2024 promises us superheroes, bears, love stories, sequels and animation to get excited about (Picture: AP/Warner Bros)

In 2023, we enjoyed some fine films at the cinema and on streaming alike, from the might of event of the summer ‘Barbenheimer’ – thanks to the shared release day of Barbie and Oppenheimer – to Disney blockbusters The Little Mermaid and Indiana Jones 5.

There was Netflix’s Oscar hopeful Maestro, Tom Cruise’s return to Mission: Impossible and Martin Scorsese’s latest effort Killers of the Flower Moon.

There were also indie triumphs too, such as director Celine Song’s Past Lives, a British rom-com resurgence with Rye Lane and success for shock fare as well, such as Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn and Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore in May December, directed by Todd Haynes.

However, with the months-long (and now resolved) actors’ and writers’ strikes in the US, that ground Hollywood to a halt, we’ve had a bit of a shake-up to 2024’s expected movie line-up – but there’s still plenty to look forward to.

From Emma Stone doing eyebrow raising things with a piece of fruit in Poor Things to the hotly anticipated returns of beloved film franchises with the likes of Inside Out 2 and Beetlejuice 2 – and let’s not forget Paddington 3 – we’ve plenty to get our eyeballs on next year.

Here’s a look at some of the biggest and most exciting films set for release in 2024 that have us tickled pink…

Poor Things

Poor Things has been drumming up steady interest ever since its pearl-clutching world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September, which had some viewers reportedly bolting for the door during its raunchier moments.

At the London Film Festival there were certainly gasps and shocked laughter too as leading lady Emma Stone was dubbed ‘one of cinema’s horniest legends’ for playing Bella Baxter,  a young woman brought back to life with the mind of a baby by a brilliant but unorthodox scientist (Willem Dafoe) in a bold take on the Frankenstein tale.

From inventive uses for apples and references to ‘tongue-play’ and athletic sex sessions, fans see and hear it all in the new film, directed by The Favourite filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos, and based on the 1992 novel of the same name by Alasdair Gray.

The cast also includes Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott, Jerrod Carmichael and Vicki Pepperdine, and a screenplay by past Lanthimos collaborator Tony McNamara.

It will certainly be one that makes headlines (and perhaps not a family-friendly viewing choice).

Poor Things hits cinemas on January 12.

All of Us Strangers

If you want your heart broken and sewn carefully back together again by a duo of nuanced lead performances, Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal are ready to wallop you over the head with the emotional power of All of Us Strangers.

Starring as lonely screenwriter Adam and his mysterious neighbour Harry respectively, both Irish stars have already attracted acclaim for their acting as well as their smoking hot chemistry.

Adam is drawn back to his childhood home as he embarks on a project about his parents (played beautifully by Claire Foy and Jamie Bell), only to find them appearing to live there, just as they were on the day they died, 30 years before.

The nostalgia and intimacy is intense too, especially as All of Us Strangers – based on Japanese novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada – was filmed at the childhood home of director and writer Andrew Haigh.

This is unlikely to be surpassed in terms of tenderness and will likely haunt you long after the credits roll.

All of Us Strangers is in cinemas from January 26.

Back to Black

Marisa Abela takes on the role of Amy Winehouse in a biopic about the late singer (Picture: StudioCanal)

The Amy Winehouse biopic directed by Fifty Shades of Grey filmmaker Sam Taylor-Johnson is set to land in cinemas in the spring, although nothing but a few photos of its leading actress, Industry star Marisa Abela, have so far been released.

Abela appears to bear an uncanny resemblance to the troubled Rehab singer, who died aged 27 in 2011, from what we’ve seen so far.

Produced by StudioCanal, Focus Features and Monumental Pictures, the highly-anticipated feature film has kept details of its script under wraps but promises to document her ‘vibrant years living in London in the early aughts and her intense journey to fame’.

The biopic has the full support of The Amy Winehouse Estate, along with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Publishing as it will, of course, feature her beloved music, such as Valerie and Love Is a Losing Game.

Back to Black also stars Jack O’Connell as Winehouse’s ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil and Eddie Marsan as her father Mitch and Oscar-nominee Lesley Manville as her grandmother Cynthia.

Back to Black releases in cinemas on April 12.

Challengers

A casualty of the strikes, Challengers was pushed back to 2024 not long after its first trailer debuted in the summer, and also pulled out of its slot as the opening film at September’s Venice Film Festival.

However, that means fans have been given plenty of time to sit with the juicy material hinted at by our first glimpse at the film starring Spider-Man actress Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist as young tennis aces, who enjoy a particularly close relationship (and threesome).

Directed by Call Me By Your Name’s Luca Guadagnino, Zendaya stars as Tashi Duncan, who years later is revealed to be the now-wife and coach of Grand Slam champion Art (Faist).

She signs him up for a Challenger event during a losing streak where he will face off against her former lover and his ex-best friend Patrick (O’Connor) – naturally, tensions run high.

Challengers is set to launch in cinemas on April 26.

Inside Out 2

We’ll have had to wait a whole nine years for this sequel, but judging by the excited reaction to the first teaser of this Disney-Pixar in November it’s absolutely been worth it.

With central character Riley from 2015’s Inside Out now a teenager, a new emotion has been introduced to the five other emotions crowding her brain already in the form of Anger, Joy, Sadness, Fear and Disgust.

Enter: a frazzled and orange Anxiety, voiced perfectly by Stranger Things’ Maya Hawke.

The first film nabbed the 2016 Oscar for best animated feature and is often cited as one of Pixar’s most original films, so expectations are sky high.

One small fly in the ointment is Bill Hader and Mindy Kaling not returning as Fear and Disgust in the sequel after reported salary disputes, instead being replaced by Tony Hale and Liza Lapira, respectively.

Amy Poehler, Phyliss Smith and Lewis Black are back as Joy, Sadness and Anger however.

Inside Out 2 hits cinemas on June 14.

Deadpool 3

Hugh Jackman will be back as Wolverine in the new Deadpool film (Picture: Marvel/X/@deadpoolmovie)

The promo for this Marvel film has been going on forever, thanks to star and producer Ryan Reynolds first revealing that this Deadpool threequel would herald the return of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in September 2022.

Despite the Oscar-nominated star quite loudly retiring from his signature role with 2017’s Logan (and that pretty, um, final ending), it seemed pal Reynolds offered too tempting a prospect to refuse.

Deadpool 3 is helmed by Shawn Levy, who has previously worked with Reynolds on 2021’s Free Guy and The Adam Project the following year.

The Crown star Emma Corrin has been cast as the movie’s villain, joining Jennifer Garner – who is reprising her role as Elektra from Daredevil – as well as Brianna Hildebrand, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney and Leslie Uggams, as well as Succession actor Matthew Macfadyen in an undisclosed role.

 Photos from the UK-based set ahead of its strike-related shutdown revealed Jackman is donning a comic book-accurate costume as Wolverine for the first time in his famous yellow suit.

Deadpool 3 is in cinemas from July 26.

Beetlejuice 2

The Beetlejuice sequel comes with high expectations as it teams up original talent (Picture: Allstar/Warner Bros)

Beetlejuice is one of director and writer Tim Burton’s most enduring movies, making a star out of Michael Keaton as the titular devious ‘bio-exorcist’ way back in the 1988 original, hired by a married but deceased couple (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) to scare away the new inhabitants of their home.

More than 35 years later, Burton has returned alongside cast members Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz and Catherine O’Hara as her mother Delia, as well as Beetlejuice newcomer Wednesday actress Jenna Ortega, who will reportedly play Lydia’s daughter Astrid.

Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci – who is starring as Betelgeuse’s wife – and Justin Theroux are also set to appear in the long-gestating sequel, some form of which has been floating around since 1990.

Back in 2016, Burton told Collider: ‘It’s something that I really would like to do in the right circumstances, but it’s one of those films where it has to be right. It’s not a kind of a movie that cries out [for a sequel], it’s not the Beetlejuice trilogy.’

When Burton signed on to direct the sequel in its confirmed form in 2022, he stripped everything from the story to ‘go back to the basics of working with good people and actors and puppets’ he explained to The Independent.

We have all our fingers and toes crossed that this will be a follow-up worthy of its cast and creatives’ talents.

Beetlejuice 2 releases in cinemas on September 6.

Joker: Folie à Deux

Lady Gaga joins the cast of the sequel as Harley Quinn, alongside Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix (Picture: DC Studios/Todd Phillips/Instagram)

We got a first official look at Joker 2 back in February thanks to star Lady Gaga, who shared a photograph of herself as Harley Quinn with Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, a.k.a. Arthur Fleck.

Phoenix is returning to the role that netted him his first Oscar win 2020, but the sequel is certainly going to be a departure from the original’s psychological thriller take as it’s a musical.

DC Studios CEO James Gunn has confirmed that the film is a DC Elseworlds project, which takes place outside of the main cinematic DC Universe he is currently reshaping with co-CEO and chairperson Peter Safran.

Joker writer and director Todd Phillips treated fans to a few more pictures from Folie à Deux over the festive period, with a look at Arthur through the bars of a prison cell and a picture of him in his full clown make-up with Gaga’s Quinn.

Zazie Beetz is returning as Arthur’s former neighbour Sophie, while Brendan Gleeson and Catherine Keener have also joined the cast.

Joker: Folie à Deux is set to launch in cinemas on October 4.

Paddington in Peru

Paddington Bear is getting his hotly anticipated threequel (Picture: Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

After a bit of a worrying wobble in February this year, when voice star Ben Whishaw revealed everything had ‘gone silent’ on the longed-for Paddington 3 – which had been in the works since 2021 – the threequel finally started filming this summer.

Although there have been no plot details shared as of yet, the film has officially been dubbed Paddington in Peru (and filmed there), so we can make a safe assumption that Paddington will be heading to ‘deepest, darkest Peru’, his home country.

The third film will be released seven years after the sequel – and a decade after the first – which introduced us to the delights of a tap-dancing Hugh Grant, who recently teamed up once more with Paddington filmmaker Paul King for Wonka.

Paddington 2 became (for a cruelly short time) the top-rated film on Rotten Tomatoes with a perfect score after screen classic Citizen Kane was dethroned.

Emily Mortimer is replacing Sally Hawkins as Mrs Brown, while Hugh Bonneville, Dame Julie Walters, Imelda Staunton and Jim Broadbent return.

Other new additions to the cast include Olivia Colman and Antonio Banderas.

Paddington in Peru hits UK cinemas on November 8, and US cinemas on January 17, 2025.

Wicked: Part One

Fans hope Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande will be defying gravity in Wicked (Picture: Instagram)

Fans have been pretty rabid with excitement over the big screen adaptation of Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s stage musical Wicked, which has proven a huge hit on the West End, Broadway and around the world for 20 years.

That reached fever pitch when Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande were announced to star as Elphaba and Glinda in this origin tale of The Wizard of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West, alongside the likes of Jonathan Bailey and Jeff Goldblum.

When the actors’ strikes finally finished in November, the majority of enthusiasm was for this film to get back into production in the UK.

Bar leaked set photos (which fans have obsessed over), April brought us our first official looks at the lead characters in their respective costumes.

Given interest has further been piqued by mega music star Grande striking up a headline-grabbing romance with co-star Ethan Slater, this one is sure to be one of the biggest films of 2024.

It’s also only going to be the first part of the film, with a second movie slated for a 2025 release.

Wicked: Part One is in cinemas from November 27. Wicked: Part Two is currently slated for release on November 26, 2025.

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us [email protected], calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.

MORE : Zack Snyder’s overblown space opera Rebel Moon is an expensive mess for Netflix

MORE : Why Michael Caine’s best-ever performance is Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol

MORE : Saltburn viewers shaken by nude scene after Barry Keoghan appears to reveal shocking truth

We’ve got a mammoth helping of movies to enjoy in 2024.