The Complete Guide to Superhero Movies in 2019
The superhero movie craze shows no signs of stopping, not with eight superhero/villain movies opening this year alone — including unconventional superhero movies Glass (opens 17 Jan) and Brightburn (16 May), and three Marvel films taking up a third of the list. Avengers: Endgame (24 Apr) may be the end of a journey that started with Iron Man 11 years ago, but it’ll certainly not be the end of the modern day comic book superhero movie. You can expect more Avengers in future even if some of the original heroes (Cap? Tony?) will no longer be around because their contracts are up.
Superhero movies opening in cinemas in 2019
(Click on each title in the numbered list to jump to that section if you don’t want to scroll through the entire list. This list will be updated periodically as new information/trailers come in. You can also click on each movie’s heading to go to their IMDb pages. Release dates below are for Singapore, but if you’re outside Singapore, IMDb can tell you fairly accurately what’s the release date in your country.)
- Glass (17 Jan)
- Captain Marvel (7 Mar)
- Shazam (4 Apr)
- Avengers: Endgame (24 Apr)
- Brightburn (9 May)
- X-Men: Dark Phoenix (5 Jun)
- Spider-Man: Far from Home (2 Jul)
- Joker (3 Oct)
Glass (17 Jan)
Director: M. Night Shyamalan (“Split”, “Unbreakable”, “The Sixth Sense”, “Signs”)
Cast: James McAvoy, Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Anya Taylor-Joy, Sarah Paulson, Spencer Treat Clark, Charlayne Woodard
Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Synopsis: M. Night Shyamalan brings together the narratives of two of his standout originals—2000’s “Unbreakable”, from Touchstone, and 2016’s “Split”, from Universal—in one explosive, all-new comic-book thriller: GLASS. From “Unbreakable”, Bruce Willis returns as David Dunn as does Samuel L. Jackson as Elijah Price, known also by his pseudonym Mr. Glass. Joining from “Split” are James McAvoy, reprising his role as Kevin Wendell Crumb and the multiple identities who reside within, and Anya Taylor-Joy as Casey Cooke, the only captive to survive an encounter with The Beast. Following the conclusion of “Split”, GLASS finds Dunn pursuing Crumb’s superhuman figure of The Beast in a series of escalating encounters, while the shadowy presence of Price emerges as an orchestrator who holds secrets critical to both men.
Captain Marvel (7 Mar)
Directors: Anna Boden (“Mississippi Grind”), Ryan Fleck (“Mississippi Grind”, “Half Nelson”)
Cast: Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Gemma Chan, Clark Gregg, Lashana Lynch, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, McKenna Grace, Jude Law
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Synopsis: Carol Danvers becomes one of the universe’s most powerful heroes when Earth is caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races.
Shazam! (4 Apr)
Director: David F. Sandberg (“Lights Out”, “Annabelle: Creation”)
Cast: Zachary Levi, Mark Strong, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Djimon Hounsou, Faithe Herman, Grace Fulton, Ian Chen, Jovan Armand, Marta Milans, Cooper Andrews
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Synopsis: We all have a superhero inside us, it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson’s (Asher Angel) case, by shouting out one word—SHAZAM!—this streetwise 14-year-old foster kid can turn into the adult Super Hero Shazam (Zachary Levi), courtesy of an ancient wizard (Djimon Hounsou). Still a kid at heart—inside a ripped, godlike body—Shazam revels in this adult version of himself by doing what any teen would do with superpowers: have fun with them! Can he fly? Does he have X-ray vision? Can he shoot lightning out of his hands? Can he skip his social studies test? Shazam sets out to test the limits of his abilities with the joyful recklessness of a child. But he’ll need to master these powers quickly in order to fight the deadly forces of evil controlled by Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong).
Avengers: Endgame (24 Apr)
Read my Avengers: Endgame review here.
Directors: Anthony Russo (“Avengers: Infinity War”, “Captain America: Civil War”, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”), Joe Russo (“Avengers: Infinity War”, “Captain America: Civil War”, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”)
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Brie Larson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chadwick Boseman, Karen Gillan, Paul Rudd, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Letitia Wright, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Gwyneth Paltrow, Josh Brolin
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Synopsis: After the devastating events of “Avengers: Infinity War”, the universe is in ruins due to the efforts of the Mad Titan, Thanos. With the help of remaining allies, the Avengers must assemble once more in order to undo Thanos’ actions and undo the chaos to the universe, no matter what consequences may be in store, and no matter who they face…
Brightburn (9 May)
Director: David Yarovesky (“The Hive”)
Cast: Elizabeth Banks, David Denman, Jackson A. Dunn, Matt Jones, Meredith Hagner
Genre: Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Synopsis: What if a child from another world crash-landed on Earth, but instead of becoming a hero to mankind, he proved to be something far more sinister? With BRIGHTBURN, the visionary filmmaker of “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Slither” presents a startling, subversive take on a radical new genre: superhero horror.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix (5 Jun)
Read my X-Men: Dark Phoenix review here.
Director: Simon Kinberg (Producer of “The Martian”, “Logan”, “X-Men: Days of Future Past”)
Cast: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Evan Peters, Jessica Chastain
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Synopsis: In DARK PHOENIX, the X-MEN face their most formidable and powerful foe: one of their own, Jean Grey. During a rescue mission in space, Jean is nearly killed when she is hit by a mysterious cosmic force. Once she returns home, this force not only makes her infinitely more powerful, but far more unstable. Wrestling with this entity inside her, Jean unleashes her powers in ways she can neither comprehend nor contain. With Jean spiraling out of control, and hurting the ones she loves most, she begins to unravel the very fabric that holds the X-Men together. Now, with this family falling apart, they must find a way to unite — not only to save Jean’s soul, but to save our very planet from aliens who wish to weaponize this force and rule the galaxy.
Spider-Man: Far from Home (2 Jul)
Read my Spider-Man: Far from Home review here.
Director: Jon Watts (“Spider-Man: Homecoming”)
Cast: Tom Holland, Jake Gyllenhaal, Samuel L. Jackson, Zendaya, Cobie Smulders, Jon Favreau, Marisa Tomei, Jacob Batalon, Angourie Rice, Tony Revolori, Martin Starr
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy
Synopsis: Peter Parker returns in SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME, the next chapter of the “Spider-Man: Homecoming” series! Our friendly neighborhood Super Hero decides to join his best friends Ned, MJ, and the rest of the gang on a European vacation. However, Peter’s plan to leave super heroics behind for a few weeks are quickly scrapped when he begrudgingly agrees to help Nick Fury uncover the mystery of several elemental creature attacks, creating havoc across the continent!
Joker (3 Oct)
Director: Todd Phillips (“The Hangover” series, “Due Date”, “War Dogs”, “School for Scoundrels”, “Starsky & Hutch”)
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Shea Whigham, Brett Cullen, Frances Conroy, Marc Maron, Bill Camp
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Synopsis: Director Todd Phillips’ JOKER centers around the iconic arch nemesis and is an original, standalone fictional story not seen before on the big screen. Phillips’ exploration of Arthur Fleck, who is indelibly portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, is of a man struggling to find his way in Gotham’s fractured society. A clown-for-hire by day, he aspires to be a stand-up comic at night… but finds the joke always seems to be on him. Caught in a cyclical existence between apathy and cruelty, Arthur makes one bad decision that brings about a chain reaction of escalating events in this gritty character study.
