Spider-Man, Star Wars and Toy Story could make 2026’s summer blockbuster season one for the books

SINGAPORE – Hollywood looks set for a great year, according to box-office analysts.

They project that worldwide takings from May to August could surpass the record set during the Barbenheimer summer of 2023, when fantasy comedy Barbie and biographical thriller Oppenheimer together grossed nearly US$3 billion (S$3.8 billion) globally.

The slate for 2026 is the strongest in years: a returning Spider-Man, the first Star Wars theatrical film in seven years, a Pixar franchise revival, Christopher Nolan’s long-awaited Greek epic, Steven Spielberg’s first science-fiction work in eight years, and a fantasy riding on a long-established toy and cartoon legacy.

Here are the six films that could make the summer of 2026 the one cinema has been waiting for.

The Mandalorian And Grogu

Opens on May 21

The last Star Wars movie in cinemas was Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2019). Reactions to it were sharply divided, with fans mostly giving it a thumbs up, but critics booing the overstuffed plot for feeling more like a course correction than an actual story.

No wonder, then, that Disney has chosen the acclaimed, Emmy-winning Disney+ space western The Mandalorian (2019 to 2023) to redeem the sci-fi franchise.

Among the Star Wars series set in the same universe – there are over a dozen, including animated ones – this popular show, with its built-in fan base, stands the best chance of making a successful leap from small screen to big.

Following the fall of the Galactic Empire, remnants of the old regime threaten the fledgling New Republic.

Bounty hunter Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal, returning from the series), known as the Mandalorian, and his Force-sensitive apprentice Grogu take on a mission: rescue Rotta the Hutt (voiced by Jeremy Allen White), son of the late crime lord Jabba, from rival gangsters. Overseeing the operation is the no-nonsense Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver), a veteran of the Galactic Civil War.

The film’s director Jon Favreau – also the creator of The Mandalorian – spoke about the “big, beautiful sets” he could build with a larger movie budget.

“We got to do great set pieces with Pedro’s helmet off, finally. Pedro was a competitive swimmer too, so we got him in the water,” Favreau told trade publication The Hollywood Reporter.

The Mandalorian And Grogu features more than 49 minutes of Imax-expanded footage, stop-motion creature work and motion-control miniatures. The first Star Wars movie based on a Disney+ series has an entire movie franchise riding on how well it does.

Masters Of The Universe

Opens on June 4

Hollywood has been trying to turn toy-driven cartoons into blockbusters since director Michael Bay proved it could be done with Transformers (2007). Bay’s secret: Make it big and loud.

Barbie (2023), based on the Mattel fashion doll, made a tidy US$1.5 billion globally, because even those who never grew up with the toy loved its mix of silly comedy and serious look at women’s issues.

Mattel is back with Masters Of The Universe, which began life as a toy line before spawning the hit cartoon He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe (1983 to 1985) and other live-action and animated properties.

Who better to direct than Travis Knight, who helmed the hit Transformers spin-off Bumblebee (2018)? His smaller, character-driven story about a teenager and her robot stood in quiet contrast to Bay’s metal-on-metal mayhem.

In an interview with entertainment magazine Empire, Knight spoke about how he would bring all-ages appeal to a kid’s fantasy about witches, warlocks and sword-wielding heroes.

“There’s an inherent silliness to it, which we are acknowledging and embracing. I think it’s a virtue, actually. And it’s woven into the script to help some of these things make sense to a modern audience,” he says.

Prince Adam/He-Man (Nicholas Galitzine) crash-lands on Earth as a child, far from his home world of Eternia. As an adult, he is reunited with his magical Power Sword and returns to Eternia to save it from the evil Skeletor (Jared Leto).

He meets Duncan/Man-At-Arms (Idris Elba), the kingdom’s military strategist, and the latter’s warrior daughter Teela (Camila Mendes). Evil-Lyn (Alison Brie), who on Earth posed as Adam’s college mentor, is on Skeletor’s side. The cast also includes Morena Baccarin as the Sorceress of Castle Grayskull and Kristen Wiig as the robot Roboto.

Disclosure Day

Opens on June 11

This is not just a Steven Spielberg movie. While any work by one of Hollywood’s most celebrated film-makers is news, the icing on the cake is that this is also a Spielberg movie about human-alien encounters, a sub-genre he made all his own with Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977), E.T. The Extra-terrestrial (1982) and War Of The Worlds (2005).

His output in the last decade has ranged from family drama (The Fabelmans, 2022) to a musical (West Side Story, 2021) to video gaming (Ready Player One, 2018), so this return to the wonder – and terror – of alien visitations is keenly anticipated.

Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt), a television meteorologist based in Kansas City, breaks out in an alien clicking language while on air. The video goes viral. Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor), a cybersecurity expert who knows about secret government research on extraterrestrial contact, understands her speech.

They must undergo a harrowing journey towards disclosing the news to everyone on Earth, while being hunted by defence contractor Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), whose company has broken laws to hide the truth of alien visitations. Colman Domingo plays one of Noah’s former employees seeking to expose the truth.

Spielberg recently spoke about the overlap between the idea of alien visitations and his own beliefs, as reported in entertainment news publication Deadline.

“I don’t know any more than any of you do, but I have a very strong, sneaking suspicion that we are not alone here on Earth right now. And I made a movie about that,” he said.

The screenplay is by David Koepp, whose previous work with Spielberg includes Jurassic Park (1993) and War Of The Worlds. John Williams composed the score, his 30th collaboration with Spielberg.

Toy Story 5

Opens on June 18

For a while, the Toy Story movies did that rare thing where each sequel was better than the last. Toy Story 3 (2010) was so good that film-maker Quentin Tarantino reportedly said he refused to watch Toy Story 4 (2019) for fear of ruining what he saw as a perfect trilogy.

The fourth instalment was well received by critics and the public, with a minority saying that having the cowboy Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) leave his role as a toy to become a helper of abandoned toys felt too sad.

Those viewers will be glad to know that Woody is back, helping sort out troubles in the home of his former owner, eight-year-old Bonnie (Scarlett Spears). She has a new gift: the Lilypad tablet (Greta Lee).

Lilypad and other smart gadgets (voiced by Conan O’Brien, among others) have Bonnie transfixed. The cowgirl Jessie (Joan Cusack) – the new leader in Bonnie’s toys, following Woody’s absence – and her deputy Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) try to steer the girl towards real-world connections.

Oscar-winning film-maker Andrew Stanton is a Pixar stalwart, having helmed Finding Nemo (2003) and Wall-E (2008), while having a writing or story credit on every Toy Story movie, including Toy Story 5.

Speaking to Empire, Stanton said the conflict in this latest story came from his realisation that “nobody’s really playing with toys any more”.

“Technology has changed everybody’s lives, but we’re asking what that means for us and for our kids. We can’t just get away with making tech the villain,” Stanton said.

Rumours of an appearance or song by pop star Taylor Swift remain unconfirmed, while composer Randy Newman, who wrote the franchise’s musical motif You’ve Got A Friend In Me, will showcase a new version of the much-loved song.

The Odyssey

Opens on July 16

Every Christopher Nolan film (Oppenheimer, 2023; Interstellar, 2014) is an event, and his first offering since Oppenheimer has made fans’ hearts beat faster because it is not just his first time adapting a story from antiquity. There are also hints from the trailer that this could be a superhero movie of sorts – Nolan directed The Dark Knight trilogy (2005 to 2012), now hailed as a landmark in the genre.

Nolan has said that the great mythological fantasy films of the 1950s and 1960s – stop-motion spectaculars such as Jason And The Argonauts (1963) – were among his favourite films growing up. And Homer’s Odyssey, an epic poem nearly 3,000 years old, had never been adapted at the scale a modern Hollywood budget could provide.

“I’d never seen that done with the sort of weight and credibility that an A-budget and a big Hollywood Imax production could do,” Nolan told Empire. He later said the tale was the Marvel of its day, comparing it with modern comic books.

“It’s this desire for us to feel or believe gods could walk among us,” he said on American talk show The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

After 10 years fighting in the Trojan War, Odysseus (Matt Damon), king of Ithaca, begins the voyage home. Over the decade-long journey, he encounters the Cyclops Polyphemus, sails past the sailor-killing Sirens and spends years entranced by the sea witch Calypso (Charlize Theron).

At home, his son Telemachus (Tom Holland) struggles to protect his mother Penelope (Anne Hathaway), the queen, from suitors who assume Odysseus is dead.

The boastful Antinous (Robert Pattinson) leads the pack of those vying to marry her and sit on the throne. Meanwhile, the goddess Athena (Zendaya) watches over father and son.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Opens on July 30

With this movie, actor Tom Holland sets a record. This will be his fourth time playing the title character in a dedicated Spider-Man movie, beating Tobey Maguire’s three movies (2002 to 2007) and Andrew Garfield’s two (2012 to 2014). Holland has, in total, appeared as Spider-Man in seven movies, including his work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The trio also appeared in the multiverse-spanning Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).

Four years after its events, in which Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Holland) asked Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to make the world forget he ever existed to protect those he loved, the web-slinger is now alone. All traces of Peter have been wiped from the memories of girlfriend MJ (Zendaya), best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) and everyone else.

A new pattern of crimes brings Peter into contact with villains, including Scorpion (Michael Mando) and the ninja organisation the Hand, even as a tense relationship develops with antiheroic vigilante figure Punisher/Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal).

The keyword for Brand New Day is “reset”. As reported by the video game and pop culture website IGN, Holland said the sequel “really feels like we aren’t making the fourth movie”.

“We’re making the first movie in the chapter. This is a rebirth. This is something completely new.”

Director Destin Daniel Cretton’s Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings (2021) was one of the better-received Marvel superhero films. He told entertainment website Screen Rant that the film’s core concern is isolation. “This is the first time we see Peter trying to live his life outside his community of friends and family.”