Cinema Returns: The major movies due out this year

By Neil Wilkes, Editor-in-chief | 1h

Media Mole's guide to every major movie due to come out in 2021 as the cinema industry begins to open back up.

After a year like no other, things are finally starting to look up for the cinema industry.

As coronavirus raged around the world, cinemas shuttered their doors - causing chaos for the release schedule as movie studios either delayed the release of their big films or, in some cases, sent them directly to streaming services.

With the vaccine rollout now offering a hope of a return to some semblance of normality in the second half of 2021, a queue of movies are being rescheduled for when cinemas get the green light to re-open.

Here, Media Mole looks ahead at what's to come later this year.

Black Widow

Release date: May 7

Original release date: May 1, 2020

Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, William Hurt, Ray Winstone, Rachel Weisz, Robert Downey Jr

Plot: Set after the events of Captain America: Civil War, the standalone Black Widow movie follows Natasha as she "faces demons from her past" and explores how she became an Avenger. It's a backstory movie, basically.

Spiral: From The Book of Saw

Release date: May 21

Original release date: May 15, 2020

Starring: Chris Rock, Samuel L Jackson, Max Minghella

Plot: The ninth installment in the Saw franchise stars Chris Rock as a detective caught up in an investigation with eerie similarities to the Jigsaw murders.

Voyagers

Release date: July 2

Original release date: November 25, 2020

Starring: Tye Sheridan, Lily-Rose Depp, Fionn Whitehead, Colin Farrell

Plot: Thirty young men and women are sent on a deep space mission to find a new place to live, but life on board descends into madness.

Fast & Furious 9

Release date: July 9

Original release date: April 19, 2019

Starring: Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, John Cena, Helen Mirren, Charlize Theron

Plot: The gang take on Dominic's younger brother Jakob, a deadly assassin, played by Cena. You already know what to expect.

The Forever Purge

Release date: July 9

Original release date: July 10, 2020

Starring: Ana de la Reguera, Josh Lucas, Tenoch Huerta

Plot: A Mexican couple on the run are stranded at a Texas ranch as an unlawful Purge takes place.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Release date: July 9

Original release date: February 12

Starring: Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Tony Leung

Plot: The first MCU movie with an Asian lead introduces Shang-Chi, a superhero with impressive martial arts skills, as he takes on The Mandarin, leader of the Ten Rings terrorist organisation (first introduced way back in the first MCU film Iron Man).

Top Gun: Maverick

Release date: July 23

Original release date: July 12, 2019

Starring: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Val Kilmer

Plot: Long-awaited sequel to the 1986 action movie sees Maverick return to assist a new crop of Top Gun recruits.

The Suicide Squad

Release date: August 6

Original release date: N/A

Starring: Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Sylvester Stallone, Viola Davis, Peter Capaldi

Plot: The sequel to 2016's Suicide Squad sees the supervillain team dispatched to a South American island to destroy a Nazi-era prison.

The King's Man

Release date: August 20

Original release date: November 15, 2019

Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arteton, Rhys Ifans, Matthew Goode, Tom Hollander, Charles Dance, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Stanley Tucci

Plot: A prequel to the Kingsman movies, set in the early 20th century as the Kingsman agency is formed.

Infinite

Release date: September 10

Original release date: August 7, 2020

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Dylan O'Brien, Chiwetel Ejiofor

Plot: Wahlberg plays a man suffering from hallucinations who learns that they are actually visions from past lives.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage

Release date: September 15 (Wednesday)

Original release date: October 2, 2020

Starring: Tom Hardy, Woody Harrelson, Michelle Williams, Reid Scott, Naomie Harris

Plot: Sequel with Harrelson as Carnage, the alien symbiote of a serial killer.

Dune

Release date: September 17

Original release date: November 20, 2020

Starring: Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgard, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, Jason Mamoa

Plot: Sci-fi epic with an intricate plot involving a desert planet and the most valuable substance in the universe, a drug called "the spice" (no, not that spice) which extends human life and increases brain power.

Death On The Nile

Release date: September 17

Original release date: December 20, 2019

Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Tom Bateman, Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Dawn French, Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Sophie Okonedo, Jennifer Saunders, Letitia Wright

Plot: Branagh returns as Poirot to investigate a murder on a cruise ship with all-star passengers.

No Time To Die

Release date: September 30 (Thursday)

Original release date: April 8, 2020

Starring: Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Lea Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris

Plot: Having now left active service, James Bond is brought back into the action to thwart a vengeful terrorist hellbent on killing millions.

Eternals

Release date: November 5

Original release date: November 6, 2020

Starring: Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lauren Ridloff, Brian Tyree Henry, Salma Hayek

Plot: MCU movie alert! Set after Avengers: Endgame, this new film introduces an alien race called the Eternals, who have been secretly living on Earth for more than 7,000 years.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Release date: November 12

Original release date: July 10, 2020

Starring: Mckenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, Annie Potts

Plot: A direct sequel to the original Ghostbusters movies, this new film follows a family who move to an inherited farm in Oklahoma and discover a link to the now-forgotten heroes.

Mission Impossible 7

Release date: November 19

Original release date: July 23

Starring: Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Hayley Atwell

Plot: The return of the seemingly ageless Ethan Hunt for the first of two new movies.

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Release date: December 17

Original release date: July 16

Starring: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Marisa Tomei, Jamie Foxx, Benedict Cumberbatch, Alfred Molina, ... ?

Plot: The FOURTH MCU movie in the space of seven months is the one shrouded in the most mystery. Rumours abound of a multiverse movie that will also include Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's incarnations of the web slinger - surely not? (Please yes!)