Netflix Movie Preview: The Best New Films Coming in 2026

Mark your watchlist now for these dramas, comedies, mysteries, rom-coms and action flicks here to light up the small screen all year

Chris Nashawaty,

AARP

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Published January 09, 2026

taron egerton and charlize theron in a scene from apex

Taron Egerton and Charlize Theron do battle in the wilderness in "Apex," coming to Netflix in April.

Kane Skennar/Netflix

This is shaping up to be a banner movie year for Netflix. The streamer plans to roll out a rich supply of dramas, comedies, rom-coms, mysteries and action films in 2026 with some of the biggest stars and directors on the planet. While many of the release dates aren’t in stone yet (we’ve included the ones that are so far), you can always check this page — and AARP's guide to what's new on Netflix each month — for updates. In the meantime, stock up on popcorn for these exciting new movies coming to Netflix in 2026.

Dramas: Russell Crowe and Tyler Perry Get Serious, Plus the ‘Peaky Blinders’ Movie and a New ‘Narnia’

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man (March 20)

Steven Knight’s dark and dangerous British crime drama makes the jump from series to feature film, with Cillian Murphy (returning as Tommy Shelby) joined by big-time costars including Stephen Graham, 52, Rebecca Ferguson and Tim Roth, 64.

Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew (December)

Barbie director Greta Gerwig follows up her 2023 box office smash with this highly anticipated adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ family-friendly fantasy series about the timeless battle between good and evil in a magical realm. Your move, Game of Thrones.

Doing Life

The latest movie to emerge from Tyler Perry’s fruitful Netflix deal is an urban drama about a single mother (Naomi Baker) who forms an unlikely bond with a reformed ex-con (Jay Reeves, one of the stars of Perry’s drama The Six Triple Eight).

The Mosquito Bowl

Peter Berg, 61, the director of American Primeval and Friday Night Lights, returns with this WWII drama based on the true story of four top college football stars who enlisted in the Marines following Pearl Harbor and ended up playing in a legendary game on the eve of the invasion of Okinawa.

UNABOM

Russell Crowe, 61, stars in this intriguing origin story of Ted Kaczynski, the domestic terrorist better known as the Unabomber. Room’s Jacob Tremblay tackles the role of Kaczynski as a young man, showing how he began to be radicalized while studying mathematics at Harvard. Crowe plays a controversial professor.

Comedies: Adam Sandler, Cameron Diaz and Kevin Hart Get Even Funnier

72 Hours

It wouldn’t be Netflix without a Kevin Hart comedy somewhere on the calendar. This time the comic plays a middle-aged executive who tags along with a group of younger guys on their blowout bachelor party weekend after being mistakenly added to their group text. SNL’s Marcello Hernández and One Battle After Another’s Teyana Taylor costar.

Bad Day

After a near-decade Hollywood hiatus, Cameron Diaz, 53, returned to the screen last year in the Netflix hit Back in Action. She isn’t wasting any time with her follow-up. In this chaos-fueled action comedy, Diaz plays a harried single mom fighting to keep a promise to her daughter during the worst day of her life.

Roommates

Adam Sandler, 59, produced this campus comedy about a naïve college freshman who gets a cool new roommate, only to be devastated when she doesn’t want to become besties. Sadie Sandler, the comedian’s daughter (who was excellent in Netflix’s You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah), stars.

Mysteries: Twisty Crime Tales Star Robert De Niro, Jennifer Lopez and Jessica Chastain

Enola Holmes 3

The game is afoot! Homegrown Netflix star Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things) is back on the case as Sherlock Holmes’ equally brilliant younger sister in the Malta-set third installment of this fun, crime-solving film franchise.

Heartland

Jessica Chastain plays Misty Jones, a former country music star who comes out of seclusion to look into the disappearance of her niece (Carter Faith), a rising musician herself. Think of this one as Nashville noir.

The Whisper Man

You talkin’ to him? Robert De Niro, 82, will add some gravitas to Netflix's 2026 slate in this adaptation of Alex North’s 2019 bestseller about a widowed crime writer whose 8-year-old son goes missing. Desperate, he turns to his retired police detective father (guess who?) for help. The ensemble cast includes Michael Keaton, 74, The White Lotus’s Michelle Monaghan and Severance’s Adam Scott, 52.

The Last Mrs. Parrish

In another bestseller adaptation (this one by Liv Constantine), Jennifer Lopez, 56, plays Daphne Parrish, a socialite threatened by an envious wallflower trying to insert herself, Talented Mr. Ripley–style, into her picture-perfect life.

Rom-coms: J. Lo and Tyler Perry Star in Two Looks at Love

Office Romance

Look, we’re as in the dark on this rom-com as you are. Netflix is being stingy with the details. But here’s what we do know: Jennifer Lopez will team up with Ted Lasso’s Brett Goldstein and Edward James Olmos, 78, who plays her father (as he also did in 1997’s Selena). Frankly, that’s enough for us.

Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Again?

The third installment in this bittersweet comedy franchise features the original cast (including Perry, 56, Jill Scott, 53, Michael Jai White, 58, and Tasha Smith, 54) returning for another round of marital mayhem. This time around, the couples reunite for one of their kids’ nuptials. Expect laughs and life lessons as well as an appearance by Perry regular Taraji P. Henson, 55.

Action Movies: Charlize Theron, Denzel Washington, Gillian Anderson and Brad Pitt Bring the Thrills

The Rip (Jan. 16)

Twenty-nine years after Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon, 55, and Ben Affleck, 53, head up an ensemble cast in this crime thriller about a group of Miami cops who discover millions in cash in a derelict stash house, leading to a battle of greed and paranoia.

Apex (April)

Following her recent Netflix action sequel, The Old Guard 2, Charlize Theron, 50, is back in action as a grieving widow who moves out into the remote wilderness only to be dragged into a cat-and-mouse game with a serial killer. Taron Egerton and Eric Bana, 57, costar.

The Adventures of Cliff Booth

In this spin-off of Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 gem, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, director David Fincher, 63, unspools the further rough-and-tumble exploits of Brad Pitt’s charismatic stuntman character. The good news: Tarantino, 62, penned the script, and Pitt, 62, returns as Booth.

Animals

In his second Netflix project of 2026, Ben Affleck directs and stars in this intense kidnapping thriller whose cast also includes Gillian Anderson, 57, Kerry Washington and Steven Yeun.

Here Comes the Flood

Denzel Washington, 71, Robert Pattinson and Daisy Edgar-Jones have been recruited for this white-knuckle heist thriller about a bank guard, a teller and a master thief who square off in a deadly series of double- and triple-crosses.

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Chris Nashawaty, former film critic for Entertainment Weekly, is the author of Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story and a contributor to Esquire, Vanity Fair, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.