A "Predator" prequel, a "Knives Out" sequel, and, at long last, more "Avatar." 2022 is
stacked with excellent upcoming movies, but which ones are a must-watch?
Keep your eyes here for the best of the best.
It's a very good time for high-concept action movies featuring major stars.
"Bullet Train," the next film from "John Wick" and "Atomic Blonde" alum David Leitch, is
another showcase for that kind of filmmaking, boasting a killer story hook, a stacked cast,
and what promises to be some of the best action you'll see on the big screen in the coming
years.
The film follows a group of assassins who all happen to be taking a trip on the same
Japanese bullet train.
As the journey goes on, they find that their respective assignments have some unexpected
connections, and the resulting clashes will present a great opportunity for some fun,
close-quarter fight scenes.
"Dude, I don't even know you!"
The cast is led by none other than Brad Pitt, who used to employ Leitch as his stunt double
back in the "Fight Club" days, but Pitt is far from the only major star involved in the
production.
"Bullet Train" has an impressive cast that also includes Sandra Bullock, Michael Shannon,
Lady Gaga, and more.
The film launched production during the pandemic, wrapped shooting in the spring of 2021, and
will arrive August 5, 2022.
We've seen the Predator fight special operations troops in the jungles and in the cities, we've
seen it invade Los Angeles, and we've even seen it fight the Xenomorph twice.
We know the Predator will endure.
At this point, it's always just a question of where we'll see it next, which probably
meant a prequel film was always inevitable.
Now, that prequel is finally on its way.
In November 2021, 20th Century Studios finally revealed that "10 Cloverfield Lane" director
Dan Trachtenberg's long-developing "Predator" project was indeed a prequel, and they finally
gave it a title: "Prey."
Set many years before the original film, "Prey" will follow what happens during the Predator's
apparent first trip to Earth, when the creature runs into a Comanche woman who's trained to
be a warrior and will take on the alien hunter on behalf of her people.
The stripped-down approach to the classic sci-fi action franchise will hit Hulu on August
5, 2022.
Almost immediately after "Knives Out" became a major mystery hit over the 2019 holiday
season, writer/director Rian Johnson began talking about potential plans for a sequel.
Those plans took shape in the spring of 2021, when Netflix signed on to a deal worth hundreds
of millions of dollars that would set Johnson and company up for two "Knives Out" sequel
films at the streaming giant.
With the backing of Netflix and a lot of goodwill built up from the first film, Johnson set
to work and began building a predictably stacked cast.
"My presence will be ornamental."
While the first "Knives Out" film boasted an impressive roster of talent, only Daniel
Craig is expected to return from the first film, reprising his role as private detective
Benoit Blanc to take on yet another mystery.
The nature of that mystery remains unclear, although we know at least some of the film
has been shot in Greece.
Plus, the ensemble Johnson's building to populate the new story is arguably more impressive
than the one from the first film.
In the first half of 2021, the production added some major stars, including Dave Bautista,
Edward Norton, Janelle Monae, and Kate Hudson to its cast, ahead of a production start later
in the year.
The "Knives Out" sequel — titled "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery" — doesn't have
a firm release date yet, but when it finally hits Netflix sometime during holiday season
2022, it might just be the all-star mystery to end all other all-star mysteries.
When it comes to Stephen King, everything old is always eventually new again.
The horror author's enduring popularity has produced a fresh adaptation boom in recent
years, and the latest project to come out of that boom is a new take on "Salem's Lot,"
his vampire novel that was originally adapted as a miniseries in 1979 and then re-adapted
for TV again in 2004.
This time around, the book — which follows a writer as he returns to his hometown just
as a vampire sets up shop and begins to take over — will get the feature film treatment
for writer and director Gary Dauberman, whose previous horror hits include "The Nun" and
"Annabelle Comes Home."
The new vision of one of Stephen King's most terrifying novels begins when "Salem's Lot"
hits theaters September 9, 2022.
After "Halloween" proved to be a massive horror hit in the fall of 2018, Universal Pictures
and Blumhouse Productions announced that the sequel would form the first part of a trilogy
focusing on the ongoing battle between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode.
After a pandemic delay of approximately a year, the second film, "Halloween Kills,"
arrived in October of 2021 and established a frightening new status quo for Michael and
Laurie, setting the stage for "Halloween Ends" to arrive in the fall of 2022.
At this point, we still don't know very much about "Halloween Ends," but director David
Gordon Green has offered a couple of tantalizing details.
For one thing, the film will feature a time jump to the present day, after both "Halloween"
and "Halloween Kills" were set over the course of Halloween night, 2018.
That means four years will have passed since we last caught up with Laurie and Michael,
and all sorts of things could have happened in the meantime.
Plus, Green has made it clear that, as far as he's concerned, the story is over with
the aptly named "Halloween Ends," which means we should expect a fiery, bloody conclusion.
"Halloween Ends" is in theaters October 14, 2022.
"You know it's Halloween.
Everyone's entitled to one good scare, huh?"
For more than a decade now, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has been circling a superhero movie
while he's moved through blockbuster after blockbuster, cementing his place as one of
the biggest action stars of his generation.
Soon, he'll finally make his big-screen super-debut after years of development and teasing.
In the spring of 2022, after several pieces of teaser footage, Johnson finally revealed
the first trailer for the film, which will center him as the title character — a kind
of dark mirror of the superhero we met in "Shazam!"
Chosen to wield the Shazam powers ages before Billy Batson, Adam's power was corrupted when
he received it, but that doesn't stop him from becoming a kind of antihero in his own
right.
Introduced as a villain in comics, Black Adam has become a much more complex figure over
the years, and it looks like Johnson's film will embrace that.
Plus, the trailer showed off our first look at the big-screen debut of the heroes of the
Justice Society of America, first announced as major players in "Black Adam" back in 2020.
The film will feature Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher, Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, Quintessa
Swindell as Cyclone, and Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate.
"Black Adam" hits theaters on October 21, 2022.
A sequel to "Black Panther" has been something Marvel Studios has been eager about ever since
the first film rocketed to massive commercial and critical success in 2018.
In 2020, everything surrounding that particular sequel changed when its star, Chadwick Boseman,
died at the age of just 43.
That left a lot of lingering questions, and in December of 2020 Marvel Studios finally
started to answer some of them.
During a Disney Investor Day presentation, Kevin Feige announced that "Black Panther
2" would indeed still be moving forward under the leadership of director Ryan Coogler, but
we shouldn't expect another actor to embody King T'Challa of Wakanda.
Instead, we should prepare for a film that, according to Feige, will honor Boseman's memory
and "continue to explore the world of Wakanda."
That's especially true now that we know the sequel will be titled "Black Panther: Wakanda
Forever."
However it takes shape, "Wakanda Forever" is now set to hit theaters November 11, 2022.
It's been more than a decade since James Cameron released "Avatar," a massive sci-fi spectacle
that eventually became the highest grossing film in history up to that point.
Back when the first film was released, we were supposed to get a sequel within a few
years.
Then Cameron pushed the development back in order to advance filmmaking technology, then
it was pushed back again ... and again ... and again.
Now, at last, an "Avatar" sequel is finally, officially on the way.
Titled "Avatar: The Way of Water," the film will reunite original cast members Sam Worthington,
Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, and others for a massive new adventure on the alien planet
Pandora, showing us parts of that world we've never seen before.
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah."
As the title suggests, we'll see much more of the planet's oceans this time around, picking
up on Jake and Neytiri's adventures years after the first film, when they've had a child
and set up a new life together.
But that new life means new challenges, including the persistent threat of human intervention
on Pandora and internal conflicts among the Na'vi people.
"Avatar: The Way of Water" will finally hit theaters December 16, 2022.
Shazam!
In late 2018 and early 2019, Warner Bros. did a lot of work to inject some fun into
its DC Comics Extended Universe.
That effort began with "Aquaman," which was a massive box office hit over the 2018 holiday
season, and then continued with "Shazam!," which arrived in early 2019 and attained acclaim
in its own right.
It never rose to the box office heights of "Aquaman," but the film's $364 million worldwide
box office haul was solid for a film of its size.
It was also apparently enough to greenlight a sequel.
Warner Bros. announced in late 2019 that a "Shazam!"
sequel was on the way.
Zachary Levi is set to return to the title role in the film, with writer Henry Gayden
and director David F. Sandberg also set to return behind the camera.
In 2020, the title was revealed to be "Shazam!
Fury of the Gods."
There's no word yet on exactly what the plot will be, but the original film set up plenty
of opportunities for new foes, including the potential inclusion of Black Adam after his
own film drops.
But whether or not he appears, we know that Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu will be showing
up as villains, playing daughters of the god Atlas.
"Fury of the Gods" is currently expected to arrive on December 21, 2022.
The folks at Warner Bros. have been working to put a "Batgirl" film together for several
years, but it all really started to come together in 2021, when the film found its star with
"In the Heights" breakout Leslie Grace.
With Grace in front of the camera, "Birds of Prey" writer Christina Hodson taking on
the script, and the directors of "Bad Boys for Life" helming the film, "Batgirl" was
off and running as a high-profile feature film project for the HBO Max streaming service.
"Even the Batmobile don't hold the road like this!"
And once Grace joined the cast, things started to get interesting rather quickly.
After the film found the right actress to play Gotham City resident turned vigilante
Barbara Gordon, "Batgirl" landed J.K.
Simmons, who will reprise his "Justice League" role as Barbara's father, Commissioner Jim
Gordon.
Then it was revealed that Michael Keaton, who's already set to return as Bruce Wayne
in "The Flash," will once again play Batman for "Batgirl."
Things got even more interesting when "Doom Patrol" star Brendan Fraser joined the cast
as the DC villain Firefly, and Ivory Aquino stepped up to play a close friend of Barbara
Gordon's who will be the first trans character in a major superhero film.
"Batgirl" will arrive, with some serious star power, on HBO Max at some point in 2022.
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