Summer 2026 is shaping up to be one of the most stacked theatrical seasons in years, with Pixar, DC, Marvel, and Christopher Nolan all landing major releases within a few weeks of each other. From Toy Story’s fifth outing to the DCU’s first Supergirl movie, here’s a complete guide to every major blockbuster hitting theaters from May through August 2026, with confirmed release dates, directors, and cast.
May 2026: The Season Kicks Off Early
Summer technically starts a little early this year, with two major studio sequels landing in early May before the traditional Memorial Day kickoff.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 — May 1, 2026
Twenty years after the original, The Devil Wears Prada 2 reunites Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci, with director David Frankel and writer Aline Brosh McKenna also returning. The sequel finds a more confident, mature Andy stepping back into Miranda Priestly’s orbit as the magazine publishing industry faces an existential crisis. New cast members include Kenneth Branagh, Simone Ashley, Justin Theroux, and Lucy Liu. Principal photography took place across Manhattan and Milan in late 2025, and early reactions to test footage have been positive — particularly for Streep and Hathaway’s dynamic, which critics say hasn’t lost a step.
For longtime fans, the appeal here is simple: this is a legacy sequel that actually got the band back together, rather than recasting around one returning star. If the original’s “Florals? For spring? Groundbreaking” energy translates to a 2026 media landscape, this could be one of the summer’s biggest word-of-mouth hits with adult audiences who don’t usually show up for blockbuster season.
Mortal Kombat II — May 8, 2026
Mortal Kombat II brings director Simon McQuoid back for the direct sequel to 2021’s franchise reboot. Returning cast members Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks, and Hiroyuki Sanada (as Scorpion) are joined by major new additions — most notably Karl Urban as Johnny Cage, plus Adeline Rudolph as Kitana and Tati Gabrielle as Jade. Martyn Ford plays the imposing Shao Kahn, with Joe Taslim returning as Bi-Han, Tadanobu Asano as Raiden, and Chin Han reprising Shang Tsung.
Adding Johnny Cage and Shao Kahn was the single biggest fan request after the first film skipped both characters, and early footage has leaned hard into Karl Urban playing the role for laughs — a tonal contrast to the first film’s more grim-and-gritty approach that should make II feel more faithful to the games’ over-the-top energy.
June 2026: Pixar, DC, and a Final Jackass
June is where things really ramp up, with three of the summer’s biggest titles landing within eight days of each other.
Toy Story 5 — June 19, 2026
Directed by Andrew Stanton, Toy Story 5 brings back Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Tony Hale, and Greta Lee, with Keanu Reeves and Annie Potts also confirmed to return. The plot centers on Lilypad, a tablet device that enters Bonnie’s life and immediately starts competing with the toys for her attention — a premise that updates the franchise’s classic “are we still loved” anxiety for the smartphone era. After Toy Story 4’s bittersweet, more ambiguous ending, a fifth entry returning to Woody and the gang’s core cast suggests Pixar is aiming for something that feels more like a true ensemble adventure again.
The “evil tablet” angle has been divisive in early discussion — some see it as an obvious, almost too-easy villain for 2026, while others point out that Pixar has built entire films around exactly this kind of simple, relatable anxiety before (Lotso’s abandonment issues in Toy Story 3, for instance) and made it work. Either way, this is the most anticipated animated release of the summer by a wide margin.
Supergirl — June 26, 2026
The first major Supergirl film since 1984 lands on June 26, directed by Craig Gillespie and starring Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-El. Set within James Gunn’s new DC Universe, the film follows Kara stepping out of Superman’s shadow and into “a galaxy shaped by loss, violence, and the search for justice” on a quest that’s been described as more personal and morally complicated than a typical Superman story. The cast includes Jason Momoa, Matthias Schoenaerts, and David Corenswet — whose involvement (following his turn as Superman in the rebooted DCU) suggests meaningful connective tissue between this film and the wider DCU slate.
The first official poster, revealed personally by James Gunn, leaned into a grittier aesthetic than fans might expect from a Supergirl story — Alcock’s Kara is shown partially obscured, drinking from a cup in front of a graffiti-tagged Superman symbol reading “Look Out.” After Gunn’s Superman reset expectations for the DCU’s tone earlier in 2026, Supergirl looks positioned as the franchise’s first real tonal departure — darker, more morally ambiguous, and explicitly building toward something bigger.
Jackass: Best and Last — June 26, 2026
The same day as Supergirl, Johnny Knoxville and the full Jackass crew return for Jackass: Best and Last, directed by Jeff Tremaine and billed as the franchise’s final installment. True to its title, the film reunites the original cast for one more round of stunts, pranks, and physical comedy — described as “one final eruption of reckless invention and bodily mayhem.” After Jackass Forever proved the format still worked with an aging cast (and a few new additions) in 2022, Best and Last positions itself as a proper send-off rather than just another sequel, with the marketing leaning hard into the “last chance to see these guys do this” angle.
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Masters of the Universe — Already in Theaters
While not a brand-new release for this guide’s window, Masters of the Universe kicked off the summer movie conversation when it opened on June 5, 2026, starring Nicholas Galitzine as He-Man alongside Camila Mendes, Idris Elba, Jared Leto, and Kristen Wiig voicing Orko. The live-action adaptation follows a young man discovering his alien royal heritage as he’s drawn into the battle for Eternia. If you’re catching up on the summer slate, our full review breaks down whether the live-action take on Eternia actually works.
July 2026: Nolan’s Epic and Spider-Man’s Reset
July brings the summer’s most ambitious prestige blockbuster alongside the most anticipated Marvel release of the year.
The Odyssey — July 17, 2026
Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s epic poem arrives July 17, shot entirely on IMAX film cameras across locations including Morocco, Greece, Italy, Iceland, and Scotland over 91 days of production. Matt Damon stars as Odysseus, with Tom Holland as Telemachus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, and Robert Pattinson as Antinous. The cast also includes Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, Benny Safdie, Elliot Page, John Leguizamo, Mia Goth, and Jon Bernthal — one of the largest ensembles Nolan has ever assembled. The first poster, which debuted in AMC theaters nearly a year ahead of release, showed a decapitated ancient Greek statue beneath the tagline “Defy the Gods.”
Nolan adapting The Odyssey was one of the most-discussed film announcements of the past two years, and the scale here — IMAX film cameras, a six-country shoot, and a cast stacked with A-listers in what are reportedly relatively small roles — suggests Universal is treating this as an awards-season prestige play that also happens to be a summer tentpole. Expect this to be one of the most-reviewed and most-debated films of the entire year.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day — July 31, 2026
Closing out July, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is Tom Holland’s fourth solo outing as Peter Parker, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and confirmed for July 31, 2026 after the title was officially revealed at CinemaCon 2026. Following the identity-reveal fallout from No Way Home, this entry finds Peter isolated and operating as a more street-level hero, with Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal (as the Punisher), Mark Ruffalo (as Hulk/Bruce Banner), and Michael Mando all confirmed in the cast.
The combination of Jon Bernthal’s Punisher and Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk appearing alongside a “Peter Parker has no support system” premise points to a much grittier, more grounded Spider-Man story than the Holland trilogy’s first three films — closer in tone to Spider-Man 2 (2004) than the globe-trotting, multiverse-heavy No Way Home. Given that this is shaping up as one of the highest pre-release interest titles of the year, expect Brand New Day to be a strong contender for the summer’s single biggest opening weekend.
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Final Verdict: A Summer With No Weak Weekends
What’s striking about the Summer 2026 lineup isn’t just the size of any individual release — it’s how little downtime there is between major titles. From The Devil Wears Prada 2 on May 1 through Spider-Man: Brand New Day on July 31, there’s a genuine theatrical event landing roughly every two weeks, spanning animation, superhero spectacle, prestige epics, horror-comedy stunt films, and a legacy fashion-world sequel. Toy Story 5 and Supergirl alone make this a massive summer for Pixar and DC, but The Odyssey has the potential to be the most talked-about film of the entire year regardless of genre, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s grittier pivot could redefine what a Holland-era Spider-Man movie even is.
Whatever your taste — animated adventure, cosmic superhero drama, mythic epic, or one last round of Jackass mayhem — there’s a release on this list for you. Mark your calendars, because this is a summer where skipping opening weekend means missing the conversation.
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