The Big 2016 Movie Preview

The Big 2016 Movie Preview

In the movie news game, there are three brands that we know you guys are interested in: DC, Marvel and Lucasfilm. All three will be well-represented in the new year along with a slew of other potential blockbusters, all of which we’ve accounted for in our handy 2016 Movie Preview!

With an eye towards what we think will be the biggest films of the year in terms of box office and word-of-mouth, these are the big ticket tentpoles you’ll no doubt be wanting to see, some of them more than once. The Voyages of the Starship Enterprise continue unabated, the world of Warcraft leaps from the confines of your PC onto the big screen, and we can once again call the Ghostbusters and be assured that someone will pick up the phone. 

Check out all of these and more in the 2016 Movie Preview below, and be sure to hit Full Screen on a desktop to read each entry!

Kung Fu Panda 3 (Jan. 29)

In a year that also sees an actual Magnificent Seven remake comes a Seven Samurai tale in the form of this animated sequel which finds Jack Black's Po defending a secret sanctuary of pandas from an evil force. Trouble is, they're all tubby, fun-loving Pandas like him, and it'll be a challenge to teach them all enough martial arts to save the day.

Deadpool (Feb. 12)

The Merc with a Mouth finally gets a movie with the attitude. Ryan Reynolds reprises his role as Wade Wilson/Deadpool after the woeful X-Men Origins: Wolverine fully aware of just how sucky that version was, this time coming atcha with a hard-R, 4th wall-breaking swear-words & blood fiesta. Previous R-rated superhero romps (Watchmen, Kick-Ass) haven't yielded huge numbers at the BO, but fans have been applauding the hilarious trailers for this one. Now it's up to Fox to sell the normals on this zany superhero satire and fry up the chimichangas.

Zootopia (March 4)

Walt Disney Animation is no stranger to talking animal pictures, but now they've envisioned a whole world without a single homosapien to speak of. The thrust of the story centers on a rookie bunny cop named Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) who teams up with charming con artist fox Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) to track down a missing otter.

The Divergent Series: Allegiant (March 18)

With The Hunger Games over and done with, we can now give our full attention to the third installment in Veronica Roth's dystopian YA saga. Shailene Woodley's Tris must escape with Theo James' Four and go beyond the wall enclosing Chicago where she will discover secrets that could turn the tide for the human race.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (March 25)

Billed by Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) as the battle of the century, the mano-a-mano between Son of Krypton (Henry Cavill) and Bat of Gotham (Ben Affleck) looks like it will be staged with as much disinterest in public property damage as Zack Snyder's last Man of Steel outing. Building its story from the fallout of that last film's death/destruction toll, this second entry in the DC Expanded Universe finds Luthor instigating the title bout, with a little tag-team action in the form of Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and the monster Doomsday.

The Jungle Book (April 15)

Director Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Chef) is the latest high-profile filmmaker to tear a classic piece of Disney animation into the live-action realm. That is, of course, "Live-action" in quotation marks as Neel Sethi's Mowgli is the only real human element in Rudyard Kipling's jungle, with all the other animal characters brought to life with CG-animated animals. Bill Murray is the ideal candidate to sing "The Bare Necessities" as Baloo the bear, although '90s kids shouldn't hold out too much hope of him reprising the role in a "Talespin" movie!

Captain America: Civil War (May 6)

What would make a serious box office contender like Batman v Superman shake in its boots to the point that it would movie release dates? How about Captain America v Iron Man, which this essentially is. In the Russo Bros.' follow-up to the extremely well-received Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it seems Cap (Chris Evans) and Tony (Robert Downey Jr.) have finally drawn an ideological line in the sand over how much accountability superfolks should have. Newcomers to the Marvel Universe include Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) and a 16-year-old Spider-Man (Tom Holland).

X-Men: Apocalypse (May 27)

"I've never felt power like this before," says Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) as he encounters the granddaddy of all mutants in the form of Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac). Turns out the title baddy is assembling his Four Horsemen to carry out the destruction of humanity, and Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto (Michael Fassbender) is one of them. Jennifer Lawrence's mystique must team up with the young X-Men in order to stop the approaching you-know-what. Series fav Bryan Singer returns to the director's chair for his fourth mutant outing, although it will take a lot of work on his part to convince us Isaac's purple make-up isn't silly.

Alice Through the Looking Glass (May 27)

When Mia Wasikowska's Alice Kingsleigh finds an enchanted piece of glass, she's magically whisked back to the fantastical realm of Underland, where all her old friends (White Rabbit, Cheshire Cat, Johnny Depp and his many weird hats) are waiting for her to help them literally save time itself. The Muppets helmer James Bobin takes over from Tim Burton with the promise of much more practical sets and effects than the previous film.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (June 3)

Fans who have been yearning for the cartoon Ninja Turtles of their youth can finally get what they want, which includes the addition of Bebop and Rocksteady, Krang and the heroic vigilante Casey Jones, as played by "Arrow" star Stephen Amell. The story has our heroes in a half shell revealing themselves to the police in order to defeat Shredder's Foot Clan and their new allies.

Warcraft (June 10)

Here's one that could really go either way. It has all the ingredients to be this year's John Carter / Tomorrowland-style megabomb (no stars, based on a game, complex mythology, confused reactions at Comic-Con) and yet with a smart director like Duncan Jones (Moon) behind it. there stands a chance of glory. What we like already is that it eschews the black & white morality of Tolkein-esque fantasy (Orcs bad, humans good) and creates a world with heroes on both sides.

Finding Dory (June 17)

After the devastating (and in many ways unearned) failure of John Carter, director Andrew Stanton returns to the safety and security of a sequel to his 2003 smash. This time, the story focuses on Ellen DeGeneres's Dory and her journey to find her family at the Monterey Marine Life Institute where she befriends a whale, shark and octopus. Albert Brooks also returns to co-star as Marlin the clownfish, with Nemo along for the ride as well.

Independence Day: Resurgence (June 24)

The ships are bigger, the stakes are bigger and the stars are… well, not quite as big. Will Smith decided to bow out of Roland Emmerich's 20-years-later sequel to his 1996 alien invasion classic, so we're left with Bill Pullman as ex-Prez Thomas J. Whitmore, Jeff Goldblum as David Levinson the science guy, and Vivica A. Fox 's Jasmine (who's hopefully gotten off the stripper pole in the ensuing years). Hunger Games star Liam Hemsworth, It Follows it girl Maika Monroe and newcomer Jessie Usher are the youthful trio that will fight the aliens using technology our government developed using spacecraft leftover from the last invasion.

The BFG (July 1)

In development at Amblin for decades, director Steven Spielberg finally brings Roald Dahl's beloved children's book to the screen. Mark Rylance, so quietly powerful in Spielberg's Bridge of Spies, takes on the role of the title Big Friendly Giant, who whisks away a young orphan named Sophie (Ruby Barnhill) on a mission to track down rogue giants who have been invading the human world.

The Secret Life of Pets (July 8)

America's funniest stand-up Louis C.K. lends his voice as the star of this animated comedy, playing a terrier named Max whose life is turned upside down when his beloved owner brings home a stray named Duke (Eric Stonestreet). Ultimately, the two of them will team up to stop a city-wide uprising of angry pets. Lake Bell, Kevin Hart, Hannibal Buress and Albert Brooks co-star.

Ghostbusters (July 15)

Paul Feig is coming off three surprise comedy hits all starring Melissa McCarthy, so why not go for lucky #4? It couldn't hurt that he's remaking the cultural touchstone that is Ghostbusters, only this time the twist is they're ladies and they're supposedly going for bigger scares to hopefully yield bigger laughs. McCarthy, along with SNL vets Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones, make up the new "Who ya gonna call?" crew, with cameos from Bill Murray and the other surviving busters.

Star Trek Beyond (July 22)

If it seems like Scotty has a slightly enhanced role in this third film in the continuing voyages of the Star Trek reboot crew - that's because Simon Pegg co-wrote the script this time around. The story finds said crew stranded after the Enterprise is destroyed by an unstoppable wave of ships under the control of the dastardly Krall (Idris Elba), and they must find a way to survive on a hostile foreign planet. Justin Lin of the Fast & Furious franchise takes over the directing reins from J.J. Abrams.

Ice Age: Collision Course (July 22)

This fifth (yes, there have been five already) installment in Blue Sky's Ice Age series finds Scrat somehow launched into outer space. When his cosmic journey threatens the Earth below it forces Manny (Ray Romano) and the rest of the gang to pick up and leave their homes in search of a new sanctuary.

Bourne 5 (July 29)

The as-yet-untitled 5th Bourne film features the long-awaited return of Matt Damon's super sleeper spy/killing machine Jason Bourne after the apparently one-off wonder that was Aaron Cross in The Bourne Legacy. Damon swore he'd only ever return to the role if director Paul Greengrass came back too, and back he is to take Bourne into the post-Snowden world, which includes a globe-trotting thrill ride across Europe and a de rigueur car chase through Las Vegas.

Suicide Squad (Aug. 5)

If Guardians of the Galaxy proved anything, it's that mainstream audiences don't care whether a comic book character is well-known or not as long as the characters are cool. Enter DC's Suicide Squad, which has existed since the 1950's, although director David Ayer's screenplay seems to take its cues from the John Ostrander revamp from the '80s. It concerns Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) and her plan to mold a motley crew of bad guys into a team of do-gooders, including Deadshot (Will Smith), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and Boomerang (Jai Courtney). But watch out, Jared Leto's psychotic cholo-style Joker might just have designs to muck those plans up.

The Magnificent Seven (Sept. 23)

This remake of John Sturges' 1960 western classic (itself a remake of Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai) features the long-awaited reunion of Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke with their Training Day director Antoine Fuqua, with current "it"-boy Chris Pratt thrown in for good measure. The story is classic: seven tough-as-nails cowboys team up to save a small town from a vicious gang of outlaws. Even though there is as yet not even a still image from the film we expect great things from this cast and Fuqua.

Doctor Strange (Nov. 4)

By the hoary hosts of hoggoth! After literal decades in development (Back to the Future's Bob Gale wrote a script in 1986!), Marvel Studios is finally bringing to life one of its most potentially cinematic B-characters. In this origin story, we see Dr. Stephen Strange's journey from arrogant physician to humbled spiritual seeker to Sorcerer Supreme, with Chiwetel Ejiofor's Baron Mordo and Tilda Swinton's Ancient One as his main allies.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Nov. 18)

The idea of turning a 128-page prequel novelette into a movie trilogy isn't so out of character for a studio that greenlit Peter Jackson's three Hobbit movies, but then Jackson didn't have J.R.R. Tolkien writing the screenplays. That's the lucky break that Harry Potter franchise director David Yates got when author J.K. Rowling got on board to adapt the story of eccentric wizard Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) and his eventful trip to New York carrying a briefcase full of strange creatures. When some of these magical animals escape, it threatens the already tenuous balance between the magical and muggle worlds.

Moana (Nov. 23)

Disney previously visited Hawaii for their beloved Lilo & Stitch, but now they're delving deep into Polynesian mysticism for a mythological journey that sets the adventurous title girl on an ocean journey to find a lost island. Dwayne Johnson voices the demi-god Maui, because of course he does.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Dec. 16)

Seriously, Lucasfilm, another prequel? That's right, only this film set during the ramp-up to the civil war of the Original Trilogy has nary a Jedi in sight, although if rumor has it, you might get a cameo from none other than Darth Vader himself. It makes sense that ol' Anakin would be hanging around, as the plot concerns the ragtag group led by Felicity Jones who plot to steal the plans for the Death Star. Yeah, those plans. This is one heist even Ant-Man might be too chicken to take on. Let's hope they pull it off!

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