2022 Spring Movie Preview: 15 Films Not to Miss

Coming April 1

Morbius​

At 50, Jared Leto plays a scientist who treats his deadly blood ailment with a potion that makes him a kind of vampire — he can glide, hear and drink blood like a bat, but garlic and crosses don’t faze him. Sunlight does, so he works in darkness while struggling with his own dark impulses. Michael Keaton, 70, plays his mentor Vulture, who advises, “Let go of what you used to be — discover who you’re meant to be.”​

Coming to: Theaters nationwide​​

Coming April 15

Father Stu

Mark Wahlberg (The Fighter), 50, leaps back into the ring as Stuart Long, a real-life anti-Christian boxer who crashed his motorcycle, had a vision in a near-death experience, became a priest and died of a rare ailment at 50. “But not,” Wahlberg said, “before he was able to inspire thousands upon thousands of people.” Mel Gibson, 66, plays his father.​

Coming to: Theaters nationwide​

Don’t miss this: 20 Movies We Can't Wait for in 2022

Coming April 22

The Northman

​In a movie based on the Danish legend that inspired Hamlet, Amleth (played by Alexander Skarsgård, Big Little Lies), a 10th-century Viking, hunts the man who killed his father, King Aurvandil (Ethan Hawke, 51), and abducted his mom (Nicole Kidman, 54). Björk, 56, depicts a witch. Willem Dafoe, 66, says his court jester character is “nefarious.”​

Coming to: Theaters nationwide​​

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Nicolas Cage, 58, who blew $150 million and hasn’t made a blockbuster in years, plays two characters: a desperate actor named Nicolas Cage, who takes $1 million to appear at a fan’s birthday party, and the actor’s alter ego, Nicky Cage, who berates Nicolas for doing little art films. This one could be a big art film à la Being John Malkovich.​

Coming to: Theaters nationwide

Coming April 27​

The Survivor​

Rain Man director Barry Levinson, 80, tells the fact-based story of Poland’s Harry Haft, who was forced to fight 76 other Auschwitz prisoners to entertain SS officers before escaping to America and fighting Rocky Marciano. USC Shoah Foundation executive Stephen Smith calls it “one of the best contributions to Holocaust filmography since Schindler’s List.”

​Coming to: HBO and HBO Max​​

Coming April 29

Memory

In what sounds more interesting than his usual action flicks, Liam Neeson (69) plays an assassin for hire who refuses to kill somebody. Now he’s got to kill the folks who hired him before they kill him or the FBI intervenes. The interesting part? He’s losing his memory.​

Coming to: Theaters nationwide​

Coming May 6​

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

We know Benedict Cumberbatch is back as the neurosurgeon-turned-sorcerer, with Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch, and that creatures will be chased in multiple universes. But what is Patrick Stewart (who played the X-Men’s honcho), 81, doing in the movie? We’ll soon find out in this universe.

Coming to: Theaters nationwide

Coming May 20

Downton Abbey: A New Era

Most of the old cast returns in this sequel to the 2019 hit film. Set a year later, in 1927, it adds newcomers Dominic West, 52, as an actor shooting a movie at Downton, and French star Nathalie Baye, 73, as an old crony of Violet Crawley (Maggie Smith, 87) — who scandalously acquires a villa in France from a mysterious man in her past.​

Coming to: Theaters nationwide

Legally Blonde 3

​Reese Witherspoon’s pink-thinking Harvard Law grad is back as a grownup mom. “How Elle is at 40 versus how she was at 21 has been really fun to imagine,” said writer Mindy Kaling. But what is manicurist Paulette (skyrocketing actress Jennifer Coolidge, 60) up to this time?​

Coming to: Theaters nationwide​

Coming May 27​​​

Top Gun: Maverick​

Rebel test pilot Maverick (Tom Cruise, 59) roars back in a Super Hornet jet to the tune of “Danger Zone.” “Tom plays the same guy, looking for the edge,” says producer Jerry Bruckheimer, 78. Now his rival Iceman (Val Kilmer, 61) is an admiral. The flyboys endure the same G-force they did in youth, tough even for real-life pilot Cruise. “You’ll see how their faces distort — none of that is visual effects.” ​

Coming to: Theaters nationwide

More spring movies!

The Forgiven (release date to come)​

On holiday in Morocco, two upper-crust Europeans (Jessica Chastain and Ralph Fiennes, 59) attend a decadent snobs’ party, then he drives drunk and kills a local pedestrian. Can paying blood money to the kid’s father wash the blood off his hands? Will ISIS kill him anyway?

​Coming to: Theaters

Unplugging (release date to come)​

A couple (Matt Walsh and Eva Longoria) decide to recharge their marriage (and sex life) on a rustic weekend getaway free from children, phones and social media. Then all hell (plus raccoon aggression) breaks loose.

​Coming to: Theaters