Universal Pictures is known for its monsters, and there were lots of them during the company’s 2026 CinemaCon panel. However, it wasn’t those monsters. No Brendan Fraser returning for The Mummy, unfortunately. That’ll be next year. Instead, there was a slew of very awesome-looking sci-fi and horror projects that really piqued our interest, in addition to Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day, of course.
Below, here are the five best genre moments at the panels.
Minions & Monsters is about WHAT?
I don’t like the Minions. They were just never my thing. So, when footage began playing for the new movie, Minions & Monsters, I started to zone out. But then I realized this was different. This Minion movie is a period piece. It’s set in the 1920s. And it’s about movies themselves.
Yes, in Minions & Monsters, the Minions come to Hollywood of the 1920s and become major movie stars thanks to a studio head (voiced by Jeff Bridges) and a director (voiced by Christoph Waltz) taking notice of them. But, soon, sound becomes part of the medium, and the Minions can’t speak. So their careers are over. Unless they make their own movie. And that movie is called Minions & Monsters.
Yes, Minions & Monsters is about the Minions making a movie called Minions & Monsters. And, all of a sudden, we’re kind of interested. It’s out July 1.
Robert Eggers’ Werwulf is going to be sick
The Universal panel also had a section for Focus Features, and that contained the first teaser for the highly anticipated new film from Robert Eggers. And, if you’ve seen an Eggers movie, you realize trying to describe it is kind of difficult. There’s fire and woods and close-ups of people scared. At one point, Willem Dafoe sets a trap in a snowy forest trying to catch what he calls a beast. We then see shots of Aaron Taylor-Johnson starting what looks like is going to be a werewolf transformation for the ages. One that rivals Rick Baker’s in An American Werewolf in London. It’s Gothic, it’s dark, it’s gonna be awesome. It’ll be out at Christmas.
We’re scared of Other Mommy
Who doesn’t love Jessica Chastain? Wouldn’t you trust Jessica Chastain? That’s exactly the problem in the new film from Blumhouse, Other Mommy, which is about a family dealing with a monster who looks exactly like their mom. The way Chastain plays both roles and does her best to trick her husband and daughter was seriously creepy. It’s coming on October 9.
Violent Night 2 is set in a mall
That Violent Night 2 is happening at all is simply a win. And now, we have an idea of what it’s about. A new villain (Jared Harris) somehow gets Santa (David Harbour) on the Naughty List, and he ends up at a shopping mall looking for the meaning of Christmas. There, he’s attacked by Harris and his goons, and all manner of mall mayhem ensues. One particularly gross moment saw Santa use a gingerbread man cookie cutter against a man’s forehead.
Oh. Then Kristen Bell shows up as Mrs. Claus, and she’s got a giant sword and helps him save Christmas. It’s out on December 4.
Lending a hand to The Odyssey
Christopher Nolan was also on hand at the panel to showcase The Odyssey, which is out July 17. However, most of what he showed was something fans had already seen—the Trojan Horse scene. Bookending that, though, were a few short, new scenes, including Odysseus (Matt Damon) talking to Calypso (Charlize Theron) about how long he’s been missing, and then a montage of other action scenes ending with a shot of a giant hand sweeping through the shot. We think it has to be Polyphemus, the famous cyclops from Homer’s tale. We can’t wait to see that, in full IMAX, in just a few months.
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