Here’s What io9’s Staff Is Personally Psyched About for 2020

The Skywalker Saga and the latest form of the Marvel Cinematic Universemight be over , but if our lists of upcomingcomic Holy Writ , motion picture , andTV showsare any indication , it ’s that 2020 promises to be another huge year for genre entertainment .

Jill Pantozzi

It ’s absolutely godforsaken that we ’ve had to expect this long for the follow - up to Patty Jenkins ’ smash 2017 film , but we ’re trusted Wonder Woman 1984 will down just as triumphantly . peculiarly now that Diana has that unbelievably badass winged armor .

Gal Gadot and Chris Pine ( somehow ) are back to tackle a raw evil that ’s settled on hurting the people of Earth . This clock time it ’s in the descriptor ofDC Comics ’ Maxwell Lord , flirt by the always fantastic Pedro Pascal ( The Mandalorian ) . Also joining the corps de ballet this time around is Kristen Wiig as Barbara Minerva , but whether she will fully dive into her comics alter ego Cheetah in this motion-picture show persist to be seen . Plus , from the first drone , we also know we ’ll be get Connie Nielsen and Robin Wright back for some more Amazon action on preceding - Themyscira . What else could we require for ? Oh right . It ’s set in the ‘ 80s so we ’ll be look forward to some all radical music tracks . Though how Diana escaped the Aqua Net curse stay to be seen …

I was a fan of the IDW comic from Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez from the very start and make out the potential the inventive story had for an adaptation . After such a foresightful , long , long roadto get here , Netflix is finally throw the tale its due . Thefirst trailerrevealed some extremely cool visuals that might be a departure from the comedian but confine onto its smell all the same . With mysterious and magical key belt down up all over the Locke family ’s ancestral home , and an evil violence out to take them , the Locke children — Tyler , Kinsey , and Bode — are kick the bucket to have quite a hard time settle in at a new school where everyone already knows their founder was viciously murdered just a few month earlier . I am fond to the story because I ’m actually a collector of skeleton Florida key but I think viewers new to the story and concept will really enjoy it . With its kids and its frights , Netflix is in all probability hop for another Stranger Things - level hit . They just might have it .

Clockwise from left: Star Trek: Picard, Wonder Woman 1984, The Haunting of Hill House, The Adventure Zone: Petals to the Metal, Saw, and The New Mutants.

Clockwise from left: Star Trek: Picard, Wonder Woman 1984, The Haunting of Hill House, The Adventure Zone: Petals to the Metal, Saw, and The New Mutants.Photo: CBS All Access / Photo: Netflix / Image: Warner Bros. / Image: First Second / Image: Twisted Pictures / Image: 20th Century Fox

James Whitbrook

I am not a The Next Generation diehard . It is not the Star Trek I grew up with — that was Voyager , then the original show , and thenDeep Space Nine . I put off watch over TNG for days , intimidated by its bequest as the pinnacle of the franchise for so many people . I finally watch , and fall in love , and yet it was never quite ever start to be as special for me as it is so many others . And yet , the surprisal promulgation that Patrick Stewart would return to play Captain Picard one more clip stir me , as did the machination over the show ’s decision to render to him , not as a lauded Admiral of Starfleet , but a shock retiree , disillusioned and alarm by what had become of the organization he had given so much of his life to , dragged back into activity .

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The trailers have droppedall sorts of fascinating hintsabout Jean - Luc ’s newfangled mission , connections to Romulans and Borg likewise . It ’s given us the return of some familiar faces , not just from TNG but from my belovedVoyager too . It ’s get avery cute wienerwurst ! As someone who has longed for so long to see Star Trek push forward , to see what its timeline look like in a post - Voyager , post - abstruse Space Nine world , and to see what a mod show could have to say about that world , Picard represents a enthralling opportunity that I ca n’t look to affiance with .

Image: Warner Bros.

Wonder Woman enters battle mode.Image: Warner Bros.

Yes , I ’m that guy , like legions of others : Final Fantasy VII on the original Playstation was a transformative experience for me . I ’d never discover or toy anything like it in 1997 , its sweeping saga of ecoterrorists , guys with retentive hair and brand lengths to match , and yes having my middle broken by the death of Aeris ( do n’t care , never Aerith ) . Final Fantasy VII premise me to one of my favorite game series of all time , cemented a making love of JRPGs that I still have held deep in my chest to this Clarence Shepard Day Jr. . It taught me , as it did so many others , the simple business leader of storytelling games could command beyond joy in victory and frustration in defeat .

So , having spend what felt like half of my life waiting for Square - Enix toremake the damn thingsince that first PS3 tech demo eons ago , and waiting since it was confirmed they were finally doing it to get my hands on it , how could I not say that it ’s the thing I am most excited about in 2020 ? sin , they just state they’redelaying it an extra monthand I still ca n’t be mad . I just … can’t wait to be in that world , interact with those characters , operate on this escapade all over again in this bright , vivid , stunning - await new way . Gon na do diddlysquat and write the planet , and it ’s gon na be fantastic .

Beth Elderkin

Dune is one of those sci - fi series that ’s always fascinated me but I ’ve always been too nervous to get into . Theupcoming moviewas the kick in the tooth I needed . I ’ve found Frank Herbert ’s pages to be implausibly dull and complicated , with gorgeous imagination and complex , fascinating eccentric . Lady Jessica is a special favourite of mine . Sure , it make for into some of the traditional foul-up of skill fiction , like the Chosen One ™ narrative , but itsubverts themat the same clip .

I ’m an devouring listener of The Adventure Zone podcast , something that even inspired me to start my own Dungeons & Dragons plot late . So when the McElroys start releasing graphic novel establish on the Balance arc , naturally I was thrilled . This will be the third comic in the series , centering around the “ Petals to the Metal ” quest in the spark . It ’s a fun pursuit about recovering a lost relic that need aspiration from the Fast and the Furious serial ( fantasy conflict wagon ! ) , That said , I ’m curious to see how this storyline is adapted , as the original running was criticize for act into the Bury Your Gays trope ( the issue was later addressed in the final episodes of the Balance arc ) .

https://gizmodo.com/all-the-awesome-new-comics-to-add-to-your-pull-list-in-1840998387

Photo: Christos Kalohoridis

The Locke siblings head into a new mystery.Photo: Christos Kalohoridis (Netflix)

The Adventure Zone a fungraphic novel seriesfrom the McElroy menage and writer / artist Carey Pietsch , presented in a glossa - in - cheek way that blends the podcast ’s real - life role player with the in - cosmos characters of Magnus , Taako , and Merle . Plus , come after the late news that the Balance arc will be adapted into an animated show for Peacock , it ’s a practiced way to get refreshed if you were hesitating about listen to hour of sound . Again .

Oh come on , I ’m allowed to have one stupid matter I ’m kinda excited about . mother country : Fort Salemis a YA dystopian series taking intake from , of all things , The Man in the High Castle and The Handmaid ’s Tale . it ’s a bizarre alt - history saga where the witches of Salem made a deal with the ( non - existent ) U.S. regime to serve as an US Army in exchange for , you jazz , not being burned at the interest . This means the United States has turned into a glorified matriarchate superintend by witches — complete with pentagrams instead of hotshot on the U.S. flag — and all teenage girls are thrust to engage in this magical army upon reaching a certain age . Does it include malefic witches who might also be demons and/or aliens ? Maaaaaaybe . All I have intercourse isCatsis no longer in theaters and I ’m craving something so - bad - it’s - genius to fill the void .

Germain Lussier

We ’re start a Ghostbusters motion picture that state us what happened to the original Ghostbusters . That alone is a stupefying fact . It ’s something fan have wanted , and the thespian have promised , for decade . And while the 2016 picture show was fantastically funny and coolheaded , it was n’t those character . Venkman . Stantz . Spengler . Zeddemore . On that basis alone , we ’re excited forGhostbusters : Afterlife .

Beyond that , to enter that world again through what appear to be the elongated family of Egon , in a mod clock time that has forgotten about those New York City hauntings of the eighties , feels nostalgic and right . Director Jason Reitman is not just a legacy hire either . He ’s a film producer with a stellar track platter who is kind of putting it all on the line picking up where his father , Ivan , left off . sum up to that a cast which includes Carrie Coon and Paul Rudd and we are genuinely desire that everything will come together to capture the funny , adventurous Ghostbusters smell of the original .

If the still - ignoble 9th Saw motion-picture show was just “ envision 9 ” it definitely would not be on this inclination . But the fact that the film was conceive by and lead fabled comedian Chris Rock has us positively , and delightfully , flummoxed . Chris Rock ? In a Saw movie ? What is thatgoing to look like ? And he ’s bringing along Samuel L. Jackson and Darren Lynn Bousman , who manoeuvre three of the Saw films that define the tone for the entire franchise ? amount on . That all sounds awesome . Rock is a person who does n’t have to do something like this unless he really feels passionate about it . So , for fans who feel every bit passionate about the twisty - turny Earth created by the serial Orcinus orca Jigsaw , we ’re on the edge of our seat with expectancy .

Image: CBS All Access

Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) is back.Image: CBS All Access

Charles Pulliam-Moore

Even though the era of Fox ’s X - Men has make out to a airless , Dark Phoenixisn’t in reality pass away to be the film that ends the franchise . Like Logan and Deadpool before it , Josh Boone’sThe New Mutantsis set to be yet another example of Fox betting its money on the melodic theme that audiences are ready for superhero movies that cling to the themes of other non - cape genres like horror . We ’ve expend years seeing vernal mutants develop antic superpower and become superheroes on the large concealment in way that scrape that wish - fulfillment itch . But The New Mutants is balance to dig into the more unnerving , terrorize aspects of coming into one ’s X - factor — something that ’s always been present in Marvel ’s funnies .

From the moment that Wanda Maximoff popped up in Marvel ’s Cinematic Universe , you got the sense that it was only going to be a matter of time until things lead off tobecome properly chaoticaround her , in a metaphysical sense . You ’d think that after losing her commonwealth , her home , and the synthezoid she loved , Wanda might be ready to crack and potentially lash out at the world around her as her comics self is wo nt to do , but from what we ’ve seen ofWandaVision , she might end up turning more in in this narrative . Powerful as Wanda is , she ’s never been give all that much to really do in the movies and even less blank space to really explore her emotion , but from the looks of it , those issue are exactly what WandaVision ’s going to remedy when the Disney+ series drops .

The culture of anti - Black racism is the form of subtle lusus naturae that people who ’ve never really experienced it first hand can barely believe . Matt Ruff ’s novel Lovecraft Country took that realism andspun it together with Lovecraftian phantasy horrorto tell a story about the many forms that institutional racism can take and the lengths to which calamitous mass have always had to go to battle against it . As a live - action HBO series , one hopes that the novel ’s panic factor is going to be amped up a number to really convey the brat the submarine are going to constantly be in . But considering the team behind the series , it seems dependable to adopt that we ’re in for something good .

Image: Square Enix

Seeing some slight improvements over the initial release.Image: Square Enix

Cheryl Eddy

In 2018 , I eagerly anticipatedthe return of Halloween . I ’m a huge fan of the series , even the less continuation ( even the one with Paul Rudd ) . So I was very excited forJamie Lee Curtis to reprise the role that made her a horror icon , with the thanksgiving of dealership Maker John Carpenter , and the intriguing team - up of director David Gordon Green and co - writer Danny “ Kenny Powers ” McBride . Also , anything with Judy Greer is an automatic must . But even with all that magic behind it , Halloween did n’t quite have the encroachment I want it to . I did n’t suppose it suck , but I did n’t think it was scary , which would ’ve been a fatal defect if it was n’t also obvious that the film maker really , really require to do the right way by the original film , and maybe spent a little too much time on fan service rather than lease guardianship ofall those plot of ground holesor daring to do anything unpredictable .

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This is the earned run average of picture show like Us and Hereditary , horror that does n’t just make you puff in the moment , but comes back to chill your bones when you ’re trying to decrease asleep in the dark hours afterward . So it ’s my promise that Halloween Kills will be the film that really feel like a genuine rebirth of the serial publication . It ’s still going to honor the life of what came before ( we already know thatsome of the original characterswho were n’t in the 2018 film will be returning ) , but some of that pressure will be off since it ’s not the first flick in the reboot trilogy . mayhap , hopefully , this time around it will include some shocking storytelling too . After all , what would be more dependable to the original photographic film than really deliver some shriek - inducing frights ?

Image: Universal Studios

A scene from David Lynch’s Dune.Image: Universal Studios

Mike Flanagan ’s skittish saga The Haunting of Hill House wasa near - perfect mixof repugnance , trauma , grief , weirdness , melodrama , angst , sibling rivalry , unsteady parenting , eery output intention , and instantly memorable “ gotcha ! ” consequence — I still ca n’t get the Bent - Neck Lady or that sly Red Room reveal out of my mind , a class and a one-half later . Hill House also feel in particular well - suited for the Netflix format , with 10 episodes the ideal distance for explore each character ’s portion of the story , as well as being unadulterated for watching in a weekend ( or a daytime , depending on how deep it got its lure into you ) .

The only bad thing about Hill House was that it was very much a one - and - done tale ; there ’d be no ground to revisit the Crain kids after everything they blend in through in that single season . But Netflix eff best than to abandon a good matter , which is why it ’s bringing backthe busy Flanaganforan anthology - style second seasonwith The Haunting of Bly Manor , a unused taradiddle ( filled with familiar fount ) and a novel literary breathing in ( Henry James this time , rather than Shirley Jackson ) . There has n’t even been a teaser yet , or a firm sack date for that affair , but I am SO READY TO BINGE ON THESE specter !

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Image: First Second