24 films to look out for in 2024, from Joker 2 to Paddington in Peru

The superhero isn’t dead, but their cape has at least been sucked into a jet engine and left them temporarily dazzled. If there’s one thing to notice about cinema in 2024, it’s the relative absence of CGI portals to the sky and masked people shooting lasers out of their hands.

Apart from Deadpool 3, which is – sight unseen – already the most annoying film of the year, DC and Marvel have gone on hiatus, felled by the shocking news that few of us wanted to watch, um, Blue Beetle or Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

So where does that leave us? Next year does, admittedly, have its fair share of reboots and sequels – but they at least sound fun this time around. Dune: Part Two will finally be released. Ti West and Mia Goth are following up their sexy, strange double bill of X and Pearl with the porn industry slasher MaXXXine. It’s Daisy Edgar-Jones versus a massive tornado in the belated Twister sequel… Twisters! It’s Paul Mescal versus a massive tiger again – presumably – in the belated Gladiator sequel… Gladiator 2!

And then there are the auteurs making their eagerly anticipated comebacks, from Bong Joon-ho and Marielle Heller, to George Miller (with Fury Road prequel Furiosa) and Barry Jenkins. The latter may be the sequel to the CGI Lion King that absolutely no one asked for, but it’s Barry Jenkins – how bad can it really be?

To whet your appetites for next year, we’ve curated 24