The Most Anticipated Movies of 2022
Get ready for familiar favourites, next chapters, and new adventures with the top five upcoming films of the year
The Batman—March 4, 2022. Dir. Matt Reeves, starring Robert Pattinson, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, Zoë Kravitz.
Reeves’ upcoming film marks yet another extension of the DC superhero franchise and stars Pattinson as a young Bruce Wayne. Barely into his second year of fighting crime, Bruce is pulled into the class-divided underbelly of Gotham City as he tries to unravel the Zodiac-like ciphers of the Riddler.
The film is set to be the first of a trilogy and introduces several of Batman’s famed villains including Dano as the Riddler, Colin Farrell as the Penguin, and John Turturro as Carmine Falcone. Several of his famed allies return as well, with Wright playing Commissioner Gordon and Kravitz playing Catwoman.
The film’s trailer suggests confidence in moving toward darker themes—a direction many fans have been praying DC would move toward since Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy and DC’s subsequent missteps in trying to copy the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s campy, yet successful, formula.
The Northman—April 8, 2022. Dir. Robert Eggers, starring Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor Joy, Nicole Kidman, Willem Dafoe, Ethan Hawke.
Eggers’ upcoming film The Northman is set in Iceland at the turn of the tenth century. The story follows a Viking prince who roams his stolen kingdom as a stranger, seeking revenge for his father’s murder.
The film pronounces Eggers’ unique style, which situates his films in a distinctive and often unpopular period of history while generally dealing with darker, more psychological, and supernatural subject matter.
Eggers casted Skarsgård as the Viking Prince Amleth and is reuniting with Joy who plays the female lead. Kidman, Dafoe, and Hawke are also set to star in this upcoming revenge thriller.
Lightyear—June 17, 2022. Dir. Angus Maclane, voiced by Chris Evans.
Pixar’s upcoming prequel to Toy Story chronicles the origins of Buzz Lightyear as he rises from a young test pilot into the toy-worthy Space Ranger that the iconic Toy Story character is based upon.
Evans has signed on to voice Buzz, and Jojo Rabbit director Taika Waititi will also play a role that has not yet been disclosed. Little else is revealed about the casting choices, however, there is an initial teaser.
Pete Docter, who wrote the original screenplay for Toy Story, will be the film’s executive producer. Lightyear will be one of two Pixar films coming out in 2022 alongside Turning Red.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One)—October 7, 2022. Dir. Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin Thompson, starring Hailee Steinfeld, Shameik Moore, Oscar Isaac.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse captivated audiences when it was first released by Sony Pictures in 2018. The animation style, sound design, and voice acting garnered critical acclaim and adoration from audiences, including those uninitiated to the superhero genre.
Sony has since announced a sequel with a teaser, revealing that the film follows Miles Morales (voiced by Moore) and Gwen Stacy (voiced by Steinfeld) as they venture further into the madness of the Spider-Verse.
The film’s plot looks to extend upon the post-credit scene of the first film, which teased Miguel O’Hara—or Spider-Man 2009—as a multiverse antagonist from the future who tries to recreate the abilities of the original Spider-Men.
The plot mostly remains a mystery but judging from the teaser and the distinctive animation style, the film looks to be an impressive reinforcement to the Spider-Verse series.
Killers of the Flower Moon—Unknown date, 2022. Dir. Martin Scorsese, starring Leonardo Dicaprio, Robert De Niro, Brendan Fraser.
Following his 2019 film The Irishman, Scorsese brings David Grann’s 2017 novel Killers of the Flower Moon to the screen. The film tells the story of an investigation into a series of murders against members of the Osage Indian Nation in Oklahoma in the 1920s.
With an ocean of oil beneath their land, the Osage tribe quickly rose to wealth, and their land became a target. The Osage Murders became one of the first major homicide investigations taken on by the FBI.
While there is no trailer yet, Dicaprio and De Niro have signed onto the film, and Eric Roth—writer of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune and Robert Zemeckis’ Forrest Gump—will be adapting the novel for the screen.
Copy Editor (Volume 49) | aidan@themedium.ca —Aidan is completing a major in Professional Writing and Communications at the University of Toronto Mississauga. He previously worked as the Associate Editor for the Arts and Entertainment section of The Medium, and currently works as the Copy Editor for The Medium. When he’s not catching up on course work or thumbing through style guides, Aidan spends his free time exercising (begrudgingly), singing (unmelodically), and trying (helplessly) to read David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. The latter of which has taken 3 years to reach the 16th page. You can connect with Aidan at aidan@themedium.ca.