20 Most Anticipated Sci-Fi Movies Arriving In 2026
A rundown of the biggest and most hotly anticipated sci-fi features coming next year.
2025 has dished up a plethora of intriguing and excellent science fiction films, from Denis Villeneuve's blockbuster epic Dune: Part Two, to Yorgos Lanthimos' hillbilly conspiracy thriller Bugonia. And all this sets our sights high for the coming year. Lucky, then, the studios and directors we have given our time and money to will be delivering exactly what we want.
Steven Spielberg returns to the broader genre for the first time since 2018’s Ready Player One, and to alien films specifically since 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Ridley Scott is also dusting off his lenses for an adaptation of Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars.
Marvel fans who have felt let down by the middling films the superhero giant has put out this decade have a new Spider-Man and Avengers to look forward to, and DC die-hards get to see Supergirl finally take the limelight on screen again after decades spent MIA.
Other big franchises getting another chance to shine include The Hunger Games, Mortal Kombat, and The Mandalorian (in its silver screen debut), but there is also plenty for the indie crowd, with Maggie Gyllenhaal’s gangster monster movie The Bride!, and Na Hong-jin’s alien thriller Hope - his first multinational feature.
It’s a full roster, and suffice to say, the following 20 movies are certain to become your most anticipated sci-fi films of 2026, if they’re not already.
20. The Dresden Sun
UK release date: February (day TBC)
Science fiction fans who are hoping The Dresden Sun might be an adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5 will be sorely disappointed (our day will come!), but for everyone else, Michael Ryan’s upcoming picture promises an exciting new entry in a rather niche genre: the sci-fi heist movie.
The film features converging narratives which see an expert mercenary work an inside job to steal a big corporation’s most valued asset, while an insurance analyst is caught in a web of corporate rivals and fraud, ending up on the run from a military contractor. The first look trailer and those few images available of The Dresden Sun so far suggest a high-tech, neon, Blade Runner aesthetic paired with a modern corporate espionage crime thriller’s steely edge.
It definitely doesn’t have anything like the budget of many of the other sci-fi flicks heading our way next year, but it’s got an intriguing cast in Christina Ricci, Steven Ogg (Trevor from GTA V), and Mena Suvari, and looks like it’s going to be a solid streaming watch.