Most anticipated movies of 2024: ‘Dune: Part Two’, ‘Challengers’, ‘Deadpool 3’ and more

2024 promises to be a diverse year for Hollywood, with titles ranging from a visual spectacle like ‘Dune: Part Two’ to a pop-culture phenomenon like ‘Mean Girls: The Musical’

Easily the biggest release of the year, filmmaker Denis Villeneuve’s sequel has all of us stoked. The first film, released in 2021, might have gotten a split verdict but Villeneuve’s grit to take on a mountainous challenge that many (famously Alejandro Jodorowsky) have failed to do surely earned him a lot of goodwill. The duology is an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi novel and mapping the cultural impact of that novel would be quite a task; even Star Wars has its roots in Dune and from Star Trek to Futurama, many iconic sci-fi titles have referenced Dune in one way or the other.

The story, set in a feudal interstellar society, follows a young prince’s fight against an oppressive order with the help of indigenous people who believe him to be their Messiah. After the events of the first film, which saw a violent uprooting and erasure of the house of Atreides, Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), with the help of Chani (Zendaya) and other indigenous Fremen, is just about to take the fight to House Harkonnen. As the stirring trailers show, Fermen leader Stilgar (Javier Bardem) will guide Paul to become the messiah who was promised. But what do these horrific dreams of Paul mean? We’ll find that out when the much-anticipated spectacle hits screens on March 1. The film also stars Rebecca Ferguson, Dave Bautista, Stellan Skarsgard, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh and Lea Seydoux.

Make way for Miller! This year, get ready to go back to the post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max as George Miller brings us Furiosa. Set as a prequel to 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, the film tells the story of who Furiosa was before she became Immortan Joe’s lieutenant. Thanks to Charlize Theron’s convincing portrayal, Furiosa made a striking impression in 2015 and now, all eyes are on Anya Taylor-Joy, who is set to play the younger version of the character. Since her feature debut in The Witch to her break-out in The Queen’s Gambit and up until last year’s Amsterdam or The Menu, Taylor-Joy has upped her game consistently and now all eyes are on how she brings Furiosa to live. Joining her are Chris Hemsworth (as Warlord Dementus), Alyla Browne, and Tom Burke among others. F

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, donning the comic-accurate yellow costume. Should we say more? After a brutal year at the box office and some sour developments from actors, a major studio now has to turn to a fan-favourite dude in red to save the day. But that film, Superman: Legacy, is coming out next year.

Oh, come on. A few jokes can’t hurt our self-healing, fourth-wall-breaking Deadpool who is all set to enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the third instalment on May 3. On-screen bromance between Jackman and Ryan Reynolds and the return of Jennifer Garner’s Elektra? We are sold. And..who knows? Maybe we’ll have “Sam Jackson show up with an eye patch and do a saucy little leather number.” We heard you, Reynolds.

Even a sporadic follower of Hollywood from the 2000s would remember the cultural impact that the 2004 Mean Girls film had, becoming a timeless comfort watch for many teens struggling to fit in. Huge thanks to actor-comedian and writer Tina Fey, the film was ground-breaking in terms of writing women characters and nuanced female friendships. Based on the book ‘Queen Bees and Wannabes’ by Rosalind Wiseman, the film had an unimaginable influence on the genre of teen comedy and it also launched Fey, Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Lacey Chabert and Amanda Seyfried to stardom.

Now, if fans of Mean Girls are a little wary about watching a new Mean Girls adaptation, the reason might be the underwhelming sequel that was released in 2011. But here’s the thing: unlike that sequel, the upcoming modern-day adaptation has a screenplay written by Fey and the actor-comedian, alongside Tim Meadows, is also set to reprise her role from the original. For all those reasons and more, the Mean Girls fandom will rush to the screens this month, on January 12, to watch Mean Girls: The Musical. This film is an adaptation of the Broadway show version of the 2004 film and it features Angourie Rice Reneé Rapp, Auliʻi Cravalho, and Jaquel Spivey in the lead.