifted to the realms of the historical war epic. The core story of Hua Mulan, a young woman who masquerades as a man to join the army in Imperial China remains intact, and we're expecting this to look stunning – though anyone looking for wisecracking dragon sidekick Mushu (memorably voiced by Eddie Murphy in the original) is likely to be disappointed.

 

This is Disney’s first theatrical release since lockdown began.

 

Tenet

Release date: July 31, 2020
(Put back from July 17, 2020)

 

The list of filmmakers who get to spend hundreds of millions of dollars making a non-franchise movie is limited, but Christopher Nolan is one of them. Unfortunately for us, however, the Dark Knight, Inception and Interstellar director makes Marvel look like blabbermouths when it comes to plots, and even weeks away from release there's not much more to go on than Warner's official line that it's "an action epic evolving from the world of international espionage". The trailer above, though, suggests something a lot more complicated, involving the afterlife...

The Empty Man

Release date: August 7, 2020

 

Just to remind us that big-screen comic book adaptations aren’t all about Marvel and DC, this supernatural horror brings Cullen Bunn and Vanessa Del Rey’s Boom! Studios graphic novel to the big screen. Iron Man 3’s James Badge Dale plays a bereaved ex-cop who encounters a sinister group trying to summon a malign supernatural entity while working a missing persons case. First-time movie director David Prior calls the shots.

 

Bill & Ted Face the Music 

Release date: August 21, 2020

 

Two of the most righteous dudes in cinema make a long-awaited comeback, but life hasn't gone quite the way they planned. Despite being destined to write the music that will inspire universal peace and harmony (as well as bringing mini-golf averages way down), the now-50-something Bill S Preston, Esquire, and Ted "Theodore" Logan are still waiting to live the dream. Thankfully Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves are both back to play Hollywood's best air guitar duet – along with William Sadler as Death and original writers Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon – so hopefully this will be more excellent than bogus.

 

The New Mutants

Release date: August 28, 2020
(Put back from April 2020)

 

Originally slated to come out before the dismal X-Men: Dark Phoenix, The New Mutants has spent the last couple of years being bumped around release schedules and plagued by talk of extensive reshoots. With its release date pegged for April until the coronavirus struck, part of us wonders if it'll ever actually make it into cinemas. Nonetheless, the idea of plunging mutant teens into a creepy, hospital-set horror movie is intriguing, and the young cast (including The Witch's Anya Taylor-Joy and Game of Thrones' Maisie Williams) has definite potential.

 

A Quiet Place Part 2

Release date: September 4, 2020
(Put back from March 2020)

 

Every so often, a horror movie moves outside genre fandom to become a critical hit. And so in 2018, A Quiet Place came from nowhere to follow the similarly brilliant Get Out into conversations about awards. It was easy to see why: not only was the story's central hook of aliens hunting via sound frighteningly, devastatingly simple, director John Krasinski found the humanity in a family trapped in the middle of a silent nightmare. Plot specifics are currently scarce for a sequel that reportedly picks up immediately after the original, but the returning Krasinski surely won't want to mess around with the formula too much. 

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

Release date: September 11, 2020 

 

Once you’ve taken scale and budgets into consideration, The Conjuring movies may well be the most successful shared cinematic universe after the MCU. Having spawned spin-offs like Annabelle, The Nun and The Curse of La Llorona, it’s back to the spooky franchise that spawned it all, as real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) take on another mystery. This time they’re looking into 1981 case of a possessed boy that marked the first time demonic possession was ever used as a defence in an American court.   

 

The King's Man

Release date: September 16, 2020 (UK); September 18, 2020 (US)

 

After the fun action of Kingsman: The Secret Service, the franchise quickly went off the rails with the overblown The Golden Circle. There's a lot riding on this third instalment, then, which may be why it's gone in such a radical new direction, heading back to World War I to show the early days of top-secret, impeccably tailored spy organisation The Kingsmen. Ralph Fiennes is the M-type figure (shouldn't be too much of a stretch…) who recruits Harris Dickinson's Conrad to the club to combat an early 20th century brand of villainy. Sounds like a retro James Bond to us, and there's nothing wrong with that.

 

Wonder Woman 1984

Release date: October 2, 2020
(Put back from June 2020)

 

The movie that proved DC can (occasionally) go toe-to-toe with Marvel gets an eagerly anticipated sequel. After the first movie's World War One heroics, we rejoin Amazon princess Diana (Gal Gadot) in the mid-'80s as she faces off against new baddies Cheetah (Kristen Wiig), and media mogul Maxwell Lord, played by the man under The Mandalorian's mask, Pedro Pascal. Much of the internet buzz, however, surrounds the mystery of how Chris Pine's Steve Trevor – last seen dying in a heroically doomed plane in the first movie – has made it back in one piece for Wonder Woman 1984. Answers – and tearful reunions – should be heading our way in October…

(Image credit: 20th Century Fox/Disney)

Death on the Nile

Release date: October 9, 2020

 

Kenneth Branagh directs the sequel to his Murder on the Orient Express adaptation, where he returns to his role – and that impressively sculpted facial hair – as Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot. As in the first movie, he's taken a dazzling ensemble cast along for the ride, this time including Gal Gadot, Sex Education’s Emma Mackey and Black Panther's Letitia Wright. Don't expect any massive surprises in the plot – the story's over 80 years old – but with whodunits like this, the fun is always in watching Poirot sleuthing up a storm.

 

The French Dispatch

Release date: October 16, 2020
(Put back from July 2020)

 

Going on the trailer, the latest new Wes Anderson movie is quite possibly the most Wes Anderson-looking thing you could imagine. His first movie since the under-appreciated Isle of Dogs is an anthology about the stories composing the final issue of the titular magazine, an American publication made in France. Everything from the color palette to the ensemble cast (which includes Anderson regulars Bill Murray, Owen Wilson and Tilda Swinton) is in line with what we'd expect from a director whose name should appear alongside “quirky” in a thesaurus. Timothée Chalamet and Jeffrey Wright also star.

Halloween Kills

Release date: October 16, 2020

 

Say what you like about Michael Myers, he does so love a sequel. And with Jamie-Lee Curtis having made a spectacularly successful return to her breakout movie role in 2018’s Halloween reboot, the psycho killer in the William Shatner mask is back for another round of murders. The creative team from the 2018 movie have also made another trip to Haddonfield for this follow-up (part three, Halloween Ends, is coming in 2021), and reports say they’ll be diving into the backstories of supporting players from John Carpenter’s classic 1978 original.

 

Black Widow

Release date: November 6, 2020
(Put back from May 2020)

 

It's been a whole decade coming but the Avengers' Russian superspy Natasha Romanoff – aka Black Widow – finally gets a chance to headline her own movie in what's now Marvel's only big-screen release of 2020. It's a shame Scarlett Johansson had to wait (spoiler alert!) for her character to die in Avengers: Endgame to get a solo outing, but the Cate Shortland-directed movie heads back to the aftermath of Captain America: Civil War, Romanoff confronts her murky past. Expect rival female assassins, espionage overload, and Stranger Things' David Harbour as Russia's unlikely answer to Captain America. 

 

Soul

Release date: November 20, 2020 (US); November 27, 2020 (UK) 
(Put back from June 2020)

 

When Pixar really wants to push the creative envelope, it generally turns to director Pete Docter. This is the guy who turned the stuff of nightmares into the cuddly Monsters, Inc, expertly navigated grief in Up, and literally got inside the human mind in Inside Out. The family-friendly existentialism continues with Soul, as a teacher/aspiring jazz pianist (voiced by Jamie Foxx) falls through a manhole, and winds up transported to a mysterious world where souls learn to be. Expect plenty of deep questions about pre-determination and the nature of self, all delivered with that trademark Pixar technical genius and wit.   

 

No Time to Die

Release date: 12 November, 2020 (UK); 20 November (US)
(Put back from April 2020)

 

Daniel Craig draws his Walther PPK for the fifth and final time in the latest James Bond movie (originally set for an April release) as the 007 arc begun by Casino Royale back in 2006 comes to an explosive end. While James Bond begins the movie in retirement in Jamaica with Spectre survivor Madeleine Swann (Lea Sedoux) – there are rumors the couple now have a kid – he's soon drawn back into active service by a story involving Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), old MI6 colleagues M, Q and Moneypenny, and a new 00 agent in the form of Captain Marvel's Lashana Lynch. All eyes, however, will be on Bohemian Rhapsody Oscar-winner Rami Malek as a Big Bad called Safin.

 

Free Guy

Release date: December 11, 2020
(Put back from July 2020)

 

The history of movies inspired by videogames is not a glorious one, but Free Guy looks like it could have a clever solution to that particular problem – it’s not based on a specific franchise. Instead, it’s set in a made-up game where a non-player character suddenly becomes self-aware and becomes a hero. This looks like the perfect vehicle for Ryan Reynolds, who can do wise-cracking action hero in his sleep, while the trailer suggests the in-game reality will put a fun spin on the fights. The supporting cast is also great, with Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer, Stranger Things’ Joe Keery and all-round-legend Taika Waititi all playing along.

(Image credit: Chiabella James/Warner Bros.)

Dune

Release date: December 18, 2020

 

Director Denis Villeneuve definitely isn't afraid of a challenge. Having negotiated the tricksy timelines of Arrival and lived up to fan expectations with the brilliant Blade Runner 2049, he's taking on Frank Herbert's epic space opera – a book largely believed to be unfilmable. David Lynch had a go in 1984, of course, but you'd hope that with 21st century effects, Villeneuve's storytelling skills, and an all-star cast – The King's Timothée Chalamet is the story's hero Paul Atreides, while Mission: Impossible's Rebecca Ferguson plays his mother, Lady Jessica – the new Dune might just achieve the impossible. The fact that the book is being split across two movies at least suggests they'll be giving the story time to breathe.

(Image credit: Disney)

West Side Story

Release date: December 18, 2020

 

The year is set to go out with something of a song and dance, as all eyes turn to Steven Spielberg’s first ever big screen musical. And let's be honest, the legendary director of Indiana Jones, Jaws and Saving Private Ryan couldn’t have chosen a bigger act to follow. Robert Wise's Oscar-winning 1961 movie version of the classic Bernstein and Sondheim production is undoubtedly one of the greatest screen musicals of all time, so it’ll be exciting to see what Spielberg can bring to the party.

 

Top Gun: Maverick

Release date: December 23, 2020
(Put back from June 2020)

 

Tom Cruise climbs back into that famous fighter jet cockpit for the first time since Top Gun made him the biggest star on the planet over 30 years ago. Resurrecting the most '80s of movies in the cut and thrust of the 21st century marketplace is a gamble, even for Cruise, but the production team are doing everything they can to recapture the old magic – aside from real action with real planes, they've even brought back synth legend Harold "Axel F" Faltermeyer on music duties. Plot wise, Pete "Maverick" Mitchell is still an instructor at the Top Gun school, while one of his students (played by Whiplash's Miles Teller) just happens to be the son of Mav's late co-pilot, Goose. We're still feeling the need for speed...

 

Promising Young Woman

Release date: TBA
(Put back from April 2020)

 

Following the genius that is Phoebe Waller-Bridge was always going to be a tall order, but Emerald Fennell did a good job when she took over as showrunner for Killing Eve's second season. Fennell's adding another string to her impressive bow (she also appears as the young Camilla Parker-Bowles in The Crown) as she writes and directs new revenge movie Promising Young Woman. Carey Mulligan stars as woman whose life was knocked off track by a mysterious event in her past, but now ends up righting past wrongs – the trailer suggests it's going to be a blast. 

With the film pulled from release schedules in the wake of Covid-19, a new date is yet to be confirmed.

 

Check out new movies coming in 2021 on the next page.

2021 movies

(Image credit: Marvel)

The Eternals

Release date: February 12, 2021
(Put back from November 2020)

 

Featuring a bunch of barely known bunch a-holes running around in outer space, Guardians of the Galaxy looked like a big risk for Marvel back in 2014. The MCU has subsequently been so good at turning anything it touches to box-office gold, however, that nobody's particularly concerned about The Eternals, even though it's a similarly unfamiliar property. 

 

The film marks a new level of scale even for Marvel, with a story of god-like beings (stars include Angelina Jolie, Kit Harington and Salma Hayek) told across thousands of years. As well as introducing us to a new facet of Marvel's ever-expanding universe, The Eternals should give us our first proper glimpse at where Marvel's post-Avengers: Endgame future is heading – bring on Phase 4!

 

Morbius

Release date: March 19, 2021 
(Put back from July 2020)

 

Having had a monster hit with Venom in 2018, Sony plunders Spider-Man's rogues' gallery once again, with a movie focusing on one Michael Morbius. The so-called "living vampire" is a scientist who uses an experimental serum to cure a debilitating condition, and ends up turning himself into a bloodsucker.

 

Jared Leto, who has comic book movie form as the Joker, takes on the role of Morbius, alongside former Doctor Who star Matt Smith as Loxias Crown, a villain with the same bloodsucking affliction as the title star. Daniel Espinosa calls the shots – a remarkable piece of synergy, seeing as his 2017 movie Life was once rumored to be a Venom prequel.

 

Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Release date: March 5, 2021 (US); March 26, 2021 (UK)
(Put back from July 2020)

 

Ghostbusters meets Stranger Things – and not just because the cast features Finn Wolfhard, one of the young stars of Netflix's nostalgic smash hit. The second update of the beloved '80s spooky comedies – after 2016's underrated female-led reboot – moves the action away from New York to Nowheresville USA, as a pair of kids stumble upon proton packs, Ecto-1 and other ghost-hunting paraphernalia. 

 

The fact it's set in the same continuity as the original movies (with most of the surviving stars returning) will lend the project extra kudos points – as should director Jason Reitman being original Ghostbusters helmer Ivan Reitman's son.

 

Fast and Furious 9 (aka F9)

Release date: April 2, 2021
(Put back from May 2020)

 

After letting Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham take the lead in sci-fi tinged spin-off Hobbs & Shaw, the turbo-charged franchise revs up again for Fast and Furious 9, the penultimate entry in the long-running saga. Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson and Nathalie Emmanuel are among the regular racers putting the pedal to the metal once again, while Charlize Theron is back to reprise her role as part 8 baddie Cipher – this time without the dreadlocks. 

 

Fast cars and physics-defying stunts will clearly be key components of the combustible mix, but we're most intrigued by the prospect of John Cena turning up as Dom Toretto's (seemingly) villainous brother, Jakob. 

Here's how to watch the Fast and Furious movies in order if you want to catch up in the meantime. A long wait is ahead for this one, with the release date getting bumped back almost a year over the pandemic.

Last Night in Soho

Release date: April 23, 2021
(Put back from September 2020)

 

A new Edgar Wright movie is always something to get excited about and his sixth, Last Night in Soho, is set to mark another shift of direction after the stylish action of Baby Driver. Indeed, it doesn’t look like the new film will include much of the Spaced/Cornetto trilogy comedy that made Wright’s name. Instead, it’s a time-hopping horror story, where a fashion student (played by Thomasin McKenzie) finds herself transported back to the seedy side of 1960s London. Expect the cinema-literate Wright to make something very special of this.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Release date: May 7, 2021
(Put back from February 2021)

 

With Iron Man and Captain America gone, the MCU continues its mission to diversify with another lesser known hero. Kim’s Convenience star Simu Liu will play titular hero Shang-Chi, a “master of kung fu” who debuted in Marvel Comics in the ’70s – and don’t worry, we’re sure he’ll be much better than Iron Fist. 

 

Most intriguingly for the MCU’s wider continuity is the fact this movie will properly introduce classic Iron Man villain the Mandarin and his Ten Rings terrorist organisation, previously hinted at but never actually seen on screen…

(Image credit: Warner Bros)

Godzilla vs Kong

Release date: May 21, 2021 
(Put back from November 2020)

 

So this is what Warner Bros' MonsterVerse has been building towards, Batman V Superman in the world of giant, city-crushing creatures. In this culmination of stories started in Godzilla, Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Kong: Skull Island, we're assuming that Kong isn't going to be too thrilled about being subservient to the "alpha" Godzilla – and that human stars Alexander Skarsgård, Millie Bobby Brown, Rebecca Hall and Brian Tyree Henry are going to struggle to get a look in. Blair Witch and Death Note director Adam Wingard marshals the carnage.

Cruella

Release date: May 28, 2021

 

Sometimes Disney’s villains are much more memorable than the good guys. That’s why anyone can tell you who terrorized the spotted pooches in 101 Dalmatians but only the keenest of fans could name their owners. So, after Angelina’s successful outings as Sleeping Beauty’s nemesis Maleficent, Emma Stone dons a two-tone hair-do and plenty of over-the-top, fur-lined outfits as the infamous Cruella de Vil. This ’70s-set prequel movie is set to show the origins of a dog’s worst nightmare.

Jurassic World: Dominion

Release date: June 11, 2021

 

If there’s one certainty in Hollywood, it’s that – like life – major franchises find a way. So, despite production having been halted by coronavirus restrictions in March 2020, the sixth Jurassic movie is set to get back in front of the cameras in July. The big news this time out is that Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard will be joining forces with Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, all reprising their roles from the original Jurassic Park. But with dinosaurs now loose on American soil after the events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, this movie promises to be very different to its prehistoric predecessors.

Venom: Let There be Carnage

Release date: June 25, 2021
(Put back from October 2020)

 

If prizes were awarded for clever sequel titles, this Venom follow-up would definitely be in with a shout. Not only does the Let There Be Carnage moniker promise violence and chaos, it confirms the identity of the movie’s antagonist. Teased in the end credits of the first movie, Carnage is what happens when serial killer Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) is fused with one of Venom’s alien symbiote cousins, creating a supervillain in the process. Tom Hardy’s back to reprise his memorable double act with his head-munching alter-ego, while performance capture expert Andy ‘Gollum’ Serkis marshals the action.

 

Jungle Cruise

Release date: July 30, 2021
(Put back from July 2020)

 

Despite the phenomenal success of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, alarm bells still ring when anyone suggests adapting a film from a theme park attraction, probably because so many of the later movies were terrible. Nonetheless, Disney has brought together Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt for a riverboat adventure through the Amazon – and going on the trailer, the movie version of the Disneyland ride could be a lot of fun. Blunt plays an English scientist, Johnson a grizzled, wisecracking boat captain (possibly channelling Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen) who takes her on a voyage to find the mythical Tree of Life. Expect a more kid-oriented take on Indiana Jones, with plenty of rollercoaster-style thrills.

The Suicide Squad

Release date: August 6, 2021

 

David Ayer, director of the first Suicide Squad movie, has been lobbying Warner Bros to give his movie the same ‘director’s cut’ service they’re providing to Zack Snyder’s Justice League. It’s not hard to see why, seeing as the movie that made it into cinemas was incoherent, messy and dragged down by a terrible villain. 

 

This sequel/quasi-reboot looks set to fix all that, retaining the services of Margot Robbie’s brilliant Harley Quinn (alongside a few others), while drafting in James Gunn to write and direct. With two Guardians of the Galaxy movies behind him, he knows a thing or two about handling mismatched groups of morally flexible super-people on a mission.

(Image credit: Matt Reeves / Warner Bros.)

The Batman

Release date: October 1, 2021
(Put back from June 2021)

 

Robert Pattinson follows in the footsteps of Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale and Ben Affleck as the latest man to don the most famous cowl in cinema. Dawn of/War for the Planet of the Apes director Matt Reeves gets the keys to the Batmobile in the latest reboot of the most versatile hero in comics, and he’s promised his take on the Caped Crusader will feel “very psychological, very emotional”. Gotham City is traditionally defined by its villains, however, and The Batman has plenty, with Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, Paul Dano as Riddler and Colin Farrell as The Penguin. This could be a worthy successor to Christopher Nolan’s superlative Dark Knight trilogy.

(Image credit: Sony Pictures)

Spider-Man: Far From Home Follow-up

Release date: October 29, 2021 (UK); November 5, 2021 (US)
(Put back from July 2021)

 

At this point, the most remarkable thing about the as-yet-untitled follow-up to Spider-Man: Far From Home is that it exists at all. Thankfully, rights holders Sony were able to settle a dispute with Marvel Studios that could have seen Tom Holland’s Spidey going solo, and now the Wallcrawler will continue to operate within the labyrinthine continuity of the MCU. 

 

The mid-credits twist of Far From Home makes that particularly welcome news, having plunged Spidey into new territory when Mysterio revealed Peter Parker’s secret identity to the world. Zendaya (MJ) and director Jon Watts both return alongside Holland, and while villains are yet to be confirmed, we‘re expecting J.K. Simmons to be a thorn in Spidey’s side as legendary Daily Bugle editor J. Jonah Jameson.

Mission: Impossible 7

Release date: November 19, 2021
(Put back from July 2021)

 

Tom Cruise will be mere months away from his 60th birthday by the time the seventh Mission: Impossible movie smashes its way into cinemas. Don’t expect him to give up his mantle as Hollywood’s leading action star anytime soon, however, as there’s still plenty of spectacular stunts for Cruise to risk life and limb for – part of the fun of the series is finding out what its leading man will dare to try next. Having delivered the long-running franchise’s best instalments with Rogue Nation and Fallout, Christopher McQuarrie is back behind the camera for part 7 and its 2022 follow-up. Plot details are currently wrapped up tighter than a government vault, but Mission: Impossible is a brand that tends to deliver.

(Image credit: Disney/20th Century Fox)

Avatar 2

Release date: December 17, 2021

 

James Cameron is anything but prolific these days – Avatar 2 will be his third movie in 25 years – but when he does step behind the camera, you know you’ll be seeing something groundbreaking. Besides, he tends to spend the long gaps between releases waiting for filmmaking technology to catch up with his vision, so his return to the spectacular alien ecosystem of Pandora will feature world-first underwater performance capture sequences. 

 

Kate Winslet, Jemaine Clement and Cliff Curtis join the cast alongside Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, and (despite their characters being presumed dead) Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang. And the good news for fans is that you won’t have to wait another decade for more Avatar – part 3 is set for December 2023, with a fourth and fifth movie also in the works.

 

 

New movies 2020: what you can watch when theaters reopen

 

[funkyy]

Wow!! There's some real crackers in there (including Gal Gadot!!). I'm looking forward to seeing most of these movies..especially Bond, Tenet, Avatar 2, Jurassic World 3, West Side Story and A Quiet Place 2.