While movies are most definitely back, things are still a bit uncertain at the ol’ multiplex here in 2021, as both Top Gun: Maverick and Jackass Forever were recently bumped from the Fall schedule and pushed to 2022. Will more films follow suit? We’ll have to wait and see, though as it stands the Fall is still chockfull of awesome offerings – like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals, No Time to Die, Dune, Halloween Kills, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and more.
So dive into the list below (or click through the slideshow) to see all the movies headed your way, in both theaters and via streaming. Marvel’s Phase 4 looks to unload three huge films, Daniel Craig seeks to wrap up his legendary time as 007, Venom and Carnage will go tentacle-to-tentacle, some fresh new faces will begin Ghostbusting, The Rock will square off against Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot, Michael Myers is back for more stabbin’, and Dune – um – gets all Dune-y.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
US Date: Sept 3 (Theaters)
UK/AU Date: Sep 3 (UK), Sept 2 (AU)
Simu Liu steps into the shoes of Marvel martial arts master Shang-Chi for an adventure that will introduce new characters and mythology to the MCU. As the son of notorious crime lord and terrorist Wenwu (aka The Mandarin), Shang-Chi finds himself drawn into the clandestine Ten Rings organization, and is forced to confront the past he thought he left behind. Tony Leung, Awkwafina, Michelle Yeoh, and Fala Chen co-star while Tim Roth and Benedict Wong reprise their MCU roles as Abomination and Wong, respectively.
Worth
Date: Sept 3 (Netflix, and limited theaters)
Michael Keaton stars as real-life attorney Kenneth Feinberg, who learns a lesson in empathy when he is faced with the near-impossible task of determining how to compensate families who suffered incalculable losses as a result of the September 11th attacks in 2001. Based on true events, Worth also stars Amy Ryan, Stanley Tucci, and Tate Donovan.
Kate
Date: Sept 10 (Netflix)
Slipped a fatal poison on her final job, a ruthless assassin working in Tokyo (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has less than 24 hours to find out who ordered the hit and exact revenge. Woody Harrelson, Game of Thrones’ Michiel Huisman, and Miku Martineau also star in this action thriller.
Queenpins
US Date: Sept 10 (Theaters, and streaming Sept 30 on Paramount+)
UK/AU Date: TBD
Kristen Bell and Kirby Howell-Baptiste have a mini-Good Place reunion in Queenpins, the story of two housewives who create a $40 million dollar coupon scam. With Ben Stiller as an EP, Queenpins also features Vince Vaughn, Cruella’s Paul Walter Hauser, singer Bebe Rexha, and Community’s Joel McHale.
The Card Counter
US Date: Sept 10 (Theaters)
UK/AU Date: TDB
Written and directed by Taxi Driver/Raging Bull scribe Paul Schrader, The Card Counter tells the story of an ex-military interrogator turned gambler (Oscar Isaac) haunted by the ghosts of his past decisions. His spartan existence on the casino trail is shattered when he is approached by Cirk (Tye Sheridan), a young man seeking help to execute his plan for revenge on a military colonel (Willem Dafoe). Also starring Tiffany Haddish.
Malignant
US Date: Sept 10 (Theaters, and HBO Max for 31 days following release)
UK/AU Date: Sept 10 (UK), TBD (AU)
James Wan — creator of horror mega-franchises Saw and The Conjuring-verse — is back with a new scary story about a woman, Madison (Annabelle Wallis), who is suffering from bizarre, terrifying visions of brutal murders. In order to stop the killer and save herself, she must reckon with her own troubled past.
Nightbooks
Date: Sept 15 (Netflix)
Based on the 2018 horror-fantasy children’s book by J.A. White, Nightbooks stars Jessica Jones’ Krysten Ritter as a witch who keeps a young boy (Winslow Fegley) prisoner. To avoid certain death, the boy convinces the witch to let him tell her a scary story every night. Upon meeting the witch’s servant, Yazmin (Lidya Jewett), the two must use their wits to escape.
Cry Macho
US Date: Sept 17 (Theaters, and HBO Max for 31 days following release)
UK/AU Date: Nov 12 (UK), TBD (AU)
Folks have been trying to adapt Cry Macho into a movie for 45 years, ever since the book was published in 1975 — with everyone from Burt Lancaster to Pierce Brosnan to Arnold Schwarzenegger attached. Now Clint Eastwood, at 91, is both directing and starring in this tale of a former rodeo star who’s hired to kidnap a young man in Mexico (Eduardo Minett) and return him to his father (Dwight Yoakam) in the U.S.
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
US Date: Sept 17 (Theaters)
UK/AU Date: Sept TDB (UK), TBD (AU)
Based on a 2000 documentary, The Eyes of Tammy Faye stars Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield as famed televangelists and fraudsters Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker. Michael Showalter (The State, Search Party) directs a cast that also includes Cherry Jones, Fredric Lehne, and Vincent D’Onofrio (as Jerry Falwell).
Dear Evan Hansen
US Date: Sept 24 (Theaters)
UK/AU Date: Oct 22 (UK), Dec 2 (AU)
Adapted for the screen by Steven Levenson, from his and Benj Pasek & Justin Paul’s 2015 stage musical, Dear Evan Hansen stars Ben Platt (reprising his stage role) as a high school student with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) who lies and inserts himself into the past life of a classmate who committed suicide. Kaitlyn Dever, Colton Ryan, Amandla Stenberg, Amy Adams, and Julianne Moore also star.
The Many Saints of Newark
US Date: Oct 1 (Theaters, and HBO Max for 31 days following release)
UK/AU Date: Sept 22 (UK), TBD (AU)
In this prequel film to HBO’s The Sopranos, the late James Gandolfini’s son, Michael Gandolfini, plays young Tony Soprano as he grows up in one of the most tumultuous eras in Newark’s history, becoming a man just as rival gangsters begin to rise up and challenge the all-powerful DiMeo crime family, and idolizing his uncle, Dickie Moltisanti (Alessandro Nivola). The Many Saints of Newark, from The Sopranos’ David Chase and director Alan Taylor, also stars Leslie Odom Jr., Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Corey Stoll, and Ray Liotta.
The Guilty
Date: Oct 1 (Netflix, and Sept 24 in limited theatrical release)
Jake Gyllenhaal stars in The Guilty, from director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Equalizer) and writer Nic Pizzolatto (True Detective). Based on Gustav Möller’s Danish hit from 2018, the film takes place over the course of a single morning in a 911 dispatch call center as operator Joe Baylor (Gyllenhaal) tries to save a caller in grave danger. Ethan Hawke, Riley Keough, Paul Dano, and Peter Sarsgaard co-star.
Titane
US Date: Oct 1 (Theaters)
UK/AU Date: Dec 31 (UK), TBD (AU)
Raw’s Julia Ducournau’s latest body-horror flick stars Agathe Rousselle as a mentally disturbed woman who becomes pregnant after having sex with a car. Titane won first place at the Cannes Film Festival this past summer, making Ducournau the second female director to take that prize since 1993 when Jane Campion won for The Piano.
The Addams Family 2
US Date: Oct 1 (Theaters and VOD)
UK/AU Date: Oct 8 (UK), Dec 2 (AU)
Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloë Grace Moretz, Nick Kroll, and Snoop Dogg return to voice the “altogether ooky” family down the block, The Addams Family, in a sequel that finds Gomez and Morticia trying to reconnect with their kids, Wednesday and Pugsley, on a cross-country road trip.
Hotel Transylvania: Transformania
US Date: Oct TBD
UK/AU Date: Oct 8 (UK), TBD (AU)
The fourth film in the Hotel Transylvania franchise features a “Monsterfication Ray” going haywire, causing Drac and his pals to be transformed into humans while Johnny (Andy Samberg) becomes a monster. In their new mismatched bodies, Drac and Johnny must team up and race across the globe to find a cure before it’s too late. Other voices include Selena Gomez, Kathryn Hahn, Jim Gaffigan, Steve Buscemi, and — nope — no Adam Sandler this time around. YouTube impressionist Brian Hull is playing Drac.
No Time to Die
Date: Oct 8 (Theaters)
UK/AU Date: Sept 30 (UK), Nov 11 (AU)
Daniel Craig brings his tenure as 007 to an end with the 25th Bond film, No Time to Die. Also starring Rami Malek, Léa Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, Ana de Armas, and the rest of Bond’s MI6 support team, the film catches up with Bond five years after the capture of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, with Bond now out of active service. The search for a missing scientist brings Bond into the crosshairs of a villain whose schemes could see the death of millions.
Lamb
US Date: Oct 8 (Theaters)
UK/AU Date: Dec 10 (UK), TBD (AU)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Prometheus’ Noomi Rapace stars in a quirky, probably disturbing Icelandic-Swedish-Polish A24 joint about a couple in Iceland who find themselves parenting a strange creature that will affect their relationship – and the natural world around them.
Needle in a Timestack
US Date: Oct 15 (Theaters)
UK/AU Date: TBD
Written and directed by John Ridley (12 Years a Slave), and based on a short story by Robert Silverberg, Needle in a Timestack stars Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton), Freida Pinto (Hillbilly Elegy), Cynthia Erivo (The Outsider, Harriet), and Orlando Bloom (LOTR films) in the story of a husband whose marriage is destroyed by a time-hopping rival, who then pursues his nemesis through time.
Halloween Kills
US Date: Oct 15 (Theaters)
UK/AU Date: Oct 15 (UK), TBD (AU)
Michael Myers returns in a direct sequel to 2018’s Halloween (which itself was a new decades-later direct sequel to 1978’s Halloween) as Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode must once again try to stop Haddonfield’s “boogeyman” from carving a path of death and destruction. Picking up right where the 2018 film left off (on the same night), the Strode women join a group of other survivors of Michael’s first rampage and decide to take matters into their own hands, forming a vigilante mob that sets out to hunt him down, once and for all. Judy Greer and Andi Matichak return while Anthony Michael Hall arrives as a grown-up Tommy Doyle, the young babysat boy from the John Carpenter original.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage
US Date: Oct 15 (Theaters)
UK/AU Date: Oct 15 (UK), TBD (AU)
Directed by Andy Serkis, in a story by Tom Hardy and Kelly Marcel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage brings back Hardy’s Eddie Brock/Venom and pits him against a psychotic serial killer, Cletus Kasady (played by Woody Harrelson), who becomes the host for a red symbiote called Carnage. Michelle Williams returns as Eddie’s ex-fiance while Skyfall’s Naomie Harris debuts as Kasady’s tortured love interest, Frances Barrison – aka Shriek.
The Last Duel
US Date: Oct 15 (Theaters)
UK/AU Date: Oct 15 (UK), TBD (AU)
Ridley Scott’s new historical drama takes a look at the last legally sanctioned duel in France’s history, as Matt Damon plays a knight, Jean de Carrouges, who challenges his friend and squire Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver) to trial by combat after de Carrouges’ wife (Jodie Comer) accuses Le Gris of rape. Ben Affleck also stars, as Count Pierre d’Alençon.
Dune
US Date: Oct 22 (Theaters, and HBO Max for 31 days following release)
UK/AU Date: Oct 21 (UK), Oct 21 (AU)
Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s pioneering 1965 sci-fi novel is one of Fall’s most hotly-anticipated projects. The first of a planned two-part telling, Dune carries with it an impressive ensemble, including Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, David Dastmalchian, Jason Momoa, and Javier Bardem.
The French Dispatch
Date: Oct 22 (Theaters)
UK/AU Date: Oct 22 (UK), TBD (AU)
Wes Anderson’s latest follows three different storylines, as the French foreign bureau of a fictional Kansas newspaper creates its final issue. Starring Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Léa Seydoux, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Jeffrey Wright, and many more.
Ron’s Gone Wrong
US Date: Oct 22 (Theaters)
UK/AU Date: Oct 22 (UK), Oct 21 (AU)
20th Century Studios’ first animated film since the closure of Blue Sky Studios is Ron Gone Wrong, starring Zach Galifianakis, Olivia Colman, Ed Helms, Justice Smith, Rob Delaney, and Jack Dylan Grazer (It, It Chapter Two). Set in a future where walking, speaking, digitally connected “B-bots” have become kids’ friends, the movie tells the story of a boy who finds out that his B-bot is a buffoonish misfire.
The Spine of Night
US Date: Oct 29 (Limited theaters, digital, and VOD)
UK/AU Date: TBD
Created with hand-rotoscoped animation, The Spine of Night features the voices of Richard E. Grant, Lucy Lawless, Patton Oswalt, Betty Gabriel, and Joe Manganiello in a fantastical, ultra-violent homage to artists like Ralph Bakshi and Frank Franzetta. A group of heroes from different eras and cultures must band together after an ancient dark magic falls into sinister hands and unleashes ages of suffering onto mankind.
Antlers
US Date: Oct 29 (Theaters)
UK/AU Date: Oct 29 (UK), Oct 28 (AU)
From Scott Cooper (Black Mass, Out of the Furnace) comes a supernatural monster movie about a school teacher in a small town in Oregon (Keri Russell) and her brother (Jesse Plemons) who become concerned about one of her students, a young boy named Lucas Weaver (Jeremy T. Thomas) who is secretly keeping a creature inside his house.
Last Night in Soho
US Date: Oct 29 (Theaters)
UK/AU Date: Oct 29 (UK), Oct 21 (AU)
Anya Taylor-Joy, Thomasin McKenzie, Matt Smith, Diana Rigg, Rita Tushingham and Terence Stamp star in Edgar Wright’s latest – a trippy psychological horror film about a young woman with a strange sixth sense (McKenzie) who mysteriously finds herself transported back in time to 1966 London in the body of her idol, a singer named Sandie (Taylor-Joy). While in Sandie’s body, she enters into a romantic relationship; but then, she begins to realize that the glamour of 1960s London is not what it appears to be and the past and present seem to fall apart with shady and horrifying consequences.
The Harder They Fall
Date: Nov 3 (Netflix, and in select theaters)
With an all-star cast that features Idris Elba, Jonathan Majors, Zazie Beetz, Lakeith Stanfield, Delroy Lindo, and Regina King, The Harder They Fall tells the tale of real-life African American cowboy Nat Love (Majors) as he reassembles his former gang to seek revenge against the man who murdered his parents.
Eternals
US Date: Nov 5 (Theaters)
UK/AU Date: Nov 5 (UK), Oct 28 (AU)
After Shang-Chi, Marvel’s Phase 4 brings yet another new world and mythology into the long-running mix. With Eternals, from Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao, we meet an immortal alien race created by cosmic beings called Celestials. These “Eternals” have secretly lived on Earth for over 7,000 years, and now are reuniting to protect humanity from their evil counterparts, the Deviants. Starring, Salma Hayek, Angelina Jolie, Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, and Barry Keoghan.
Finch
Date: Nov 5 (Apple TV+)
Tom Hanks, Caleb Landry Jones, Samira Wiley, Laura Harrier and Skeet Ulrich star in this post-apocalyptic drama, directed by Game of Thrones’ Miguel Sapochnik (“Hardhome,” “Battle of the Bastards”), about an ailing inventor (Hanks), the last man on Earth, who builds an android to keep him and his dog company as he goes on a journey across the country.
Spencer
US Date: Nov 5 (Theaters)
UK/AU Date: Nov 5 (UK), TBD (AU)
Kristen Stewart stars as Diana, Princess of Wales (née Spencer) in this new biopic about the late Princess during her Christmas holidays in 1991 with the royal family at Sandringham House and her decision to end her marriage to Prince Charles. Written by Steven Knight and directed by Pablo Larraín.
Red Notice
Date: Nov 12 (Netflix)
Smoldering trio Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot star in the caper/actioner Red Notice, written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber (Skyscraper, Central Intelligence). In this Netflix Original, a daring heist brings together the FBI’s top profiler and tracker (Johnson) and two rival criminals (Gadot and Reynolds).
Ghostbusters: Afterlife
US Date: Nov 19 (Theaters)
UK/AU Date: Nov TBD (UK), Dec 2 (AU)
Jason Reitman’s decades-later legacy sequel Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which continues the Ghostbusters lore from his father Ivan Reitman’s ’80s mega-hits Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, stars Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, and Mckenna Grace – as well as appearances from ‘Buster originals Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver and Annie Potts! When a small midwestern town is rocked by mysterious earthquakes, a family discovers that their past, and connection to Ghostbuster Egon Spengler, hold the key to saving the world.
King Richard
US Date: Nov 19 (Theaters, and HBO Max for 31 days following release)
UK/AU Date: Nov 19 (UK), TBD (AU)
Will Smith stars in this biographical drama, from Joe Bell’s Reinaldo Marcus Green, about Richard Williams, the father and coach of famed tennis players Venus and Serena Williams. The film also stars Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton as Venus and Serena, as well as Aunjanue Ellis, Tony Goldwyn, Jon Bernthal, and Dylan McDermott.
Tick, Tick… Boom!
Date: Nov 19 (Netflix)
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s feature-length directorial debut is an adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s (Rent) musical Tick, Tick… Boom! for Netflix. Andrew Garfield stars in this semi-autobiographical story of an aspiring composer named Jon, who lives in New York City in 1990, desperately worried he’s made the wrong career choice to be part of the performing arts. Co-starring Alexandra Shipp, Vanessa Hudgens, Robin de Jesús, Joshua Henry, Judith Light and Bradley Whitford.
Encanto
US Date: Nov 24 (Theaters)
UK/AU Date: Nov 26 (UK), TBD (AU)
Disney’s Encanto is set in a fantasy version of Colombia, where a family called the Madrigals live in an enchanted town in the mountains. Every child but one in their magical house has been granted a unique ability, such as strength or healing powers. Mirabel (Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Stephanie Beatriz), the only ordinary Madrigal, discovers that the magic is under threat and she may be the only one able to save it. Directed by Byron Howard (Zootopia, Tangled) and Jared Bush (Zootopia, Moana).
House of Gucci
Date: Nov 24 (Theaters)
UK/AU Date: Nov 26 (UK), TBD (AU)
Ridley Scott, who’s double-dipping this Fall, delivers the biographical crime drama House of Gucci, starring Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Jared Leto, Al Pacino, Salma Hayek, and Jeremy Irons. House of Gucci is set in 1995 and depicts the events and aftermath of the murder of Maurizio Gucci (Driver), Italian businessman and head of the fashion house Gucci, by his ex-wife Patrizia Reggiani (Gaga).
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
US Date: Nov 24 (Theaters)
UK/AU Date: Dec 3 (UK), Nov 25 (AU)
Based on the first and second Resident Evil games by Capcom, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City will attempt to fully reboot the Resident Evil film franchise (which already has six films under its belt) as a small ragtag group of survivors must work together to uncover the truth behind Umbrella Corporation and make it through the night in the once prosperous Raccoon City. Starring Kaya Scodelario, Robbie Amell, Hannah John-Kamen, Avan Jogia, Tom Hopper, Lily Gao, Neal McDonough, and Donal Logue.
Spider-Man: No Way Home
US Date: Dec 17 (Theaters)
UK/AU Date: Dec 17 (UK), TBD (AU)
After getting his secret identity shattered by Mysterio, Tom Holland’s Peter Parker makes a magical wish that seemingly holds disastrous multiversal consequences in Spider-Man: No Way Home. In what just might be Tom Holland’s last official stint as Spidey in the MCU (before thwipping over to Sony’s Spider-Man Universe), Peter and Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange must reckon with the merging of alternate dimensions in what’s sure to be the trippiest Spider-Man film yet. Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Marisa Tomei, and Jon Favreau all return as their MCU characters while Alfred Molina and Jamie Foxx (and perhaps a few more familiar faces) invade from other Spidey franchise films!
Don’t Look Up (Netflix)
Date: Dec 24 (Netflix, with limited theatrical release on Dec 10)
Director Adam McKay (The Big Short, Vice, longtime Will Ferrell collaborator) brings an insanely-talented cast together for the dark comedy Don’t Look Up, about two low-level astronomers (Oscar-winners Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence) attempting, via a media tour, to warn mankind about an asteroid that will destroy Earth. Also starring Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Chris Evans, Jonah Hill, Timothée Chalamet, Ariana Grande, Rob Morgan, and more.
So what new 2021 movie are you most looking forward to seeing this fall? Let us know below…
