Sci-Fi Movies That Will Blow Fans Away In 2024

As visions of various 21st-century promises and perils alike converge upon us at once — from space travel to possible extraterrestrial contact to artificial intelligence to the looming societal threat posed by climate change–— the science fiction genre finds itself at arguably its most urgent and crucial point in history. In recent years, the movies, in particular, have seen a kind of artistic renaissance for the genre, with various first-rate auteurs contemplating our technological future in works ranging from the moving to the thought-provoking to the brilliantly satirical.

In 2024, that renaissance has continued full steam bringing us an incredibly vast and diverse range of new sci-fi flicks. We've already had blockbuster treats like "Dune: Part Two" and "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes," but this year still has some great sci-fi waiting around the corner. We've got the return of xenomorphs in "Alien: Romulus" and Furiosa tearing through the desert in the universe of "Mad Max," but we also have intriguing and ambitious endeavors from Francis Ford Coppola and David Cronenberg and even some promising animated robots. Here, we've compiled a list of more science fiction films to look forward to in 2024.

The first new Francis Ford Coppola film since "Twixt" in 2011, "Megalopolis" is a gigantically ambitious sci-fi epic that will mark its director's first incursion into the genre (unless you count 1986's Michael Jackson-starring "Captain EO," a short made to play as an attraction at Disney parks). Set in a New York-esque city named New Rome, "Megalopolis" is a fable about the downfall of empires, chronicling the clash of ideologies that occurs when an accident forces the city to rebuild itself.

The protagonist, architect and artist Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver), dreams of employing technology in service of a sustainable utopian future for New Rome (and also seemingly has a handy superpower, as revealed in the film's first-look clip). His nemesis, mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), wants to reinforce the greedy and exploitative status quo. The conflict is reflected in the soul of Franklyn's daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), who finds herself torn between loyalty to her father and love for Cesar as she struggles to find her place in the world.

A passion project decades in the making, "Megalopolis" didn't get off the ground until Coppola made the decision to self-finance it, officially beginning development in 2019. Its Wachowskis-esque trailer promises a massive, visually dashing, politically incisive adventure with an old-fashioned feel. The film is still seeking official U.S. distribution in parallel with its current bow in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, but it's already set to be one of 2024's most talked-about cinematic events.

George Miller completely changed the face of big-budget action cinema when he unleashed his 2015 masterpiece, the dangerous and incredible "Mad Max: Fury Road." Now, nearly a decade later, his post-apocalyptic epic is getting a long-awaited spin-off.

"Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" (read our review) is already immediately breaking new ground in the Australian action franchise for two reasons: First, it's the first "Mad Max" film not focused on Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) himself. Second, it will be the first to depart from the loose, episodic nature of previous installments and establish any sort of real continuity in the "Mad Max" universe, by going back to the past and exploring the backstory of "Fury Road" breakout character Imperator Furiosa, originally played by Charlize Theron.

With a script that was actually written by George Miller and Nick Lauthoris concurrently with "Fury Road" and originally intended to be shot back-to-back, "Furiosa" will look back on how Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) was taken away from the Green Place of Many Mothers by warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) and thrust unwillingly into the war for control of the Citadel, starting a lifelong mission to find her way back home. Although the trailers we've witnessed all played coy about the exact mechanics of the conflict and how Furiosa, Dementus, and a young Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme) each factor into it, one thing has already been made perfectly clear: "Furiosa" will feature just as much mind-blowing action, dazzling cinematography, and operatic grandeur as its predecessor. 

Remember her on May 24.

Bona-fide horror blockbusters are few and far between these days, which only makes the unlikely success of Paramount Pictures' "A Quiet Place" series all the more impressive. After John Krasinski's original 2018 film made bank with its story of two parents (Krasinski and Emily Blunt) trying desperately to protect their kids (Noah Jupe, Millicent Simmonds, and Cade Woodward) from a sound-sensitive alien species that has taken over planet Earth, the 2020 sequel achieved similar figures even as it came out mid-pandemic. The potential for a full-blown franchise was clearly there, and, sure enough, even before "A Quiet Place Part III" had been officially set to sneak into theaters in 2025, a spin-off film was already in development.

Now, following a behind-the-scenes overhaul that saw original director Jeff Nichols be replaced by "Pig" breakout helmer Michael Sarnoski, "A Quiet Place: Day One" is finally coming, and the trailer promises a stirring prequel. Starring Lupita Nyong'o — whose last horror starring role, in 2019's "Us," proved her immense box office draw in the genre — "Day One" will go all the way back to New York City on the day the alien invasion began, and chart humans' real-time process of understanding the aliens' behavior and concocting ways to survive them. Joseph Quinn, Djimon Hounsou, and Alex Wolff also star as fellow survivors who band together with Nyong'o's Sam, and then plot an escape course from the city as the U.S. government abandons them to their own devices. 

"A Quiet Place: Day One" tiptoes silently into multiplexes on June 28.

Speaking of killer aliens, hey, we have a new "Alien" movie this year. The filmmaker tackling the daunting challenge of making an actually good "Alien" sequel this time — something many fans of the franchise maintain hasn't been done since James Cameron's "Aliens" back in 1986 — will be Uruguayan writer-director Fede Álvarez. A big name in the current horror landscape, Álvarez is known for genre hits like "Don't Breathe" and the 2013 "Evil Dead," as well as the, uh, less memorable 2018 "Millennium" series entry "The Girl in the Spider's Web."

Thankfully, by the looks of it, "Alien: Romulus" looks all set to be a more successful movie than the last time Fede Álvarez made a new entry in a franchise previously tackled by David Fincher. The film was notoriously willed into being after Fede Álvarez made a pitch to Ridley Scott himself that kept Scott thinking for years afterwards, and, although it's coming out this summer, we still don't know exactly what that pitch was. Plot information is being kept markedly vague, both by the official synopsis — which only reveals that the film will follow a new group of space colonists who come into contact with the xenomorphs — and by the single one-minute teaser trailer unveiled so far by 20th Century Studios. We do know that "Romulus" will star Cailee Spaeny, who has confirmed that the film is temporally set between "Alien" and "Aliens, and that Álvarez worked with Scott and James Cameron to maintain franchise continuity.

"Alien: Romulus" tears into theaters on August 16.

How's this for cinematic Mad Libs: A "Borderlands" film directed by Eli Roth, starring Cate Blanchett as Lilith, Jamie Lee Curtis as Tannis, Kevin Hart as Roland, and Gina Gershon as Moxxi. If it sounds like a fever dream, well, it might very well turn out to be one. But it's happening, and it's coming out this summer.

The second family-friendly film to be directed by Roth, following "The House with a Clock in Its Walls" in 2018, "Borderlands" appears to contain few of the aesthetic hallmarks that Roth developed over the course of horror and thriller films like "Cabin Fever," "Hostel," "Knock Knock," and "Thanksgiving." Instead, the trailer angling for the post-"Guardians of the Galaxy" eccentric sci-fi comedy market, emphasizing the humor and the colorful mayhem of the "Borderlands" universe as recreated in live-action.

It remains to be seen just how faithful "Borderlands" will be to either the story or the spirit of the massively popular RPG looter shooter game series, but if the trailer is anything to go by, it does at least look to be capturing the games' eye-popping production design perfectly. Following Lilith as she travels back to her home planet of Pandora and joins forces with a group of outcasts to retrieve a massive hidden treasure, "Borderlands" also stars Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina, Florian Munteanu as Krieg, and Jack Black as the voice of iconic robot mascot Claptrap. 

"Borderlands" brings the mayhem on August 9.

If the "Transformers" films still have a legion of fans around the world even after years and years of one critically panned film after another, it's for two reasons. First, there will always be reverence and nostalgia for the sprawling mythology of the original animated TV series. Second, as much as they may offend mainstream critical sensibilities, the "Transformers" movies are nothing if not unique. In their vision of hectic, hard-edged, metal-clanging mecha action pushed to mind-melting extremes, they've created an abrasive, almost post-human aesthetic that no other Hollywood CGI fest is even really trying to replicate or draw from.

Given those two enduring strengths, the next step in the "Transformers" franchise makes perfect sense: This time, human characters will be ditched altogether, and the film will travel to the Transformers' native planet of Cybertron to tell the story of how former best friends Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry) became Optimus Prime and Megatron. Naturally, this also means that the film will be the first entry in Paramount's "Transformers" series to be 100% animated, with Oscar-winning "Toy Story 4" helmer Josh Cooley giving the robots in disguise a "Spider-Verse"-esque makeover – but without anywhere near as much style. Between the slate-cleaning premise, the starry voice cast rounded out by Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne, and Jon Hamm, and the score by Tom Holkenborg (aka Junkie XL), there's plenty of reason for fans to be excited.

Look for "Transformers One" at the start of fall movie season on September 20.

Sometimes, the fact that a movie has been nominated for Oscars does not necessarily mean that it has already been unveiled to general American audiences. Thanks to the time-tested distributor gambit of the "qualifying run," many movies reach awards season having only played for one week in select Los Angeles or New York theaters, which allows the nominations and wins — if they come — to be effectively used as marketing for a proper release. Such is the case of "Robot Dreams," which did manage to score an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature after a tiny theatrical release in late 2023, and is finally getting released wide by Neon this summer.

Directed by Pablo Berger and adapted from the eponymous comic by Sara Varon, "Robot Dreams" is an enchanting, heartrending sci-fi tale of friendship prevailing against all odds. Set in New York City in 1984 and told through simple yet beautifully detailed cel animation, the film is completely dialogue-free, but that only makes it all the more expressive. The story follows a lonely dog who buys a robot friend for himself after watching a TV ad, and then introduces the robot to the world. The two become inseparable, but their bond is soon tested by a string of mishaps. Don't be fooled by the film's cute appearance: As fun and whimsical as it is, "Robot Dreams" has been making viewers around the world sob uncontrollably since its original Cannes premiere a year ago.

"Robot Dreams" come true on May 31.

"Logan" was one of the most perfect and fitting cinematic send-offs for any blockbuster hero ever — not to mention one of the most prestigious, as its unexpected dramatic sturdiness netted it the first-ever screenwriting Oscar nomination for a superhero movie. But if there's one thing Deadpool is gonna do, it's mess with the established order.

In Wade Wilson's (Ryan Reynolds) defense, of course, he's not the one who initiates the mayhem this time. The plot of "Deadpool & Wolverine" begins when Wilson, having settled into a stable and peaceful life surrounded by loving friends and family, gets yanked out of it by the Time Variance Authority (TVA). In a typically meta flight of fancy for the franchise, the TVA effectively offers Wilson (aka Deadpool) the chance to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe and become one of its world-saving heroes. Tasked with defeating Charles Xavier's evil twin sister Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin), Deadpool enlists the help of an alternate version of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) from a universe in which he failed the world, and the two superpowered mavericks form an unlikely alliance.

Following the hit 2016 and 2018 installments, "Deadpool & Wolverine" is the first "Deadpool" film to be distributed by Disney following its acquisition of 20th Century Fox, and as expected, there are plenty of digs at the new parent company peppered throughout the trailers.

With the promise of putting a fresh, R-rated new spin on the MCU, "Deadpool & Wolverine" will arrive on July 26.

Swedish filmmaker Mikael Håfström has directed several notable Hollywood genre films, including Stallone-Schwarzenegger prison break team-up "Escape Plan," Anthony Hopkins-starring religious thriller "The Rite," and cult favorite supernatural horror "1408," which famously had an alternate ending that couldn't be more different. He's also dabbled in science fiction before, directing the 2021 Netflix Anthony Mackie and Damson Idris vehicle "Outside the Wire." In 2024, Håfström will bring his sci-fi chops and his command of psychological suspense together in "Slingshot," his first venture into outer space.

Starring Casey Affleck in his first sci-fi role since Christopher Nolan's emotional masterpiece "Interstellar" (pictured above) a decade ago, "Slingshot" is an original film written by R. Scott Adams and Nathan Parker — the latter of whom also wrote the screenplay for one of the best isolated-in-space films ever, 2011's "Moon." Even so, we know that the plot follows John (Affleck), an astronaut aboard an interplanetary expedition to the Saturn moon of Titan that may or may not be fatally endangered, as he begins to lose his grip on reality. Laurence Fishburne also stars as the mission's captain, and the cast is rounded out by Emily Beecham, Tomer Capone, David Morrissey, and Mark Ebulué.

Although "Slingshot" has been slated by Bleecker Street for an August 23 release, it has yet to release a trailer.

For all the acclaim David Cronenberg gets as a mastermind of grueling, squirm-inducing body horror, he might actually be underrated as a sci-fi filmmaker. Several of Cronenberg's greatest achievements in the horror genre, including classics like "Videodrome" and "The Fly," are also densely mapped, imaginatively realized sci-fi visions, combining physical and virtual spaces into thorough explorations of tech paranoia in the post-digital world. In 2024, following on from his 2022 surgery-themed freakout "Crimes of the Future," Cronenberg will once again use sci-fi as a window into the hidden horrors of 21st-century life.

Originally developed as a Netflix series but ultimately scrapped by the streamer, "The Shrouds" has been reborn as one of Cronenberg's most personal and emotionally charged feature films yet, including autobiographical elements. The concept is a heady one: A businessman (Vincent Cassel), deep in mourning following the loss of his wife, invents a new technology that allows people to monitor the bodies of their deceased loved ones in their graves, but finds himself caught in a dark mystery when several graves are desecrated, including his wife's. If many of Cronenberg's previous films have had an undercurrent of grief and melancholy, "The Shrouds" appears to be bringing it to the fore with full force.

"The Shrouds," will play in competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, after which it has already been set for a French theatrical release in September — but it does not yet have a North American release date.

"A Quiet Place: Day One" is not the only sci-fi blockbuster starring Lupita Nyong'o set to come out in 2024. But if that film will find Nyong'o acting silently for the majority of the runtime, "The Wild Robot" will, conversely, feature only her voice.

The newest film to employ Nyong'o's voice acting chops previously heard in the "Star Wars" sequel trilogy and "The Jungle Book," "The Wild Robot" will be the third DreamWorks Animation feature of 2024, following "Orion and the Dark" and "Kung Fu Panda 4." It's an adaptation of the eponymous children's picture book series by Peter Brown, and will find Nyong'o playing ROZZUM unit 7134 or "Roz" for short, a robot who wakes up on an uninhabited island and must find a way to fend for herself in the wilderness. Roz gradually befriends the island's animals (voiced by a typically star-studded cast including Pedro Pascal, Catherine O'Hara, Bill Nighy, Kit Connor, and Stephanie Hsu) and develops a sense of place and purpose in her life as a castaway.

It's a momentous film for DreamWorks, not only because it will be the studio's first film since 2013's "The Croods" to be directed by the great Chris Sanders (of "Lilo & Stitch" and "How to Train Your Dragon" fame), but because it's the last DreamWorks Animation film to have been produced completely in-house, before the studio announced the decision to outsource more of its animation to third-party studios in June 2023. If the first trailer for "The Wild Robot" is any indicator, this is going to be a beautiful, heartwarming story.

"The Wild Robot" flocks to theaters on September 27.

Sony's attempt to build a Spider-Man-based cinematic universe out of supporting and side characters from Spidey comics has mostly been a resounding failure so far (see the headache-inducing silliness of "Madame Web," or maybe don't), with the shining exception of the "Venom" film series. Both 2018's Ruben Fleischer-directed "Venom" and 2021's Andy Serkis-directed "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" proved inordinately and unexpectedly successful by striking a singular, inexplicable tone somewhere between brooding seriousness, campiness, thinly-veiled homoeroticism, and absolutely unhinged lunacy. Now, the trilogy is coming to a close with "Venom: The Last Dance."

Perhaps the most interesting information about "The Last Dance" is that it will be the directorial debut of Kelly Marcel, who previously co-wrote and executive produced "Venom," served as producer and sole screenwriter on "Let There Be Carnage," and also wrote the screenplay by herself this time around, from a story co-written with Tom Hardy. As such, "Venom: The Last Dance" is the first project in the "Venom" series to be a full-blown auteurist vision from a writer-director. Not much else is currently known about the project beyond that, as no plot details whatsoever have been unveiled, but we do know that Hardy will (obviously) be returning as Eddie Brock/Venom, and will be joined by franchise newcomers Juno Temple, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Clark Backo in as-yet-undisclosed roles.

Like its two predecessors, "The Last Dance" will be a fall release, and Eddie and Venom waltz into theaters on October 25.

Joshua Oppenheimer became one of the world's best-known documentary filmmakers when he made the 2012-2014 diptych of "The Act of Killing" and "The Look of Silence," two very different yet equally horrifying exposés on the Indonesian Communist purge of 1965-66 and its lingering effects on Indonesian society. For his third feature and first fiction film, Oppenheimer will be going in a very different direction: "The End" will be a Golden Age-inspired musical. But in keeping with the dissonant, revelatory spirit of "The Act of Killing," Oppenheimer will once again be putting fluffy, Hollywoodian form in service of harrowing political content.

The film, starring Tilda Swinton (seen above in "Okja"), George MacKay, Moses Ingram, and Michael Shannon, will tell the story of the Earth's last remaining family — the clan of an oil tycoon who played a direct part in destroying the planet, and then sequestered themselves to a luxurious underground bunker where they've been living for 20 years, too unwilling to confront their own deeds to ever return to the surface. Per the film's official synopsis, the nuclear mother-father-son trio is joined by a maid, a doctor, a butler, and later a young woman who has managed to survive, and the musical numbers will offset the film's raw realism, acting as an expression of the family's willful denial about what they've done — to the Earth at large as well as the loved ones they left behind. The post-apocalyptic sci-fi film will come out on an as-yet-unspecified 2024 date.

After directing the (temporarily) highest-grossing film of all time and the creative and cultural peak to an entire era of Hollywood history, Anthony and Joe Russo reinvented themselves as helmers of slick streaming-bound genre flicks, first with the critically bashed 2021 Tom Holland vehicle "Cherry," and then with 2022's somewhat better-received "The Gray Man." Now, with "The Electric State," the brothers are returning to the sci-fi genre that they've proven they can excel at with their "Avengers" films.

Scripted by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, "The Electric State" adapts the eponymous illustrated novel by Simon Stålenhag, which tells of a teenage girl traveling through an America ravaged by a human-robot civil war in search of her missing younger brother. On her journey, she's accompanied by a robot named Skip. Millie Bobby Brown leads the film (seen above in "Stranger Things"), which will debut sometime in 2024 as a Netflix original and boasts an incredible ensemble cast that includes Chris Pratt, Ke Huy Quan, Stanley Tucci, Jason Alexander, and Woody Norman, with Giancarlo Esposito, Brian Cox, Jenny Slate, Anthony Mackie, and Billy Bob Thornton providing voice work.