10 Movies That Could Be The Major Surprise Hits Of 2018

2. Widows

Daniel Kaluuya
Universal

The Movie: A heist-thriller directed by Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave) and scripted by Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl), Widows begins with four armed robbers being killed in a heist gone awry. Fortunately, their widowed wives step up to finish the job for them. As you do.

Why It Could Be A Hit: There are currently two prolific keywords floating within and around the movie industry: representation and diversity.

Black Panther, Get Out and Wonder Woman proved that if you make great movies that feature a gender or culture that's perhaps underserved in moviemaking, people will show up to watch them, often turning them into a cultural sensation.

Actor Daniel Kaluuya is arguably the face of this changing landscape, having led Get Out (earning an Oscar nom in the process), winning the Rising Star award at the BAFTAs, and appearing in Black Panther. He's also set to star in Widows, and you can bet your house that he'll be all over its marketing, even if he only has a small role.

Along with Kaluuya, the cast includes Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Liam Neeson, Colin Farrell and Elizabeth Debicki - this is as diverse a collection as it gets. This continues behind the camera, with McQueen returning to the director's chair after 12 Years A Slave, and Flynn coming off the success of Gone Girl.

Widows is a hotbed of personalities with varied backgrounds, people from all walks of life. If it's good - and McQueen's talent suggests it will be - it could be another landmark moment for representation, both in front of and behind the camera.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!