8 Upcoming Comedy Movies, Ranked by Anticipation
Writing from the Chicagoland area in Illinois, Robert is an avid movie watcher and will take just about any excuse to find time to go to his local movie theaters. Robert graduated from Bradley University with degrees in Journalism and Game Design with a minor in Film Studies. Robert tries his best to keep up with all the latest movie releases, from those released in theaters to those released on streaming. While he doesn't always keep up with the latest TV shows, he makes it a goal to watch nearly every major new release possible. He has been honing his craft and following any and all movie news all his life, leading up to now, where he has a vast knowledge of film and film history. He also logs every movie that he watches on his Letterboxd page, and has hosted a weekly online movie night with his closest friends for over 6 years.
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Few film genres are as immediately memorable and mass-appealing in the eyes of the general public as a comedy movie, as the sheer pleasure of laughter at a great joke can make all of the difference in terms of a film's staying power in the eyes of the public. This leads to all sorts of anticipation growing towards the prominent comedy releases of the future, whether they be the latest installments in long-running comedy franchises or a new original story from a tried and true comedic voice.
It's a part of the fundamental DNA of Hollywood filmmaking for audiences to be aware of the existence of such high-profile releases long before they ever end up in theaters and even before production and filming start for these projects. Still, hype quickly grows for these projects due to the prospects and excitement for the comedic wit and jokes that will surely delight audiences in the future. These are far from the only standout comedy movies to look forward to, yet these films consistently stand out as the comedy movies that audiences are most excited to laugh at.
8 'Rush Hour 4'
Release Date: TBA
It's been nearly 20 years since the last entry in the Rush Hour franchise, as audiences have been demanding a new installment in this beloved action-comedy series, as very few other action-comedy franchises can scratch a similar itch. However, after a long wait and a multitude of behind-the-scenes issues, it finally seems like the legendary series is making a return to the big screen with Rush Hour 4. Ironically, the final push that allowed this to finally happen came from the most unlikely of places: direct pressure from President Donald Trump.
No matter what the reason behind its greenlighting, it's easy to get excited about the classic antics and chemistry between Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker that made the previous trilogy of films so iconic. While filming hasn't started just yet, the now-political pressure to deliver on the film is exactly the push that the franchise needs to make a glorious return that can deliver the same classic comedy as before. One can only hope that the film will be able to grace the big screen before the end of the decade.
7 'Red, White & Royal Wedding'
Release Date: TBA
With so many comedy movies being released on the various streaming services in the modern age, it can be incredibly difficult for one of these streaming-exclusive comedies to not only stand out from the crowd, but maintain interest after its initial weeks of release. This is exactly what made Red, White & Royal Blue such a massive hit for Amazon Prime, as the coming-of-age LGBTQ+ romcom between the president's son and a royal prince ended up being a direct hit with a niche yet passionate audience, leading to the greenlighting of the sequel, Red, White & Royal Wedding.
The stars have aligned for Red, White & Royal Wedding not just to be a massive hit on the same level as the original film, but to easily surpass it in terms of quality and popularity. It majorly helps that LGBTQ+ romance has seen a massive surge in popularity following the release of Heated Rivalry, as well as the star power of Nicholas Galitzine growing more and more with each year. However, the real reason to keep an eye on this streaming sequel is the prominence of the new director, Jamie Babbit, best known for her work directing cult classic LGBTQ+ comedies like But I'm a Cheerleader and Itty Bitty Titty Committee.
6 'The New Simpsons Movie'
Release Date: September 3rd, 2027
Despite releasing long after the series had gone sour in the eyes of fans, The Simpsons Movie still stands as a highlight of animated comedies and still has a dedicated following to this day. While it feels like everybody's favorite yellow family should have returned to theaters much sooner, The New Simpsons Movie is looking to make up for lost time, releasing 20 years after the original Simpsons film. While there had always been murmurs about the potential of a sequel, this long-awaited fan dream is finally coming to fruition thanks largely to the new management following Disney's purchase of 20th Century Fox.
Not much is known about the plot, yet with the film being less than a year away and just recently having a massive showing at the D23 Expo, it won't be long before audiences learn exactly what Homer and the rest of the Simpsons family will be up to in this sequel. Especially with a lot of the same creative team that worked on the first film returning for the sequel, the potential is there for this to be some of the best Simpsons comedy in years.
5 'Gremlins 3'
Release Date: October 6th, 2028
With the original film being a definitive icon of 80s pop culture and its 1990 sequel being an underrated cult classic, audiences have been clamoring for a Gremlins 3 for decades now, yet this long-awaited fan request is finally coming to fruition in just 2 years. Even more exciting is the fact that Chris Columbus, responsible for writing the original 1984 classic, is returning not just to screenwriter this reboot, but also to direct the film and provide the same charm he brought to films like Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire.
With the first teaser for the film being shown off just recently, the floodgates of hype have opened up as many people are delighting in the prospect of returning to this Christmas classic. It also feels like the absolute perfect time to bring Gremlins back, with horror comedy being more successful than ever and just about every other 80s property returning to the big screen. If the film even has a fraction of the charm and magic of the original films, then fans will absolutely be in good hands.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes What Fantasy World Do You Belong To? Middle-earth · Grand Line · The Continent · Camp Half-Blood
Pick your magic, your crew, where you want to wake up and who you would rather be fighting, and we will tell you which world you actually belong in. Four are open to you: an ancient kingdom living through its last good age, an endless sea full of pirates, a continent that pays people to kill monsters, and a summer camp where the Greek gods are extremely real and mostly a nuisance.
💍Middle-earth(Rings of Power)
👒Grand Line(One Piece)
🐺The Continent(The Witcher)
🔱Camp Half-Blood(Percy Jackson)
01
What kind of power do you want? Every one of these worlds runs on a completely different sort of magic.
02
Who is travelling with you? Nobody gets through any of these stories entirely on their own.
03
Where do you want to wake up tomorrow? The best fantasy is usually just somewhere you would genuinely like to live.
04
How are you making a living out there? Even in fantasy somebody has to pay for the horse.
05
There is something in the woods. What do you do about it? All four of these worlds keep something unpleasant out there in the dark.
06
Who is the villain of your story? The enemy tells you far more about a world than the hero ever does.
07
What do you actually believe in out there? Every world hands its heroes one rule and asks them to hold onto it.
08
A thousand years from now, how are you remembered? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your world.
The Map Is Drawn Your World Is…
Four worlds and four completely different ideas of what a good life looks like. This is where you belong, what it would ask of you, and what you would get back in return.
Middle-earth
You belong somewhere old enough that the mountains have names and somebody can still tell you who gave them. Middle-earth is for people who think the right thing is worth doing even when it will not be finished in their lifetime.
- This is the only world on the list where doing good is understood as a very long defeat, fought anyway, by people who will never see how it ends.
- You are drawn to grandeur, to white cities and deep forges and the sense that almost everything you touch is older than your entire family line.
- The Rings of Power is set in the last good age before it all goes wrong, which gives every quiet scene in it a slightly unbearable weight.
- You would take the hard road, and you would take it on foot.
The Grand Line
You want the sea, a crew, and absolutely nobody telling you where you are allowed to go. The Grand Line is the world for people whose main ambition in life is finding out what is over there.
- One Piece has run for decades on one very simple engine, which is a group of people who each want something impossible and have decided to go and get it together.
- You collect people. Your ideal crew is a set of misfits who were each written off somewhere else before you turned up and offered them a better idea.
- The world is enormous and deliberately ridiculous, and the emotional gut punches land harder because of that rather than in spite of it.
- You would set sail knowing the map runs out, which is more or less the entire point of it.
The Continent
You would rather be feared and useful than liked and useless. The Continent is a world where the monsters are the straightforward part of the job and the people are where it all gets complicated.
- Witchers get paid to do what nobody else will and resented for existing at all, which is a trade most people would refuse and you would probably accept.
- You have no real illusions about which side is the good one, largely because on the Continent that question tends to have a disappointing answer.
- The best of these stories are not about the fighting. They are about somebody with a rigid code being repeatedly cornered into caring about people.
- You would take the coin, finish the job properly, and be out of town before the story got told wrong.
Camp Half-Blood
You want the myths to be real and loose in the actual world, and you want to find out at about thirteen that you were never anywhere near as ordinary as everybody kept telling you.
- Percy Jackson takes the oldest stories we have and drops them into car parks and diners, which makes the gods considerably funnier and a great deal worse.
- You would be the kid every school gave up on, who turns out to have been built for something nobody thought to test for.
- The series is genuinely about friendship rather than destiny, and it says so out loud every time a prophecy tries to get in the way.
- Camp Half-Blood is the real fantasy here: a place where the thing that made you difficult everywhere else is the thing that makes you belong.
4 'The Entertainment System is Down'
Release Date: TBA
Swedish director Ruben Östlund has proven himself to be one of the defining must-watch comedy directors of the 21st century, with his signature style of shocking black comedy and satire leading to some massively celebrated comedy films like Force Majeure and Triangle of Sadness. However, his upcoming project, The Entertainment System is Down, seems to have all the pieces to make for what could easily be his biggest and most prominent release to date.
The premise is perfectly in line with Östund's style of satirizing the disconnect of high-class society, following the passengers of a lengthy flight doing whatever they can to deal with their boredom after the plane's entertainment system is broken. However, the real major selling point of the film is that it's Östlund's first time with a real A-list Hollywood cast. While Triangle of Sadness toyed with name actors with the likes of Woody Harrelson, The Entertainment System is Down is going all out, with a cast including Keanu Reeves, Kirsten Dunst, Daniel Brühl, and Nicholas Braun. With a large chunk of the film already being shot, a festival debut feels right around the corner for the film.
3 'Spaceballs: The New One'
Release Date: April 23rd, 2027
A sequel to the parody cult classic Spaceballs has certainly been a long-time coming, considering the fact that even the original film made fun of and mocked the idea of a sequel, calling it "Spaceballs: The Quest for More Money." While it may not share the title jokingly given to it years ago, the potential for comedic brilliance within Spaceballs: The New One is all too real. The path to success is clear and obvious for the return of this Star Wars parody, as it is set up to riff on the modern reboot trilogy of Star Wars films and other modern Star Wars media.
The top-notch cast consisting of both old and new talent is one of the major selling points of this reboot sequel, between Rick Moranis returning to reprise his role after being retired for 20 years and Lewis Pullman joining the cast and sharing the screen with his father, Bill Pullman. For what might just be the last Mel Brooks comedy film, the film is setting up to cap off a lifetime of legendary comedy filmmaking as well as following up on the prominent return of parody after the success of reboots for The Naked Gun and Scary Movie.
2 'Artificial'
Release Date: December 25th, 2026
Releasing right at the tail end of the year to be one of the last massive comedy events of 2026, Luca Guadagnino's Artificial is shaping up to be a powerful, incredibly relevant comedy drama that is looking to take aim at one of the biggest talking points of the modern day: artificial intelligence. The film sees Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, as the film tells the story of his controversial firing and rehiring in 2023. The fact that this $50 million film was dropped by Amazon and subsequently passed on by so many other studios, only to be picked up by NEON, paints a fabulous picture of just how anti-AI this film may end up being.
Even outside of the direct correlation and importance to topical issues in the modern age, the film has a spectacular amount of talent involved, from Guadagnino in the director's chair to an all-star supporting cast including Yura Borisov, Cooper Hoffman, Monica Barbaro, and Ike Barinholtz. All eyes are on its festival premiere at the New York Film Festival in a few days to see if it can live up to all of the hype and excitement placed upon the film.
1 'Anything But Ghosts'
Release Date: May 7th, 2027
The breakout filmmaker who made themselves a household name overnight in the wake of their success is Curry Barker, whose horror masterpiece Obsession took the world by storm in a way very few horror movies have been able to do. However, the internet-era filmmaker got his start in sketch comedy, like many great horror visionaries of recent times, making it all the more exciting that Barker's next film, Anything But Ghosts, is set to be a wild horror buddy comedy.
The film will see Barker and his longtime collaborator Cooper Tomlinson playing a duo of fake paranormal investigators who get in way over their heads when they end up face to face with actual ghosts. Joining this proven comedic duo is an array of great Hollywood stars to bolster the film's potential, including Aaron Paul, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Violet McGraw. Especially after Obsession was such a massive hit and display of pure filmmaking and screenwriting talent, it's no wonder that unimaginable hype has been placed upon Barker's follow-up that has already wrapped filming.
Obsession
- Release Date
- May 15, 2026
- Runtime
- 108 minutes
- Director
- Curry Barker
- Writers
- Curry Barker
-
Michael Johnston
Bear
-
Inde Navarrette
Nikki
-
Cooper Tomlinson
Ian
-
Megan Lawless
Sarah
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