According to pop culture trends, many people are leaning towards nostalgia, most especially in 2026. Analog has reigned supreme once again, especially among Gen Zs who have not experienced much of the 90s tangible assets. This whole nostalgia fever has been targeting millennials and Gen X, especially since they have more purchasing power. It all is normal and has been that way for 10-20 years ago when old artists rekindled relationships for world tours that target the boomers and even older generations.
As a mid-millennial pop culture lover, I embrace this whole nostalgia fever. It always reminds me of my carefree days, my crazy grade school life in Y2K fashion. Seeing my favorite band members coming together again or movie franchises being continued after years of talks is so delightful.
However, in 2026, I am quite repulsed by the excessive inclination towards bringing back what’s popular or a “sureball” sell.
I receive countless movie and music press releases on a daily basis, and I noticed a pattern: most of the biggest studio films are part of a popular franchise: either prequels, sequels, reboots, or continuations of people’s favorite movies. I asked Google for the complete list of Hollywood films coming out in 2026, and I was revolted. I know it’s the second quarter of the year, but I write this article with a bit of concern about what’s happening to the big studios and their aversion to risk, most especially their underestimation of people’s tastes, their penchant for novelty, and what they choose to pay for.
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Perhaps big studios thought that there’s a demand for old movies coming to life again. Yes, to be honest, I am excited about these reboots, like, for example, last year’s Freakier Friday (the sequel to Freaky Friday, around 22 years after, which, by the way, disappointed me. It’s nothing compared to the original). Because of that disappointment, I’m not expecting much of The Devil Wears Prada 2, which is coming out next month, or Focker In-Law, in November, or Scary Movie 6. I’m a fan of these franchises, so I hope they do not let me down.
Here is the list of the movies from franchises, reboots, revivals, and continuations that are coming out again this year:
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I’ll give you a minute or two to digest that list. Isn’t it concerning? And to clarify, I’m not even sure if I’ve included every film franchise or remake on there. I might have overlooked some movies. At this point, I am a bit cynical about the future of cinema.
While I adamantly object to this trend, I honestly feel conflicted. Deep down, there’s a part of me, like a child, that wants to revisit many of these franchises. Hence, I have decided to react to some of them, and categorize them into those that can be forgiven and those that are unnecessary. I also want my biases to be acknowledged, especially since some of them are continuations of known franchises that have been talked about for years.
My biased take on movies that deserve a comeback
2026 is another nostalgic year, and so it’s a given that movies like The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Practical Magic 2 deserve a comeback, given that they won’t destroy the franchise by being bad sequels. The Scary Movie franchise is known as a parody, so it’s actually a good one, not just for nostalgia’s sake, but for my own curiosity about whether millennials and Gen-Z would be offended by the jokes or if the production and the Wayan brothers would care about hurting people. The Scary Movie 6 is set to spoof Megan, Sinners, Weapons, Get Out, Wednesday The Series, Everything Everywhere All At Once, among others.
I believe Minions 3 is also a great idea because I really love the minions, but perhaps instead of releasing a film, they can actually produce a cartoon series about them.
The main events that happened in Spider-Man: No Way Home were too intense, and people want an explanation and a sequel for it. I also understand that the Star Wars universe is so huge that I think it’s inevitable for the franchise to continue in film.
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Like Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man and Heartstopper Forever, series to movies are mostly produced due to a clamor of its fans. I understand it very much and I think it’s a greatt idea, especially for the well-loved series that fans miss.
As for the rest in the list, even though I’m a fan of them, like Toy Story, and Shrek, I can’t help but ask: aren’t there any more animation ideas? I’m sure a lot of artists are already conceptualizing great and marketable concepts now that only need support and budget. It’s the same as the other live action films on the list.
The Era of Algorithms and how the studios choose which films to produce
At first, I thought if this is some kind of Black Mirror thing, and maybe it is. So let’s get serious in this article.
In an era of algorithms, this isn’t shocking, but it is very disappointing. So at least in most, if not all, social media platforms, the algorithm favors what people like and consume on a daily or hourly basis. The big studios are now adopting “Algorithmic Cinema,” to minimise risk, which results in the “safe” list of 20926 sequels that I compiled.
An article by Critical Playground states: “Algorithmic cinema refers to the use of computational processes—ranging from machine learning models to procedural systems—to structure, generate, or adapt moving image narratives. It is not simply about digital special effects or editing software; instead, the algorithm itself becomes a narrative engine. In practice, this could mean a film that reorders its scenes based on audience input, a generative system that creates endless variations of a story, or an AI-driven director that assembles footage dynamically.”
My whole analysis of algorithmic cinema that relates to this year of sequels is that the big studios are not relying on a producer’s gut feeling because they are now using computational processes to ensure that films they produce would be “sureball” hits. As a person who worked in the tech industry, I’m familiar with how technology like automation or algorithmic data can improve any huge company’s processes (like Logistics and Warehousing). However, in the case of films, which is more of a creative, talent, and intuition industry, you cannot treat cinema like a database to be mined.
Scripts are based on imagination, intuition, novelty, and while you may somehow rely on data analytics as to how many people liked or prefer that kind of movie, there’s a downside to this. What Hollywood is doing now is that they are treating filmmakers as system designers. The problem with this algorithmic approach is that it can’t predict novelty, or the type of movies that people would be curious about in the future.
There’s a lot to decipher in data mining in social media, and it is paradoxical in so many ways. For example, it’s already a fact that social media doom scrolling results in brain rot. But a recent study by University of California Santa Barbara researchers, Jonathan Schooler and Madeleine Gross, suggests that watching art or experimental films can actually trigger “conceptual expansion,” a cognitive state that makes our thinking more fluid and open to unconventional ideas. Essentially, engaging with immersive, aesthetic cinema acts as a mental workout that temporarily boosts our ability to think creatively.
In the past five years, all these movie reboots saw no objections from their fans, so they took it another notch this year. But will this be the end of it all? The lack of variety is so tedious that, to be honest, I’ve been encouraging people to embrace indie cinema in my TikTok page. And I’m glad that Schooler and Gross’s study has proven that it could eliminate boredom and even make us more smart and creative.
While the big studios use algorithms to narrow our cultural expression into a loop of endless prequels, the future of human creativity relies heavily on the “indies.” At this point, we really need a lot of filmmakers who aren’t succumbing to this tech-heavy profit algorithm, but creators who offer unique, non-formulaic experiences that a computer can never suggest.
Again, as I’ve mentioned, this is a black mirror thing, so please, let’s shift it and watch what we like, but be more oppen to experimentation once in a while.
NeP-C Ledesma is a millennial writer and entrepreneur full of curiosity about our abstract world. She devours Psychology, food, Philosophy, and prefer cats as her all-time company. Pop Culture is her kryptonite.