Starting our series of the year’s most anticipated films, we look forward to Black Panther changing the superhero script, disaster movies that will hit hard and the return of the Incredibles, Deadpool and Mary Poppins

The most exciting blockbusters of 2018

The most exciting films of 2018

The most exciting blockbusters of 2018

Ant-Man and the Wasp

Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man was easily Marvel’s funniest movie until Thor Ragnarok came along. Can the reformed thief – along with headlining co-star Evangeline Lilly – steal back the title?

Aquaman

After bringing some tattooed brawn to Justice League, Jason Momoa gets his own submersible vehicle as the amphibious hero sucked into a saga of royal succession down in Atlantis.

Avengers: Infinity War

After 18 movies of build-up, Marvel’s ultimate moonshot: a superhero-stuffed epic where dozens of action figures join forces to counter deep purple space-despot Thanos (Josh Brolin).

Black Panther

Before Infinity War, a side-trip to Marvel’s dazzling afrofuturistic kingdom of Wakanda, where Chadwick Boseman’s charismatic warrior king T’Challa faces enemies inside and out.

Deadpool 2

The snarky motormouth returns for more foul-mouthed, absurdly violent shoot-em-up action, finding himself at loggerheads with grumpy time-sliding cyborg Cable (the busy Josh Brolin).

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald cast from Jude to Johnny. Photograph: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Picture/PA

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

JK Rowling’s Potter prequel series set in the world of muggles relocates to 1920s Paris, as Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) pursues Johnny Depp’s diabolical (and, for many, controversial) dark wizard.

Incredibles 2

Up, up and nappy: Mr Incredible adjusts to life as a stay-at-home dad in charge of a superpowered baby in Brad Bird’s belated sequel to the much-loved 2004 Pixar original.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard return to the trashed Jurassic World attraction to try and save the dinosaurs before a volcanic eruption makes everyone extinct.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mary Poppins, played by Emily Blunt, will return to the Banks home. Photograph: Jay Maidment

Mary Poppins Returns

Disney’s recycling initiative continues with Emily Blunt picking up the magical carpet bag of the original supernanny to help her now all-grown-up charges reconnect with their own kids.

Mission: Impossible 6

Plot details of Tom Cruise’s next mission in the superior spy franchise may be top secret but one piece of valuable intel has leaked out: Henry Cavill will be rocking a mighty moustache.

Pacific Rim: Uprising

John Boyega heads up a new generation of Jaeger pilots in this welcome sequel to the enjoyably bombastic giant-robot-versus-giant-monsters battle royale.

Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2

After the original animated hit imagined the secret life of retro arcade game characters, the sequel lets the charmingly clumsy Ralph (voiced by John C Reilly) loose on the modern internet.

Rampage

Also inspired by a vintage arcade game, this disaster movie sees suspiciously ripped primatologist Dwayne Johnson tackle giant mutated animals attacking cities across the US.

Ready Player One

Somewhere beneath the avalanche of pop-culture references in the dazzling trailers for Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi epic is an old-fashioned treasure hunt story. If anyone can find it, he can.

Solo: A Star Wars Story

A portrait of the (con) artist as a young Han? The Star Wars spin-off focusing on everyone’s favourite space smuggler will hope to transcend its troubled production.

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Tomb Raider

Bow selector: Alicia Vikander leads this gritty reboot of the video game franchise as a young Lara Croft improvising weapons and fighting for survival on a desert island.

Venom

Spider-Man’s dark twin – last glimpsed in the unloved Spider-Man 3 – gets his own movie, with Tom Hardy playing a man possessed by shapeshifting black alien goo.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix

After 2016’s patchy Apocalypse, the long-running mutant franchise tries to get back on track with a 1990s-set instalment where mega-telepath Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) goes goth.