Not sure what to watch this July 2026? Here are our picks of some of the best new movies, series, K-dramas, and what to watch this month.
Summer’s only getting hotter, and so is the watchlist. July throws big swings at every angle: a Christopher Nolan mythological epic shot entirely on IMAX film, Millie Bobby Brown trading detective work for wedding vows (before the case inevitably ruins everything), and the long-awaited return of A Shop for Killers for its second season. Whether you’re still catching up on June’s Voicemails for Isabelle or Obsession hype cycle or looking for your next K-drama obsession, this month does not let up.
Netflix opens July with Enola Holmes 3, sending Millie Bobby Brown’s detective to Malta for a wedding that predictably turns into a case. Disney+ follows a few weeks later with the long-awaited return of A Shop for Killers, while Netflix also drops the dark fantasy epic The East Palace and closes out the Heartstopper saga for good with Heartstopper Forever. Crime-thriller fans should keep an eye on Furious, a psychological cat-and-mouse series starring Emmy Rossum as an FBI agent on the hunt for a calculating female serial killer, also premiering on Disney+. Cinemas, meanwhile, belong to Christopher Nolan, whose IMAX-shot The Odyssey is easily the biggest event of the month.
From Malta and Ithaca to South Korea and everywhere in between, here’s everything worth adding to your queue this July.
What to watch in July 2026: The best movies and TV shows
Movies coming to cinemas this July
Evil Dead Burn
Director: Sébastien Vanicek
Cast: Souheila Yacoub, Hunter Doohan, Greta van den Brink, Erroll Shand
Release Date: 9 July 2026
The Evil Dead franchise returns with a new instalment centred on a grieving widow who retreats to her in-laws’ remote family home in search of some peace after losing her husband. That search for comfort quickly curdles into a nightmare, as the demonic force bound to the Book of the Dead begins turning the household into Deadites one by one, trapping her inside a home that’s no longer safe.
Doraemon: Nobita and the New Castle of the Undersea Devil
Director: Tetsuo Yajima
Voice Actors: Wasabi Mizuta, Megumi Ôhara, Yumi Kakazu, Tomokazu Seki
Release Date: 16 July 2026
The latest big-screen outing for everyone’s favourite robotic cat sends Nobita and his friends plunging beneath the waves after they stumble upon a hidden underwater castle rumoured to hold both treasure and danger. As always, it’s Doraemon’s arsenal of futuristic gadgets that gets the gang out of trouble, in an adventure that blends slapstick humour with genuine heart and a sense of wonder about what lies beneath the sea.
The Shrine
Director: Kazuyoshi Kumakiri
Voice Actors: Kim Jae-joong, Kong Seong-ha, Ko Hoon-jeong, Song Woo-ju
Release Date: 16 July 2026
Set in an abandoned village outside Kobe, this horror mystery follows a group of university students taking part in an international art exchange who begin readying an exhibition among the area’s derelict buildings. When one student vanishes after wandering into a ruined shrine nearby, a wave of unexplained deaths and disappearances follows. As fear takes hold of the group, their manager Yumi seeks out a shaman named Myungjin, who travels from Korea to Japan after sensing something deeply wrong surrounding the shrine.
The Odyssey
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Elliot Page, Mia Goth
Release Date: 16 July 2026
Christopher Nolan’s first project since his Oscar-winning Oppenheimer is a sweeping mythological epic tracing Odysseus’s long and dangerous voyage home to Ithaca in the aftermath of the Trojan War. Along the way he crosses paths with the Cyclops Polyphemus, the Sirens and the nymph Calypso, all while holding onto the hope of reuniting with his wife Penelope. Shot entirely on IMAX film across Italy, Iceland, Morocco and Scotland, this is shaping up to be the cinematic event of the year, with early buzz putting it in the same conversation as Oppenheimer for scale and ambition.
Sheep in the Box
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Cast: Haruka Ayase, Rimu Kuwaki, Daigo Yamamoto, Nana Seino, Kanichiro Sato
Release Date: 23 July 2026
Set in the near future, this quietly unsettling drama follows architect Otone Komoto and her husband Kensuke, who runs a construction firm, as they make the unusual decision to bring a humanoid robot into their home to raise as their son. Koreeda, known for his tender family dramas, uses the premise to probe what really makes a family, and how far love can stretch when the person receiving it isn’t quite human.
The Eyes
Director: Yeom Ji-ho
Cast: Shin Min-a, Kim Nam-hee, Kim Young-ah, Lee Seung-ryong
Release Date: 23 July 2026
A woman whose eyesight is steadily failing becomes consumed by the need to uncover what really happened to her twin sister, whose death remains shrouded in mystery. As she digs deeper, the darkness she’s searching for seems to close in around her just as fast as her vision fades, blurring the line between what she can see and what she’s only imagining.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Director: Destin Daniel Cretton
Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Mark Ruffalo,
Release Date: 23 July 2026
Peter Parker is back, though this time he’s isolated and largely forgotten by the world he once protected, living out his days as a full-time Spider-Man with little else to hold onto. That solitary existence is upended when mounting pressure pushes him towards a dangerous transformation, right as a formidable new enemy makes their presence known.
New series and movies coming to OTT platforms (Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, Prime Video, Apple TV)
Enola Holmes 3
Director: Philip Barantini
Cast: Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Louis Partridge, Himesh Patel, Helena Bonham Carter, Sharon Duncan-Brewster
Release Date: 1 July 2026 (Netflix)
Netflix kicks the month off with its biggest tentpole release, sending Sherlock Holmes’s equally brilliant younger sister back into the field, this time to the island of Malta, where Enola is due to marry Lord Tewkesbury, only for the wedding to be derailed by news that Sherlock has been kidnapped. Adolescence director Philip Barantini takes the reins from Harry Bradbeer for a threequel that’s been billed as noticeably darker in tone, though early reviews have landed somewhat mixed.
Elle
Director: Laura Kittrell
Cast: Lexi Minetree, June Diane Raphael, Tom Everett Scott, Jacob Moskovitz, Gabrielle Policano
Release Date: 1 July 2026 (Prime Video)
Ever wondered who Elle Woods was before Legally Blonde? This prequel series finds out, rewinding to her junior year of high school. Rather than living it up in sunny Los Angeles as she’d always imagined, Elle (Lexi Minetree) and her family are uprooted to grey, grungy Seattle, a setting that couldn’t be further removed from her signature pink, bubbly optimism.
Love in Sync
Director: Kim Chil-bong
Cast: Kim Myung-soo (L), Kang Min-ah, Kwon So-hyun, Jung Hee-tae, Son Ji-na
Release Date: 4 July 2026 (Viu)
This breezy romantic comedy pairs Infinite’s L as an unusually perceptive counsellor opposite Kang Min-ah’s guarded pop star turned actress, and kicks off July’s crowded K-drama slate on a lighter, more feel-good note than most of what follows.
The Five Star Weekend
Cast: Jennifer Garner, Regina Hall, Chloë Sevigny, D’Arcy Carden, Henry Eikenberry, Roberta Colindrez, Gemma Chan
Release Date: 9 July 2026 (HBO Max)
Adapted from Elin Hilderbrand’s 2023 novel of the same name, this is peak summer-read television, complete with a starry cast to match its title. Jennifer Garner plays Hollis Shaw, a cook and best-selling author whose carefully curated life begins to crack after a personal tragedy. Hoping to find her footing again, she gathers friends from every era of her life for a weekend at her house on Nantucket, a reunion that naturally doesn’t go quite to plan. It follows in the footsteps of Netflix’s The Perfect Couple, another glossy Hilderbrand adaptation leaning heavily on star power.
Little House on the Prairie
Cast: Ryan Robbins, Rebecca Amzallag, Maclean Fish, Michael Hough, Zoe Fish
Release Date: 9 July 2026 (Netflix)
Netflix’s eight-episode take on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s beloved novels reimagines the 1800s American frontier as a sweeping survival tale and family drama. The series follows the Ingalls family as they battle the elements to build a new life in Kansas, while also navigating their fraught relationship with the Indigenous Osage community whose land they’ve settled on.
Lucky
Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Annette Bening, Timothy Olyphant, Clifton Collins Jr., Mo McRae
Release Date: 15 July 2026 (Apple TV)
When a multi-million-dollar heist collapses at the worst possible moment, con artist Lucky (Anya Taylor-Joy) finds herself with nowhere to hide. With the FBI on one side and a merciless crime boss on the other, she has to outmanoeuvre both if she wants to make it out alive.
The Hawk
Cast: Will Ferrell, Jimmy Tatro, Fortune Feimster, Molly Shannon
Release Date: 16 July 2026 (Netflix)
For anyone who’s been waiting for Will Ferrell to lose it at a golfer in a comedy about, well, golf, this one’s for you. Ferrell stars as Lonnie Hawkins, a washed-up golf pro attempting an improbable comeback more than two decades past his prime in pursuit of the career grand slam. Standing between him and glory are his own golfer son (Jimmy Tatro), his ex-wife (Molly Shannon), an old rival (Luke Wilson), and, perhaps most stubbornly, his ageing body.
The East Palace
Director: Choi Jung-kyu
Cast: Nam Joo-hyuk, Roh Yoon-seo, Cho Seung-woo, Park Su-yeon
Release Date: 17 July 2026 (Netflix)
Netflix’s standout K-drama pick for the month is a lavish dark fantasy centred on Gu-cheon, a man able to move between the world of the living and the dead, and Saeng-gang, a court lady harbouring a secret of her own. Summoned by the King, the pair are tasked with uncovering the truth behind a cursed palace, in a series that leans into the same richly detailed period atmosphere that made shows like Kingdom so compelling.
Heartstopper Forever
Director: Wash Westmoreland
Cast: Kit Connor, Joe Locke, Anna Maxwell Martin, Eddie Marsan, Darragh Hand
Release Date: 17 July 2026 (Netflix)
The much-loved queer coming-of-age series draws to a close with this feature-length finale, following Charlie and Nick as their relationship faces its biggest test yet: university and the distance that comes with it. Original author Alice Oseman returns to pen the script herself, ensuring fans get the send-off they’ve been hoping for.
A Shop for Killers Season 2
Director: Lee Kwon
Cast: Lee Dong-wook, Kim Hye-jun, Jo Han-sun, Geum Hannah, Kim Min, Hyunri, Masaki Okada
Release Date: 22 July 2026 (Disney+)
One of Disney+’s biggest Korean hits makes its long-awaited return, picking up with Jeong Ji-an now running Murthehelp, the online storefront secretly supplying killers, with her uncle Jeong Jin-man, who faked his own death in season one, once again by her side. Together they go on the offensive against the shadowy organisation Babylon. Two new Japanese additions, Hyunri and Masaki Okada, join the cast this season, with episodes airing weekly through to the finale on 12 August.
Stuart Fails to Save the Universe
Cast: Lauren Lapkus, Kevin Sussman, Brian Posehn, John Ross Bowie, Wil Wheaton, Jaylen Eichler
Release Date: 24 July 2026 (HBO Max)
The Big Bang Theory universe keeps expanding in unexpected directions, and this latest spin-off might be its strangest yet. Comic Center owner Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman) leads Bert (Brian Posehn), Denise (Lauren Lapkus) and Barry (John Ross Bowie) through a sci-fi comedy that flings the gang across the multiverse, trading the original sitcom’s single setting for full-blown space-time chaos.
Furious
Cast: Emmy Rossum, Scoot McNairy, Jake Lacy, Lola Petticrew, Quincy Tyler Bernstine
Release Date: 27 July 2026 (Disney+)
From creator and executive producer Elizabeth Meriwether comes this psychological thriller starring Emmy Rossum as FBI agent Alice Black, who is drawn into the hunt for an elusive and calculating female serial killer, played by Lola Petticrew. As the two women pursue their own competing versions of justice, their lives become increasingly tangled together, steadily eroding the line between right and wrong. Rossum also executive produces through her banner Composition 8, alongside Ronald Bass, Matt Olmstead and Sam Hoffman, with Brian Kirk directing the opening two episodes. It’s a tense, cat-and-mouse watch for anyone who likes their crime dramas with a psychological edge.
(Hero and feature images credit: Netflix and Disney+)
Note : The information in this article is accurate as of the date of publication.
