We might still be riding the high of Project Hail Mary’s massive success at the box office, but it really seems like 2026 might be a movie year defined by abundance. With multiple big, epic blockbusters from legendary directors and several actors putting out not one, but in some cases two or three movies in one year (Anne Hathaway has six!), it seems as though we will have nothing but choices.

But what would we choose if we could only see five movies? That’s the premise of this episode of The Long Take Review: our annual Movie Hype Draft! Greg, P.T., and I take turns picking movies that we reasonably think will come out between now and the end of the year. What will we snatch up in the first round? What will we groan about when someone else gets something from our wish list? And what weird wild card picks will each of us make? Listen to find out, and then share what your roster would look like in the comments!

[This episode is SPOILER FREE because we haven’t seen any of these movies yet, but if you keep scrolling after the thumbnail image in this post, you will see our complete rosters, which would spoil the episode. If you would prefer to learn each of our picks by listening first (and we highly recommend that!), wait until you’ve finished before you scroll down, review our draft picks, and then vote for your favorite line-up.]

Image Credit: Entertainment Weekly, IMDB, LA Times, Reddit, and the Hollywood Reporter

Jen’s Picks

The Odyssey (Christopher Nolan)

Behemoth! (Tony Gilroy)

The Mandalorian and Grogu (Jon Favreau)

All of a Sudden (Ryuske Hamaguchi)

Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew (Greta Gerwig)

P.T.’s Picks

Dune: Part Three (Denis Villaneuve)

Godzilla Minus Zero (Takashi Yamazaki)

Wild Horse Nine (Martin McDonagh)

Werwulf (Robert Eggers)

Coyote vs. Acme (Dave Green)

Greg’s Picks

Disclosure Day (Steven Spielberg)

The Adventures of Cliff Booth (David Fincher)

Digger (Alejandro G. Iñárritu)

Fjord (Cristian Mungiu)

The Only Living Pickpocket In New York (Noah Segan)

You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

All music licensed through Epidemic Sound.

Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com

Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe