Although we’ll see fewer releases in 2024 following the lengthy industry strikes in 2023, there are still some big sci-fi movies coming out this year. A few of those films, like Dune: Part Two and Kraven the Hunter, were pushed back by their respective studios, but others are still adding some last flourishes behind the scenes in order to make their debut in time.
Per tradition, Den of Geek has put together a list of the big sci-fi movies heading your way in 2024. This list doesn’t include upcoming sci-fi movies without firm release dates, but it will when they are announced. It will also be updated to add any movies we may have missed, so feel free to shout those out in the comments!
I.S.S. – January 19
When WW3 kicks off on Earth, the astronauts aboard the International Space Station find themselves in a pressure cooker situation as the once-friendly Russian and American crews are pitted against each other. Directed by acclaimed Blackfish filmmaker Gabriela Cowperthwaite, I.S.S. stars Ariana DeBose (West Side Story), Chris Messina (The Mindy Project) and Pilou Asbæk (Game of Thrones). Early reviews say it’s a surprisingly good little movie, so hopefully this lower budget sci-fi gem will get a decent amount of attention when it’s released in January.
Madame Web – February 14
The first Marvel movie of the year, albeit one from the Sony Marvel universe, is the latest bemusing Spider-Man adjacent project to hit the big screen following the huge success of the Venom franchise and the entirely non-existent success of Morbius. Starring Dakota Johnson as Cassandra Webb, the film follows the psychic character as she links up with three other young women whose futures hang in the balance. At some point, we may or may not find out what happened to her mom when she was researching spiders in the Amazon before she died.
Dune: Part Two – March 1
Denis Villeneuve’s delayed sci-fi sequel will finally arrive in 2024 (we hope). Dune: Part Two continues Paul Atreides’ (Timothée Chalamet) journey as he teams up with the Fremen people of Arrakis in order to wage war against the deadly House Harkonnen, and joining the franchise this time are Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, Léa Seydoux, and Souheila Yacoub. It’s unclear if Villeneuve and his writers will begin to adapt the weirder Dune novels towards the end of this one, but if there’s a post-credits scene where someone turns up as a ghola, we’ll know this story probably isn’t over.
Spaceman – March 1
If you ever wondered what happened to Swedish pop star Stakka Bo, it turns out that the ‘Here We Go’ singer, real name Johan Renck, went on to carve out a new career in directing! After helming episodes of Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, and Bates Motel, Renck took on the award-winning HBO series Chernobyl, and now Spaceman, his second feature film, is heading to Netflix in March. The plot sounds pretty wild, following Adam Sandler’s astronaut Jakub after he’s sent to the edge of the galaxy to collect some ancient dust. As his life crumbles back on Earth, Jakub turns to an extra-terrestrial spider (voiced by Paul Dano?!) to help him set things right.
Mickey 17 – March 29
Edward Ashton’s bestselling sci-fi novel gets an enviable adaptation in 2024 when Robert Pattinson, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo bring his weird story to life for Parasite and Snowpiercer director Bong Joon-ho. The author describes his book as exploring “a sort of crappy immortality”, as space explorer Mickey Barnes (Pattinson) gets repeatedly cloned in order to hold down the fort on an alien ice world. Combine that central idea with whatever mirror to humanity Bong might be holding up this time? Well, strap in! This is likely to be phenomenal science fiction cinema.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire – March 29
Bustin’ is set to make you feel good again this spring with Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. The fifth movie in the franchise has the Spengler family leaving Summerville to go back to where it all began in New York City because the OG Ghostbusters need their help! An evil force called the Death Chill has been unleashed and could bring on a second Ice Age, so it’s up to Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Annie Potts to save the day this March.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire – April 12
Fans of the more ridiculous films in Legendary’s Monsterverse are eating again this year with the arrival of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Godzilla vs. Kong director Adam Wingard returns to helm this sequel where the kaiju bros effectively team up to stop a new threat. They yell together, they run together, bad boys for life! Yes, we’re excited for this one, no point trying to hide it. Plus, the movie offers an added bonus for Wingard fans, reuniting the director with his The Guest lead Dan Stevens. Rebecca Hall, complete with a new sharp, blonde hairdo, will also be returning to hold the whole thing together on the human side as plucky science lady Ilene Andrews. To the CGI-mobile!
Rebel Moon: Part 2 – April 19
As is usually customary after the release of a critically panned Zack Snyder movie, both an extended cut and/or a sequel is now on its way. Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver has “kind of a different tone”, the polarizing director told RadioTimes of his next Netflix endeavor. “The first movie’s gathering the team and the second movie’s kind of like we start to get to know the village. It’s [like] Days of Heaven, kind of a weird harvesting movie and then it’s like a full war. It’s kind of a different experience but with a real ending. With a real, ‘This is where we are.’” Alright then.
Civil War – April 26
Having already released a first trailer that caused a storm on social media, Civil War has a hard road ahead convincing the more cerebral film enjoyer that its near-future US civil war plot isn’t entirely ridiculous. Admittedly, there’s a much less cerebral contingent of film enjoyers that won’t really care about the movie’s realism (me included), but it seems somewhat unlikely that the director of Annihilation and Devs won’t have put much thought into making his first proper epic action film. Time will tell, but in the meantime we remain tentatively hopeful that this will in fact turn out to be good.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – May 24
This prequel to 2015’s cult hit Mad Max: Fury Road stars Anya Taylor-Joy as a younger version of war captain Imperator Furiosa (previously portrayed by Charlize Theron). When she is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and forced to join a Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus (Chris Hemswoth against type), Furiosa has to survive many trials during a war between two Tyrants as she attempts to find a way back home. Furiosa was originally scheduled to be released in the summer of 2023, but like a few other films on this list, it saw its release bumped due to the ongoing writers’ and actors’ strikes last year.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes – May 24
Set almost three centuries after the events of the last Apes movie, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes imagines a time where humans have been reduced to a feral state, while the apes have fully taken over and are now hunting down the last traces of human tech on the planet. In this still-dangerous environment, a young chimpanzee called Noa sets out on a journey with a human girl called Mae. Maze Runner director Wes Ball takes the reins from Matt Reeves as this new Apes trilogy gets underway.
A Quiet Place: Day 1 – June 28
Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff, and Djimon Hounsou beef up the cast of this prequel set in the A Quiet Place universe. Little is known about the plot, but it’s thought that the story will focus on Nyong’o’s character as the adorably violent QP Pie monsters first take hold of New York. Michael Sarnoski directs based on a screenplay he wrote from an idea cooked up in tandem with franchise creator John Krasinski. No idea if this will be any good, but it’s got a quality cast and Pig was a decent flick!
Deadpool 3 – July 26
It looks like Wade Wilson will finally collide with the rest of the X-Men in the only MCU film now set for release in 2024. Alongside Ryan Reynolds’ Merc with a Mouth, Hugh Jackman reprises his role as Wolverine in this movie set before the character’s death in Logan. As Marvel struggles to keep the threequel’s surprises under wraps, leaks from the set indicate that there will be a big turnout from the Fox X-Men universe here, but the only thing we do know for sure is that Dogpool will finally make an appearance.
Borderlands – August 9
An unhinged crockpot of talent simmers on the upcoming Borderlands movie. Based on Gearbox’s hit video game series of the same name, Eli Roth (Thanksgiving) directs Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Bobby Lee and Jamie Lee Curtis in what is sure to be one of 2024’s most irreverent and bonkers sci-fi action comedies. Blanchett plays Lilith, a mysterious outlaw who has to return to her home planet Pandora (not that one) in order to find the missing daughter of the universe’s most powerful bastard. We’re in!
Alien: Romulus – August 16
Cailee Spaeny continues on her mission to become the busiest actress around in 2024. Following her star turn in Priscilla, Spaeny is in the main cast of two big sci-fi movies this year – Civil War and the upcoming Alien: Romulus, which is set between the events of Alien and Aliens. Originally, the movie was going to go straight to Hulu, but after Prey did so well on streaming, 20th Century Studios had a change of heart and switched it to a theatrical release. Romulus is still cloaked in secrecy, but we certainly hope it serves to reenergize the franchise.
Kraven the Hunter – August 30
After two major release delays, Kraven the Hunter is heading to theaters this summer. Mind you, not many people have been sitting around twiddling their thumbs in agony waiting for Sony’s conservationist superhero tale, but Kraven (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson here) does have his fans, and they deserve to finally see him in action. It’ll be the second time that the movie’s star has portrayed a Marvel Comics character on screen, having previously appeared in Avengers: Age of Ultron as Pietro Maximoff aka Quicksilver, and if he doesn’t die at the end of Kraven, he’ll have made it further than he did in 2015 at least!
Transformers One – September 13
The first animated feature-length film for the Transformers franchise in a very, very long time! Transformers One is a prequel story set outside the movies, one that digs deeper into Megatron and Optimus Prime’s early years on Cybertron, and the war that consumed their planet. The film, which is an origin tale of sorts for Cybertron, has a stacked voice cast that includes Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Jon Hamm, Laurence Fishburne, and Keegan-Michael Key.
All of the other major 2023 movie releases are listed here!
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