2020 has been a strange year for the movie industry. Due to the pandemic, many of the films that were planned for release this year have been postponed to the next. With 2021 quickly arriving, it seems pertinent to review some of the movies set for release in the upcoming year: both those intentionally so and those delayed by the coronavirus. Here are seven films to look out for, in chronological order of their currently announced release date. (Over half of them feature Timothée Chalamet, in most of which he plays the starring role: what can you do, he’s good-looking.) 

THE FRENCH DISPATCH

Wes Anderson’s tenth feature film is currently set to be released soon after the start of the new year, on January 28. It boasts a cast typical of an Anderson movie, with Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody, Jason Scwartzman, and Willem Dafoe, to name a few. As a new venture, however, Timothée Chalamet is also featured by Anderson in the upcoming comedy-drama.  

NO TIME TO DIE

The 25th James Bond film starring Daniel Craig was one of the earliest movies to push back its release date due to pandemic-related health concerns. As it stands now, the film is set to come out on April 2, 2021, almost exactly a year after the initially planned release date. Not only is a quarter-centennial important to any anthology, it feels important to watch the film to honor the recently passed and beloved ex-007, Sean Connery. 

LAST NIGHT IN SOHO

After Baby Driver in 2017, Edgar Wright’s newest movie is planned to be released on April 23, 2021. Set in the 1960s, the psychological horror stars The Queen’s Gambit’s Anya Taylor-Joy, alongside Matt Smith of The Crown, and Jojo Rabbit’s Thomasin McKenzie. Somewhat of a departure from Wright’s usual lighter-hearted action, the film will be a very interesting one to watch, if only to see what he does with the horror genre. 

DUNE

The movie is set to be released in October 2021. Starring Timothée Chalamet and directed by Denis Villenueve, the movie is adapted from the paramount science fiction book of the same name written by Frank Herbert and published in 1965. It’s not the first movie adaptation: one other, directed by David Lynch, came out in 1984. It will be interesting to compare the two against each other, as well as the book, next fall.

BABYLON

Starring Brad Pitt alongside Emma Stone, Babylon is written and directed by La La Land’s Damien Chazelle. It takes place during Golden Age Hollywood, as films transitioned from silent to “talkies,” as they were called at the time, and will get a prime awards season release date on December 25, 2021, although, for a more general audience, the film will not be available until January 7, 2022. 

DON’T LOOK UP

Timothee Chalamet was recently added to the cast of this satirical sci-fi suspense movie, which also stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, and Chris Evans. Although no official release date has been announced for this film it will probably come out sometime in late 2021 or early 2022. Notably, it will be filmed in Boston, whose proximity to Cambridge may make it a more compelling watch for Cantabrigians and students, although its politically satire nature and star-studded cast might already be enough of a draw. 

GOING ELECTRIC

It’s actually unclear when this one is going to be released. The director, James Mangold, has declared that with COVID-19 restrictions, filming is difficult. The movie is a 1960s period piece, chronicling Bob Dylan’s transition into rock fame, and as such requires many extras and lots of hair and makeup staffing. Regardless of whether it ends up released in 2021 or some time later, it’s something to look forward to; not least because it stars Timothée Chalamet, as a nascent Bob Dylan.