30 massive movies you need to see in 2023

Cinema had a bumpy ride in 2022, despite Top Gun’s Maverick flying in to save the box office. But let’s be optimistic: Hollywood is stacking all its chips on the big screen for the coming year. From Barbie to Indy, from Wonka to Wick, there are some seriously entertaining movies incoming. Time to update your Google calendar…

Bangin’ blockbusters

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Release date: June 30
Starring: Harrison Ford, Mads Mikkelsen, Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Get your fedora and your bullwhip at the ready, Indy is back for one last adventure. We already know Harrison Ford’s archaeologist has been de-aged for a pre-credits scene though the bulk takes place during the 1960s space-race. Mads Mikkelsen is also on board as an ex-Nazi baddie – what a way to bow out.

Dune: Part Two

Release date: November 3
Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Florence Pugh

Enter Sandworm. Denis Villeneuve’s sublime 2021 sci-fi brought us the first half of Frank Herbert’s iconic book. Now comes Part Two. The original cast, led by Timothée Chalamet’s revenge-seeking duke Paul Atreides, are joined by Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, Léa Seydoux, and Elvis himself, Austin Butler.

John Wick: Chapter 4

Release date: March 24
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård

Keanu Reeves’ hitman returns for more kung-fu fighting in this juicy-looking four-quel that takes his survival odyssey around the globe, including Japan. Big selling point? He’ll be facing Chinese action star Donnie Yen. Yes, the guy who played Ip Man is coming up against the suited-and-booted John Wick. Cool or what?

Fast X

Release date: May 19
Starring: Vin Diesel, Jason Momoa, Brie Larson

There have been bumps in the road on this tenth F&F movie, especially when director Justin Lin left. But the A-list stars just keep turning out, with Jason Momoa signing on as the latest crim to confront Vin Diesel’s Dom Toretto. The budget is reportedly an eye-watering $340million. Yikes.

Wonka

Release date: December 15
Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson

Timothée Chalamet follows Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp as actors who’ve played Roald Dahl’s magical chocolate factory owner. Here, he’s the young Wonka, in an origin story directed by Paddington’s Paul King, the master of feelgood fare. Comic maestro Rowan Atkinson also stars in a top-secret role.

Creed III

Release date: March 3
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Jonathan Majors, Tessa Thompson

Making his directorial debut, Michael B. Jordan slips on the gloves again to play champion boxer Adonis Creed in this Rocky spin-off. No Sylvester Stallone cameo – can you really have a Rocky movie without him? – but the story, about Adonis’ old friend (played by Jonathan Majors) fresh out of the clink, looks heavyweight.

Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning: Part 1

Release date: July 14
Starring: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Haley Atwell

Delayed more times than an Avanti train, the first part of MI:7 is finally incoming, with Tom Cruise’s super-spy Ethan Hunt back in the hot seat. The teaser trailer is full of insane action, from Cruise’s already-famous bike-ride-off-a-cliff to a huge locomotive derailed mid-air. Time to light the fuse…

Superhero stunners

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3

Release date: May 5
Starring: Chris Pratt, Will Poulter, Zoe Saldaña

Fired-than-rehired director James Gunn takes the helm for this third outing for Marvel’s Guardians, reuniting Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord and the gang for more looney-tune alien adventures. This time, they’ll be facing Will Poulter’s Adam Warlock, a gold-skinned perfect being created to obliterate these space rangers.

Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania

Release date: February 17
Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lily, Jonathan Majors

Kicking off Marvel’s Phase Five, this third Ant-Man outing sees Paul Rudd’s insect-sized Avenger head back to the microscopic Quantum Realm, where he’ll find mega-villain, Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) and a world more hallucinogenic than The Magic Roundabout. The ever-game Bill Murray also makes his MCU debut. Huzzah!

The Marvels

Release date: July 28
Starring: Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani

A Marvel-lous team-up, as Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers joins Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) – aka Ms. Marvel – and WandaVision’s Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris). That’s some serious girl power right there. Nia DaCosta, who aced last year’s Candyman remake, is calling the shots, while Fresh Meat’s Zawe Ashton co-stars as a mystery villain.

Blue Beetle

Release date: August 18
Starring: Xolo Maridueña, Bruna Marquezine, Susan Sarandon

Kobra Cai’s Xolo Maridueña fronts this latest DC Extended Universe movie, playing Jaime Reyes, a teenager who gains mega-armour after being fused with an alien beetle. Maridueña is the first Latino lead in a live-action superhero tale, and he’ll be battling the one and only Susan Sarandon, as Victoria Kord.

Kraven The Hunter

Release date: October 6
Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Christopher Abbott, Ariana DeBose

After Sony’s Spider-Man spinoffs introduced Venom and Morbius, here comes another baddie. In the comics, big-game hunter Kraven tried to snare Marvel’s famed web-slinger, but this promises a different slant. Fresh from battling Brad Pitt in Bullet Train, Aaron Taylor-Johnson will be donning his best East European accent to play the lead. Da!

Oscar candidates

TÁR

Release date: January 13
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Nina Hoss, Noémie Merlant

Already a critical darling, this post-MeToo tale of ego and abuse won Cate Blanchett Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. Now her role as conductor Lydia Tár has made her an Oscar frontrunner, in a meticulous, masterful deep dive into the backstabbing world of classical music from Todd Field (In The Bedroom).

The Whale

Release date: February 3
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Hong Chau

After exploring drug addiction in Requiem For A Dream, Darren Aronofsky’s latest tackles Samuel D. Hunter’s play about an obese, binge-eating literature teacher (Brendan Fraser, in a soul-shattering turn) desperate to reconnect with his daughter (Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink). Aronofsky revitalised Mickey Rourke’s career with The Wrestler, now it’s Fraser’s turn.

Oppenheimer

Release date: July 21
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt

In 2022, Christopher Nolan delivers his first biopic – J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), the man who invented the atomic bomb. Recounting how the Manhattan Project came together, Nolan’s visual effects team even recreated the so-called Trinity test, a nuclear weapon detonation in New Mexico, without CGI. The mind boggles…

The Colour Purple

Release date: December 20
Starring: H.E.R., Corey Hawkins, Fantasia

Inspired by the 2005 musical, which came from Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Ghanaian hip-hop artist Blitz Bazawule brings his unique vibe to this tale of a young Black woman in the Deep South in the 1900s. Singers Fantasia and H.E.R. headline, alongside Straight Outta Compton’s Corey Hawkins.

Scary movies

Knock At The Cabin

Release date: February 3
Starring: Dave Bautista, Rupert Grint, Nikki Amuka-Bird

“Your family has been chosen to make a horrible decision. If you fail to choose, the world will end.” So says Dave Bautista in the trailer for M. Night Shyamalan’s (The Sixth Sense) latest twist-a-thon, as a holidaying family are confronted with a nightmarish scenario. What is that decision? Only time will tell.

Evil Dead Rise

Release date: April 21
Starring: Alyssa Sutherland, Lily Sullivan, Morgan Davies

After spawning three Sam Raimi movies, a 2013 reboot and a TV series, the Evil Dead franchise rises from the grave. Writer-director Lee Cronin relocates the story to Los Angeles, though it’s going to be anything but sunny in a mix of sheer terror and sick humour. Aussie star Alyssa Sutherland (Vikings) will be out to survive.

Renfield

Release date: April 14
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Nicholas Hoult, Awkwafina

Nicolas Cage as Dracula? Nicholas Hoult as his aide Renfield? Put this straight to the top of our to-see list for 2023. An action-horror-comedy, with Chris McKay (The LEGO Batman Movie) directing, this promises to be one of the year’s most icky gore-fests. On the mad-o-meter, it’s off the charts.

Scream 6

Release date: March 31
Starring: Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Courtney Cox

Co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett rebooted the stale slasher franchise with 2022’s “re-quel” Scream, and you can expect more thrills and chills from this hot-on-the-heels follow-up. Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott is absent, but with the survivors (Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega) off to New York, the fresh setting should bite.

Comic gems

Barbie

Release date: July 21
Starring: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Will Ferrell

Come on Barbie, let’s go party! 2023’s weirdest, wildest movie casts Margot Robbie as the famous Mattel doll and Ryan Gosling as her hunky male companion Ken. Greta Gerwig (Little Women) directs – and after on-set pics of her pink-clad stars went viral, it seems so far, mission accomplished.

Magic Mike’s Last Dance

Release date: February 10
Starring: Channing Tatum, Salma Hayek, Caitlin Gerard

Seven years after Magic Mike XXL, everyone’s favourite male stripper is back for more bumping and grinding. Channing Tatum returns for this trilogy-closer, alongside Steven Soderbergh, who directed the 2012 original, for a London-set story that sees Mike orchestrate a musical. The trailer is… how can we put this? Steamy!

Next Goal Wins

Release date: April 21
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Kaimana, Will Arnett

Long delayed – it was filmed at the back-end of 2019 – the wait should be worth it for Taiki Waititi’s feelgood comedy about the American Samoa football team – the worst international squad ever, who lost 31-0 to Australia. Michael Fassbender plays the coach who comes to train them. Think Cool Runnings with balls.

Rye Lane

Release date: March 17
Starring: David Jonsson, Vivian Oparah, George Taylor

A south London romcom from debut director Raine Allen Miller, this sees Industry’s David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah as two people who meet in a gallery on the back of bad breakups. Set across one day, this has all the hallmarks of a British Before Sunrise – it’s even making its bow at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

Big-screen bios

Maestro

Release date: TBC
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Carey Mulligan, Maya Hawke

Bradley Cooper follows up A Star Is Born with another music movie, this time a Netflix-backed biopic of the legendary Broadway composer Leonard Bernstein, who penned West Side Story. With a silver-haired Cooper also playing Bernstein, the story concentrates on his marriage to actress Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan).

Priscilla

Release date: TBC
Starring: Jacob Elordi, Cailee Spaeny, R Austin Ball

Based on Priscilla Presley’s memoir Elvis and Me, Sofia Coppola’s take on The King’s better half casts Mare of Easttown’s Cailee Spaeny in the title role. Joining her is Euphoria’s Jacob Elordi, who’ll play Elvis. With Priscilla a “minor character” in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, Coppola’s convinced she won’t be “treading on the same territory”. U-huh.

Napoleon

Release date: TBC
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Tahar Rahim

Last time Joaquin Phoenix and director Ridley Scott collaborated, the result was Roman epic Oscar-winner Gladiator. Now Phoenix is taking on French Revolution icon Napoleon Bonaparte. Vanessa Kirby is his Empress Joséphine, while Scott will be staging six major battles. Has he met his Waterloo? Don’t you believe it.

Heart Of A Lion

Release date: March 31
Starring: Khris Davis, Forest Whitaker, Sullivan Jones

Legendary boxer, ordained minister and purveyor of electric grills, George Foreman is a man of many talents, which should make this biopic a fascinating ride. Atlanta’s Khris Davis plays Foreman, the two-time heavyweight champ who took on Muhammad Ali (Sullivan Jones) in the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’. One word: epic.

Animation nation

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse

Release date: June 2
Starring: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Oscar Isaac

High school teen Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) swings back into action for this sequel to the brilliant Into The Spider-Verse, the animation that cracked open Marvel’s alternate realities. The first of a two-parter, this sees Miles and Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) up against The Spot (Jason Schwartzman). Out damned Spot!

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Release date: March 31
Starring: Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day

Nintendo’s Italian plumber hasn’t fared well in cinemas (think – or rather don’t – about Bob Hoskins in the 1993 movie). But this CG animation sees Chris Pratt voice Mario, as he enters Mushroom Kingdom. Charlie Day co-stars as brother Luigi, in a film that comes from Illumination, the studio behind Minions.

*All release dates are UK

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