The 25 movie stars you need to watch this summer

Will Poulter has been on the cusp of stardom for nearly a decade now. He’s starred in award-winning films and TV series, and even . He’s won accolades for his breakthrough performances, been named as a “rising star” by multiple publications and organizations, and yet he still hasn’t become a recognizable name with moviegoers. That may change this summer when he takes on the role of Adam Warlock, the classic Marvel Comics character who will be making his big-screen, live-action debut in . The final installment in the James Gunn-helmed trilogy will pay off the tease in the post-credits of the last film, in which Ayesha, the Golden High Priestess of the Sovereign, sought to take revenge on the Guardians by creating a perfect being capable of destroying them. Although this might be the final Guardians film, it may not be the last time we see Adam Warlock, or Poulter, in the MCU. [Cindy White]

Director James Gunn has been ever since Iwuji starred in Gunn’s HBO Max series Peacemaker, and now they’re taking their partnership to the next level in . Iwuji plays the High Evolutionary, the scientist who created Rocket, who’s rumored to be the film’s main antagonist. This is Iwuji’s largest role to date, and it could easily launch him into a new level of stardom. The Nigerian-British actor has been working steadily since 2005, but mostly in smaller films and recurring TV roles. Peacemaker was his first main role in a series, and his subtle, conflicted performance bodes well for his take on the High Evolutionary, whom as “narcissistic, sociopathic, but very charming.” [Jen Lennon]

In he is Groot (or his voice, at least). In he is Dom Toretto. In our reality he is Vin Diesel, and you may be seeing a lot of him this summer. It’s a big deal to be in one summer blockbuster let alone two. First, our favorite sentient tree returns to the big screen after making an appearance in last year’s . Fans have nicknamed his latest form “swole Groot” for his muscular appearance, which might be the closest the character has come yet to resembling his voice actor. Later this summer, we’ll get to see him in person, behind the wheel once again in Fast X. The tenth installment in the popular action franchise. Just when Dom thinks he can finally settle down with his family (which, as we should all know by now, ), the son of an old enemy surfaces, looking to avenge his father’s death. Dom should know better than to think he could ever leave the past (all nine movies worth of it) behind. [Cindy White]

Summer isn’t just for loud action films, superhero movies, and franchise sequels—although we’re getting plenty of those—it’s also a great time for romance. Like a gripping beach read, they can transport you with a sentimental love story and characters that leap off the page. Or in this case, the screen. In , Priyanka Chopra takes the lead as Mira, a widow who mourns her late husband by sending texts to his old phone. What she doesn’t know is that the new owner of the phone (Sam Heughan) is receiving them, and slowly falling for her through those texts. To win her over he enlists the help of the queen of love songs, Celine Dion (who plays herself in the movie). Chopra is already well known for her work in the Indian film industry, as well as her TV roles in thrillers like ABC’s Quantico and Prime Video’s Citadel, but this will be a chance for her to show off her softer side as a romantic leading lady. [Cindy White]

Outside of his TV juggernaut It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Charlie Day has been building a solid film career over the past decade. He’s starred in comedies like Horrible Bosses, lent his voice to animated films like The Lego Movie and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and now he’s stepping into the director’s chair for . Day also wrote and stars in the comedy, which centers on an ordinary man (Day) who becomes famous after a publicist (Ken Jeong) notices he looks just like a method actor who refuses to leave his trailer. [Jen Lennon]

The cast of the Fast And The Furious movies keeps getting bigger with every installment. The latest, , brings back many familiar faces, plus a few new ones to raise the bar. One of those is Jason Momoa, who plays the film’s main antagonist, Dante Reyes, alongside Charlize Theron’s Cipher. He’s the son of Hernan Reyes, the Brazilian drug lord from and—with apologies for spoiling the end of a film from 2011—he’s looking to avenge his father’s death. Momoa fits right into the F&F universe, which is full of big, manly dudes, but he has said in interviews that the character is a departure from the kinds of hypermasculine roles he’s played before (Aquaman and Khal Drogo come to mind). He did perform all his stunts in the film, though, so we wouldn’t dare question his tough-guy street cred. [Cindy White]

Casting Halle Bailey as Ariel in the live-action version of seems like a bold choice on Disney’s part, until you hear her sing those iconic notes. Then it seems like the most obvious choice in the world. Bailey is everything you want the character to be: bright, headstrong, eager, and full of wonder. Up to now she’s mostly been known for playing Skyler Forster on the sitcom Grown-ish and for performing alongside her sister as half of the music duo Chloe x Halle. The Little Mermaid will bring her even more exposure, and permanent membership in an exclusive club of on-screen Disney princesses. She’ll get another chance to showcase her talents later this year in the big-screen adaptation of the Broadway musical based on , due in theaters on Christmas Day. [Cindy White]

Disney doesn’t exactly have a stellar track record when it comes to , but has a few things going for it that make us cautiously optimistic. One of those is the inspired casting of Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, putting the usually comedic actor in a villainous role. McCarthy’s been a Hollywood mainstay for years, but we’re excited to see her play against type and hopefully bring some campy fun to The Little Mermaid. [Jen Lennon]

Fans of Issa Rae this summer, as she makes appearances in two major blockbusters. The creator of and will be voicing Jessica Drew, a.k.a. Spider-Woman, in the animated sequel . This no-nonsense version of Drew is pregnant (a detail inspired by the revitalized Spider-Woman comic series launched in 2015 by Dennis Hopeless and Javier Rodriguez) but that doesn’t keep her from joining the rest of the Spider heroes in the fight to save their worlds from a villain known as The Spot (Jason Schwartzman). She’ll next pop up in July as President Barbie, one of the inhabitants of Barbie Land in Barbie. We’re already making space in our Issa Rae shrine for all the toys to come out based on these two characters. [Cindy White]

It remains to be seen if can reinvigorate this rusty franchise, but we have a feeling we’ll soon be retitling the film, Rise Of Anthony Ramos. The 31-year-old Brooklyn native has been inching his way towards stardom for years. He originated the role of Alexander Hamilton’s eldest son, Philip, in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway masterpiece, Hamilton, and was in the touring company of In The Heights. He’s also got plenty of TV (Netflix’s She’s Gotta Have It) and film credits (A Star Is Born) under his belt, plus he’s also released two albums. Basically, he needs to stop being so lazy. Ramos gets top-billing in the (reportedly) $200 million Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts and with his supporting role in Disney+’s upcoming MCU offering, Ironheart, look for Ramos to finally break through and become one of Hollywood’s new franchise stars. [Mark Keizer]

Let’s be honest: seeing Michael Keaton in his classic Batsuit is easily the best part of the trailer for . Keaton, a ’90s megastar who kept a low profile throughout the 2000s, has experienced something of a career renaissance in the past decade, ever since he was nominated for an Oscar for 2014’s Birdman. But it’s his return to his classic role as Bruce Wayne from Tim Burton’s beloved Batman films that truly signals Keaton is back. Even 30 years later, Keaton still looks incredible in the cape and cowl. [Jen Lennon]

Living legend Harrison Ford will don the fedora and crack the whip for the fifth and final time as college professor/archaeologist Indiana Jones in this summer’s . The highly anticipated sequel, which has been in development for years, follows 2008’s divisive , which ended with Indy marrying longtime love Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen). The Dial Of Destiny—the first film in the franchise not directed by Steven Spielberg; James Mangold is at the helm—is set during the Space Race in 1969, and Dr. Jones is not happy that the U.S. government has former Nazis on its payroll in an attempt to beat the Soviets to the Moon. Despite the absence of Spielberg, fans seem eager to catch 80-year-old Ford as their favorite adventurer one last time. If the trailer is a solid indicator, the movie seems to have kept the tone and spirit of the previous entries. Most impressive in the trailer is the de-aging effect used on Ford to film flashback scenes, which in the past would have probably been done by casting another actor as “Young Indiana Jones,” like they did with River Phoenix in . It’s convenient that the technology for convincingly de-aging a living actor on-screen to look like he did during his heyday arrived in time for Ford to retire his signature character. That may be something many moviegoers won’t be able to resist. [Robert DeSalvo]

Anyone who watched will tell you what a mesmerizing performer Phoebe Waller-Bridge can be. Although she’s still best known for the show she created and starred in (based on her own one-woman stage show), she also produced , provided the voice for L3-37 in and co-wrote the most recent James Bond film, . This summer will bring her biggest film role yet, opposite Harrison Ford in . Her character, Helena Shaw, is Indy’s goddaughter, but other than that she’s a bit of a mystery. We do know she’s the one who brings Indy back into the action when she needs his help with something, and that her father, a former friend of Indy’s, was obsessed with the object in the film’s title. After the widely panned fourth installment, we can’t wait to see what kind of fresh energy Waller-Bridge brings to the franchise. [Cindy White]

Back in 2020, grown-up theater kid Molly Gordon teamed up with her pals Ben Platt and Noah Galvin—who both played Evan Hansen on Broadway in Dear Evan Hansen, and are currently engaged—for a mockumentary short that followed the teachers and students at a fictional theater camp called Adirond Acts (a play on Adirondacks—as in the mountain, or the chairs). The upcoming film, which she also stars in and co-directed with Nick Lieberman, is a feature-length expansion on that same idea. Gordon plays Rebecca-Diane, one of the leaders at the camp who is working on an original musical with her bestie Amos (Platt), and also keeping a secret from him. You may recognize her from the TV series Animal Kingdom, or the films Life Of The Party and Booksmart. Or maybe this is the first you’re hearing of her. Whether you’re a theater fan or not, we don’t think it will be the last. [Cindy White]

One year after Tom Cruise woke up a pandemic-weary populace with —his biggest box office hit of all time—the savior of the cineplex returns for his seventh turn as IMF agent Ethan Hunt in . Although shooting was delayed due to the pandemic, both parts were shot concurrently, with the latter scheduled for release in summer 2024. Christopher McQuarrie, the man who helmed the well-received and , is back in the director’s chair to help Cruise dominate another summer movie season. Little is known about the plot of Dead Reckoning, but filming took place in Italy, Norway, the U.K., and United Arab Emirates. It is well known that Cruise has done some crazy stunts in past Mission: Impossible movies, such as hanging off the Burj Khalifa in Ghost Protocol and the side of a plane in Rogue Nation. In the trailer for Dead Reckoning Part One, it appears as if Cruise shot an action sequence atop a moving train. Whether that was a real stunt or movie magic, we’re betting that audiences still high on the fumes from Top Gun: Maverick will line up to see Cruise in another sequel that uses practical effects and stunt work instead of CGI when possible. [Robert DeSalvo]

Say what you will about Mission: Impossible, but there’s at least one undeniably good thing the franchise has done: made Rebecca Ferguson a bankable star. Ferguson can ground any scene she’s in, even the vast, alien landscapes of Dune or the witchy weirdness of Doctor Sleep. This summer, Ferguson returns to the M:I series in . It’ll be fun to see Ferguson play former MI6 agent Ilsa Faust again, but we’re more excited for the new career opportunities she’ll have after the franchise wraps up with Dead Reckoning Part Two next year. [Jen Lennon]

Irish-born Cillian Murphy is one of those solid, dependable actors who’s been bubbling under the A-list for years. He’s starred in plenty of great films and TV series—partial CV: 28 Days Later, Batman Begins, Inception and Peaky Blinders—but his ability to disappear into a role and his seeming lack of interest in playing the celebrity game has kept him from being a household name. In his latest film he takes on the title role of Christopher’s Nolan’s highly anticipated, . Murphy plays J. Robert Oppenheimer, whose work on the Manhattan Project led to the world’s first atomic bomb detonation. Oppenheimer was a difficult man, a Harvard-educated depressive who helped his country win World War II only to see himself under FBI investigation for his supposed ties to the Communist Party. It’s a role perfect for a chameleon like Murphy whose career, okay we’ll say it, is about to go nuclear. [Mark Keizer]

At this point, there isn’t much that Matt Damon can do to surprise us. He’s been in the business for three decades, and we’ve seen him do comedy, drama, and action; play heroes, villains, and . In , Damon plays Leslie Groves, the Army Corps of Engineers officer who directed the Manhattan Project, which somehow seems about as good a fit for him as the unfortunately named pilot Carol Burnett in 30 Rock. Which is all to say: Damon can do it all, and Oppenheimer will do little to change that reputation. But there’s something comforting about his presence, too; for all the questions we have about Oppenheimer—like what new and exciting excuse Christopher Nolan will use this time to explain why the dialogue in his films is impossible to understand—Damon’s ability to deliver a solid performance isn’t one of them. [Jen Lennon]

Margot Robbie’s take on Barbie in is already iconic, and the film hasn’t even opened yet. With all the advance hype, and based on everything we’ve seen so far, we’re pretty confident in predicting this will be one of the biggest films of the summer. Of course, Robbie’s performance in the lead role is going to be a big part of that success. She’s at the point in her career where she can afford to be risky with the kinds of roles and films she chooses to do, and she throws herself into them without holding back. Her work in last year’s and was sublime, even if the films themselves weren’t universally well received. Barbie may turn out to be the best of both worlds—a fun, well-made film lifted up by dynamic performances, including Robbie’s. [Cindy White]

When Ryan Gosling’s character takes off his shirt in a scene from 2011’s , Emma Stone’s character says, “Seriously? It’s like you’re Photoshopped!” Fast-forward to earlier this year when the first photos of Gosling as Ken in the live-action movie appeared, and the reaction was comparable. With his peroxided hair and tanned, toned torso, Gosling looks like a Ken doll come to life and the perfect on-screen companion for Margot Robbie’s Barbie. What we think will surprise audiences is that Barbie—at least judging by the trailer—seems to have a playfully warped sense of humor and will likely subvert expectations. Yeah, Gosling looks the part and is comfortable with singing and dancing numbers thanks to his work in , but may finally prove that Gosling is also woefully underused in comedy roles. [Robert DeSalvo]

Hype has been building for ever since it was first announced, but Simu Liu somehow managed to get audiences even more excited when he last year. Liu’s been on a roll ever since he starred in Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, credibly positioning himself as an affable, accessible star. He’s delighted fans with , laughed at the enduring popularity of some he modeled for when he was trying to make it as an actor, and maintained a pretty great (even as the website seems to be trying its very best to turn into the largest Mad Max LARP the world has ever seen). It’s no surprise he charmed director Greta Gerwig with his dance skills, too. [Jen Lennon]

English actor Jason Statham has been imported for some of the biggest American action movies of the past two decades, so why isn’t he as big a star as Dwayne Johnson or even Vin Diesel? Moviegoers are going to a double dose of Statham this summer, beginning with his sixth turn as Deckard Shaw in , the 10th and next-to-the-last installment of the main Fast And The Furious franchise. Although it’s difficult to stand out in a movie with a large ensemble cast in which crazy car stunts are the main attraction, Statham manages to shine through. He’s also the leading man in , in which he reprises his role as rescue diver Jonas Taylor and will presumably battle another monstrous prehistoric shark to the delight of Shark Week fans everywhere. You may be feeling lazy this summer, but Statham sure isn’t! [Robert DeSalvo]

Rosario Dawson is always a delight no matter where she turns up, whether it’s in Star Wars as a perfect live-action embodiment of Ahsoka Tano or voicing Barbara Gordon in The Lego Batman movie. She’s got enough mega-budget franchise experience that should be an absolute breeze for her, and the rest of the cast is pretty stacked, too, with Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish, LaKeith Stanfield, Jamie Lee Curtis, Danny DeVito, and Jared Leto also making appearances. It takes a special kind of talent to be able to lead a cast of such esteemed actors, but Dawson has proven over the course of her career that she’s up to the task. [Jen Lennon]

Archie Madekwe doesn’t have a lot of credits, but the ones he has are pretty impressive. After his supporting role in Apple TV+’s See and Ari Aster’s 2019 horror hit Midsommer, Madekwe’s career is about to kick into high gear with the long-awaited film adaptation of the video game . The London-born Madekwe plays real-life racer Jann Mardenborough who, in 2011, won Nissan’s PlayStation GT Academy competition, leading to a professional racing career that continues to this day. Madekwe is a dead ringer for Mardenborough and standing at a vertiginous 6-foot-4, he’s got the presence to command the screen in a film that will hopefully reinvigorate the career of District 9 director Neill Blomkamp. Looks like this drama school dropout (OK, he dropped out to appear in an Edward Albee play, so we’re down with it) won’t need to stretch much to reach the Hollywood A-list. [Mark Keizer]

Very few summer stars of recent years feel so plucked from near-obscurity as Xolo Maridueñam. Known primarily for his voice work on shows like Big Nate on Paramount+ and his supporting role on Cobra Kai, Maridueñam’s career is about to blast off as he plays the title role of the high-flying Blue Beetle in the upcoming DC film. Based on our fine-grained evaluation of Blue Beetle’s trailer—which is all we have to go on right now—Maridueñam looks to justify director Angel Manuel Soto’s claim that, “Since I got the invitation from DC to work on this project, I couldn’t stop seeing him as the character.” In , the L.A.-born actor promises he’s “not going to take [the role] lightly.” Although we’re not sure where Blue Beetle fits in DC Studios co-head James Gunn’s vision for the revamped DCU, we have a feeling that, at least for this film, Maridueñam will be speaking truth to (super) power. [Mark Keizer]