Voice staffers share the movies and TV shows they’re looking forward to this year, from powerful female-led cinema to superheros and…sharks?
Jessica Jones Season 2 — March 8, 2018
I wish I could tell you that I’m a different, more mature person than my high school-self and that I’m not freaking out about Jessica Jones Season 2 like I freaked out about Season 1…except those would all be lies. I’M TOTALLY FREAKING OUT BECAUSE JESSICA JONES SEASON 2 IS HERE. Well, almost. The second season of Marvel’s private investigator/vigilante of sorts is scheduled to premiere in March 2018, and I just can’t wrap my head around how awesome this new season looks. First, we’ve got the return of Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones, which is arguably one of the best casting choices Marvel has ever made. There’s also the return of some of the best characters of the first season: Trish Walker (Rachael Taylor) and Jeri Hogarth (Carrie-Anne Moss). Then there’s the plot. While the first season was pretty obvious with the fact that it would deal with Jones’ relation to Kilgrave, the second season has left fans completely clueless, only having a bad-ass trailer hinting at a possible discovery of Jones’ past. And speaking of Kilgrave, David Tennant is apparently reprising his role? WHAT? HOW? Anyway, between this surprising return and everything else that has happened within the world of the series (like the team-up in Marvel’s Defenders), there’s clearly a lot of things that will be dealt with in this season of Jessica Jones, and I’m counting the days to get to see new episodes of my favorite leather-jacket-wearing P.I. on screen.
–Juliana Vaccaro De Souza
Black Panther — Feb. 16, 2017
Allow me to be predictable here because this is a movie that everyone with common sense is looking forward to in 2018, and everyone would be absolutely right. As someone who most definitely has superhero movie fatigue, I can almost positively say that there is not one superhero movie that I have looked forward to in the past year or so more than Black Panther. This movie, this cast, the setting!! It does not get better than this. I genuinely teared up when I saw the poster for the first time because the representation of not just black people, but darker skinned black people as well, was something I have not seen in a mainstream big-budget movie like this ever. And growing up as a dark-skinned black girl, I noticed that I never saw people who looked like me in the mainstream films. Black women who are strong and powerful and a black man who is a leader, a king. The accents, oh yes the accents! There is about to be a mainstream representation of Africa with the film’s Wakanda setting. Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, and Danai Gurira are only a few of the prominent black actors starring as main roles in this movie. The film’s composer, Ludwig Göransson, travelled to Senegal and South Africa to record local musicians for the film’s score. Kendrick Lamar is producing the soundtrack for Christ’s sake and has duets with SZA and The Weeknd on it! NEED I GO ON? I have not even mentioned the trailers yet and I don’t think I need to. I honestly don’t need to see this movie to know it’s going to be one of my favorites of the year. Everything about it screams cinematic excellence and black excellence and I can’t emphasize enough how important this representation is. I’m so excited for this movie, and judging by the record breaking ticket presales, I’m not the only one.
–Dajour Evans
Ocean’s 8 — June 8, 2018
I’ve been looking forward to Ocean’s 8—the all-female sequel/reboot of the Ocean’s Eleven film series—ever since I saw an article detailing the confirmed cast back in 2016. Reading the list of actresses slated to star was like diving deep into my own, magnificent fever dream. Sandra Bullock. CATE BLANCHETT. Anne Hathaway. MINDY KALING. Sarah Paulson. RIHANNA. Sometime in early 2017, I was again shook to my very core by the film’s first on-set photos, masterpieces that featured the actresses soft-smiling and lounging around in impeccable outerwear. That truly jaw-dropping poster came next, and finally the first full-length trailer dropped on Dec. 19, 2017, a date that denotes the real beginning of my undeserving life. Thanks to the trailer, and to embarassing amounts of personal research, we know that Sandra Bullock plays Debbie Ocean, George Clooney’s character’s estranged, recently-paroled sister. Debbie, with the help of her friend Lou (Blanchett), assembles a squad of relatively diverse outcasts and old friends (and whatever Helena Bonham Carter is) and plans an epic heist to take place during the Met Gala. I already have so many questions. Is Anne Hathaway’s Daphne Kluger friend or foe? How many wardrobe changes will there be? Who is the genius that decided Cate Blanchett’s character would be named Lou? Not to be dramatic, but I will be screaming softly until I find out on June 8th.
–Amy Guay
The Meg — August 10, 2018
There are a bunch of films coming out in 2018 that I’m excited to see, but none more than Jon Turteltaub’s The Meg. Despite many false starts and shuffling of casts and directors, the megalodon will be making its way back to the big screen in August. Previous, ridiculous filmic attempts to reawaken the beast, including Shark Attack 3: Megalodon and the Mega Shark series are good for a laugh and a gawk, but I’m hoping that The Meg does exactly what statistics and doctored pictures of the megalodon did for me when I was a kid: terrify. My hope may be a lost one, and it’s certainly overly optimistic, but a girl can dream that a film about a massive, prehistoric shark with teeth that exceeded seven inches in length can be anything other than absurd, right? Stars Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose, and Cliff Curtis bring with them a bit of credibility and the guarantee of at least a handful of solid performances. Director Jon Turteltaub directed National Treasure, objectively one of the best films ever made, so I’m going to go ahead and call his participation a good sign. He has called the film a cross between Jaws and Jurassic Park, and himself has given it rousing hype, saying, “It turned out really good. I mean, apparently.” If that doesn’t get you as excited for this film as it does me, I don’t know what will.
–Susan Long
