It’s that time again, where we look to the new year with excitement. Hundreds of movies pass through the world’s cinemas each year, and we have so many to choose from. While there are always sleeper hits and things that we haven’t heard about yet that might make for a late release, these six films, in no particular order, are ones that I’m currently most excited about seeing in 2019.
Captain Marvel
When I watched the first trailer, the tagline, “What makes her a hero,” with her becoming a hero, gave me chills that I still feel rewatching it at the time of writing this. Brie Larson is an amazing actress. She carries with her a confidence that completely sells me on her casting. In addition, seeing the Kree and Skrulls introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe outside of the brief mention they get in Guardians of the Galaxy and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, gives me hope for what a post-Avengers MCU might hold for us. Captain Marvel releases on March 8th.
Glass
Since M. Night Shyamalan’s take on the superhero movie, Unbreakable, released nearly two decades ago, the public had been clamoring for another. When one of the director’s infamous twists in the 2016 Split turned out to be that it was another movie in that universe, Night fans rejoiced. The third film in the series promises to feature Samuel L. Jackson’s Mr. Glass with James McAvoy’s The Horde against Bruce Willis as the unbreakable and super strong David Dunn, as well as perhaps cementing that the often maligned writer and director has indeed returned to the greatness of his much earlier works. Glass releases on January 18th.
Avengers: Endgame
All things end, and after a decade and 21 films (counting Captain Marvel by the time this releases), I’m excited to see how Marvel Studios will put this long overarching story to bed. How will characters like Spider-Man and Black Panther, who we know have sequels coming up, return to life or wherever they went when Thanos snapped his fingers? How does Captain Marvel feature into all of this? Who will die and who will survive, and those of the latter, how will they feature, if at all, in the Marvel movies to come? With so many questions to be answered, I hope Endgame sticks the landing. Avengers: Endgame releases on April 26th.
It: Chapter Two
The first chapter of this Stephen King adaptation only told half of the story – from the childhoods of the Loser’s Club. No one knew this, however, when the movie released last year, and it became the highest grossing horror movie in history to date according to Box Office Mojo, and that was with a cast of largely unknown child actors. I’d love to see what director Andres Muschietti will do with an all-star cast including Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, and Bill Hader. It: Chapter Two releases on September 6th.
Hellboy
It’ll be eleven years since the last time we had everyone’s favorite monster-hunting demon on the big screen, and I know much of the fandom is hand-wringing over whether or not David Harbour, most recently seen in Netflix’s Stranger Things, can stand up to the performance of Ron Perlman. I can’t say either way, but I always prefer to look at an actor change the same way one does when a new character takes up the role of a legacy comic book character, such as Green Lantern or the Flash. It’s an all-new character, even if many things stay the same, and I’m excited to see what Harbour does with it. Hellboy releases April 12th.
The New Mutants
Comic book superhero movies have crossed over into many genres: action, comedies, thrillers, spy and heist movies, but never horror – at least not before this movie. It will be, perhaps, one of the last of the 20th Century Fox X-Men movies before they get folded into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I wasn’t sure when this movie would hit theatres, as it’s been pushed back twice already. With two great young actresses at the head of this movie, Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams and Anya Taylor-Joy fresh off of Split, The Witch, and the upcoming Glass, I’m really excited to see what the combination of two of my favorite genres will look like. The New Mutants is currently set to release on August 2nd.
David Castro is a Puerto Rican writer from New York City. He has worked on the upcoming Undead supplement for Chill Third Edition and is working on launching a Patreon. You can find him on Twitter (@theinkedknight), on Tumblr (thedevilsyouknew), on Facebook (facebook.com/inkstainedstudios), and at davidrcastro.com.