Matthew d’Ancona’s culture: A euphoric Odyssey through 2026

The most enticing release in January is Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet (January 9) adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel, which explores the grief of William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and Agnes Hathaway (Jessie Buckley) after the death of their young son. A week later, Cillian Murphy returns to the horror franchise that Danny Boyle launched in 2002 – this time with a cameo in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, directed by Nia DaCosta. I am also looking forward to Park Chan-wook’s dark comic thriller No Other Choice (January 23).

Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights (February 13) has already stirred controversy because of Jacob Elordi’s casting as Heathcliff – the character is described as a “a dark-skinned gipsy” in Emily Brontë’s classic novel – and because some consider 35-year-old Margot Robbie too old to play Cathy Earnshaw. I doubt that, on Valentine’s Day, cinema audiences will bother with such details.

Also released in February, Kristen Stewart’s directorial feature debut The Chronology of Water, based on Lidia Yuknavitch’s gruelling 2011 memoir, was well received at the 2025 London Film Festival; and Julia Jackman’s 100 Nights of Hero (February 6) is a splendidly surreal take on Isabel Greenberg’s 2016 graphic novel, starring Maika Monroe and Emma Corrin. 

After Guillermo del Toro’s operatic Frankenstein, it will be intriguing to see what Maggie Gyllenhaal does with the source material in The Bride! (March 6), set in 1930s Chicago, starring Jessie Buckley (again) and Christian Bale. It is released on the same Friday as Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man – the concluding chapter of Steven Knight’s smash hit gangster series, which ran from 2013 to 2022. The saga of the Birmingham mob, led by Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy again), began in the aftermath of the first world war and ends in the Blitz of 1940.

The mega-franchises have a big year ahead. From the Star Wars stable, there is The Mandalorian and Grogu (May 22); from the rebooted DC Universe, Supergirl (June 26); from Pixar, Toy Story 5 (June 19); Denis Villeneuve’s third Dune movie (December 18), before he moves on to Bond; from Netflix and the C.S. Lewis Company, Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew (November 26); and from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Brand New Day (July 31) and Avengers: Doomsday (December 18), in which Robert Downey Jr returns, not as Iron Man, but the super-villain Doctor Doom.

My own interest is piqued by three other coming attractions: The Adventures of Cliff Booth (Netflix, summer), directed by David Fincher and written by Quentin Tarantino, picking up the story of Brad Pitt’s character in 1977, eight years after the events of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019); Disclosure Day (June 12) Steven Spielberg’s first UFO or alien invasion movie since War of the Worlds (2005), starring Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor; and – most of all – Digger (October 2), Alejandro Iñárritu’s black comedy starring Tom Cruise and Jesse Plemons.

STAGE

Though Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape is bracingly short, it is also one of the most demanding texts in the modern repertoire. The best two productions I have seen starred, respectively, John Hurt and Michael Gambon. But I have high hopes for Gary Oldman who will be playing the part at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in May.

After the triumph of Sarah Snook in The Picture of Dorian Gray, Kip Williams has cast Cynthia Erivo in Dracula (Noel Coward Theatre, London; February 4-May 30), in which she will play all 23 roles. Rebecca Lucy Taylor (aka Self Esteem), so good as Sally Bowles in Cabaret, returns to the stage in Daniel Raggett’s 50^th anniversary production of David Hare’s Teeth ’n’ Smiles (Duke of York’s Theatre, London, March 13-June 6), with new music by RLT herself.

Sir Tom Stoppard’s death in November lends poignancy to Carrie Cracknell’s revival of Arcadia at the Old Vic (January 24-March 31). I am also looking forward to Simon Stone’s adaptation of Chekhov’s Ivanov (July 4- September 19), starring Chris Pine at my favourite theatre, the Bridge; to Lesley Manville and Aidan Turner in Christopher Hampton’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the National (March 21-June 6); and to Romola Garai in The Doll’s House at the Almeida (March 31-May 16).

STREAMING

Another excellent Steven Knight series, A Thousand Blows, set in the bare-knuckle fighting underworld of Victorian London, returns for a well-deserved second season (Disney+, January 9). Those still loyal to the Game of Thrones universe will be rewarded by a new spin-off, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (Sky Atlantic/Now TV, January 19) and season three of House of the Dragon, expected later in the year.

The long-awaited season 3 of Sam Levinson’s Euphoria – one of the greatest shows of the prestige television age – is due on Sky Atlantic and Now TV in April: Zendaya (again) is back as Rue, as are Sydney Sweeney as Cassie and Jacob Elordi (again) as Nate. Lexi (Maude Apatow) is now assistant to a new character played by Sharon Stone, while Jules (Hunter Schafer) is at art school. 

The second season of R. Scott Gemmill’s Emmy-winning hospital drama The Pitt premieres in January in the US, while the UK is still waiting to see the first. That depends upon Max, the Warner Bros Discovery streaming service, launching here as planned in March – though the brutal auction between Netflix and Paramount Skydance for Warners could disrupt that timetable.

Also due in 2026 is Prime Video’s tentpole science-fiction series, Blade Runner 2099, created by Silka Luisa and starring Michelle Yeoh, Hunter Schafer (again), Lewis Gribben and Tom Burke – a return to the neo-noir science fiction world of replicants and assassins set half a century after Blade Runner 2049 (2017), Villeneuve’s terrific sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 original.

On the BBC’s slate, two offerings leap out: Jack Thorne’s adaptation of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies; and – back by popular demand – Ian Fletcher (Hugh Bonneville), last seen as Head of Values at the BBC in W1A, now assumes the role of Director of Integrity in Miami as part of the World Cup Oversight Team in Twenty Twenty Six. Hugh Skinner also returns as Will Humphries, now Ian’s PA, and David Tennant, as ever, supplies the deadpan narration.

BOOKS

Julian Barnes says that Departure(s) (Jonathan Cape, January 22) will be his final book: it tells the tale of Stephen and Jean who fall in love twice, in youth and old age. Another Booker Prize-winner, George Saunders, explores the last night of an oil tycoon, K.J. Boone in Vigil (Bloomsbury, January 27).

Ali Smith’s Glyph (Hamish Hamilton, January 29) is entangled with the story of Gliff (2024), but is also a stand-alone story of sibling dynamics, hauntings and war. Robert Harris returns to ancient Rome in Agrippa (Hutchinson Heinemann, August 27), while Yann Martel imagines the discovery of a lost account of the Trojan War, The Psoad, in Son of Nobody (Canongate, April 2). 

Colson Whitehead’s Cool Machine (Fleet, July 21) completes the magnificent Harlem Trilogy. Among the year’s fictional debuts, Tara Menon’s Under Water (Summit Books UK, March 12) is a remarkable study of grief, set against the backdrop of ecological disaster.

The memoir of 2026 will be Gisèle Pelicot’s A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides (Bodley Head, February 17). As you would expect, a host of titles on artificial intelligence is due to be published: I am especially looking forward to Jamie Bartlett’s How to Talk to AI (And How Not to) (WH Allen, April 9). Michael Pollan’s A World Appears (Allen Lane, February 24) promises to be an important contribution to our expanding understanding of consciousness.

As the MAGA movement fractures, Jason Zengerle’s Hated by All the Right People (Scribe, February 3), a biography of Tucker Carlson, could hardly be better timed. Hugo Drochon’s Elites and Democracy (Princeton University Press, January 6) is a fascinating and paradoxical study of democratic societies and the contest between elites that drives them. Jane Rogoyska’s Hotel Exile: Paris in the Shadow of War (Allen Lane, February 26) is a historical gem: the story of the Hotel Lutetia, home to the Parisian avant garde; to the German military intelligence service; and then to refugees returning from the concentration camps.

In Push the Wall: My Life, Writing, Drawing and the Art of Storytelling (Canongate, July 16), Frank Miller reflects on a life of storytelling achievement that not only revolutionised comic books but laid the foundations for the 21^st-century world of superhero franchises. Sylvester Stallone’s debut memoir The Steps (Seven Dials, September 26) may shed light on the path of the great American underdog to ardent Trump supporter, while Liza Minnelli’s Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! (Coronet, March 10) will surely be a memoir with jazz hands.

As a lifelong fan of the great dystopian writer, I cannot wait for The Illuminated Man: Life, Death and the Worlds of JG Ballard (Bloomsbury Continuum, April 23), a biography begun by the late novelist Christopher Priest and completed by his wife Nina Allan.