2022 films: 12 of the most anticipated new movies

1. The 355

Release date: 7 January 2022

A dream team of formidable female stars come together in a hard-driving original approach to the globe-trotting espionage genre. Spy thriller starring Jessica Chastain, Diane Kruger, Lupita Nyong’o and Penelope Cruz.

2. Scream

Release date: 14 January 2022

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Twenty-five years after a streak of brutal murders shocked the quiet Californian town of Woodsboro, a new killer has donned the Ghostface mask and begins targeting a group of teenagers to resurrect secrets from the town’s deadly past. Neve Campbell (Sidney Prescott), Courteney Cox (Gale Weathers) and David Arquette (Dewey Riley) return to their iconic roles.

3. Death on the Nile

Release date: 11 February 2022

After solving the case in 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express, Kenneth Branagh returns as Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot for another whodunit, Variety said. In this adaptation of the 1937 novel by Agatha Christie, Branagh, who also directs, is joined by another star-studded cast. Big names include Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Annette Bening, Letitia Wright, and Rose Leslie. This long-delayed murder mystery promises “plenty of twists and turns”.

4. The Batman

Release date: 4 March 2022

Directed by Matt Reeves, The Batman stars Robert Pattinson in the dual role of Gotham City’s vigilante detective and his alter ego, reclusive billionaire Bruce Wayne. Starring alongside Pattinson are Zoe Kravitz as Selina Kyle, Jeffrey Wright as the GCPD’s James Gordon, Andy Serkis as Alfred, and Colin Farrell as Oswald Cobblepot.

5. Downton Abbey: A New Era

Release date: 18 March 2022

The second Downton Abbey film reunites the original principal cast, while Hugh Dancy, Laura Haddock, Nathalie Baye and Dominic West join the line-up.

6. Top Gun: Maverick

Release date: 27 May 2022

Tom Cruise returns as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, who finds himself training a detachment of Top Gun graduates for a specialised mission. Miles Teller plays Lt Bradley Bradshaw – call sign: “Rooster” – the son of Maverick’s late friend and radar intercept officer Lt Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose”.

7. Jurassic World: Dominion

Release date: 10 June 2022

The plot has been “kept under wraps”, said IMDb, but an epic five-minute prologue to Jurassic World: Dominion, directed by Colin Trevorrow, “rockets audiences back 65 million years into the past to experience the world before humans existed”.

8. Lightyear

Release date: 17 June 2022

To infinity and beyond! Disney and Pixar’s sci-fi action-adventure presents the definitive origin story of Buzz Lightyear – the hero who inspired the toy. Chris Evans lends his voice to Buzz.

9. Elvis

Release date: 24 June 2022

Elvis Presley fans had been anticipating who will play their favourite singer in the upcoming Baz Luhrmann biopic, said Smooth Radio. And it will be Austin Butler who stars as the “King of Rock and Roll” after reportedly beating fellow contenders Harry Styles and Ansel Elgort to the role. Tom Hanks will also star as Elvis’s manager Colonel Tom Parker.

10. The Flash

Release date: 4 November 2022

Feature film based on the DC Comics superhero. Ezra Miller stars as Barry Allen/The Flash while Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton will both appear as Batman/Bruce Wayne.

11. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Release date: 11 November 2022

The superhero movie based on the Marvel Comics character Black Panther will be the 30th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

12. Avatar 2

Release date: 16 December 2022

James Cameron’s sequel to the 2009 hit will see Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana reprise their roles while new cast members include Michelle Yeoh and Kate Winslet.