JJ Abrams is back in the director’s chair for the first time in seven years since the release of 2019’s “Star Wars Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker,” and Warner Bros. today announced a release date for what will be his latest original idea.
The film is officially called “The Great Beyond,” and Warner Bros. will release it in IMAX on November 13, 2026, the studio announced today.
Abrams wrote and directed “The Great Beyond” (at one point thought to be titled “Ghost Writer”), and it stars Glen Powell, Jenna Ortega, Emma Mackey, Sophie Okonedo, Merritt Wever, and Samuel L. Jackson. Plot details are still being kept under wraps. Abrams also produced the film with Tommy Gormley.
“The Great Beyond” opens a week after Warner Bros.’ “The Cat in the Hat” animated film, and it opens one week before “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.” Paramount on the same day is releasing its Johnny Depp “Christmas Carol” film.
Warner Bros. also announced release dates for three other titles on Friday. First is “Panic Carefully,” also being released in IMAX, and that’s the new film from Sam Esmail, which he also wrote and directed. It stars Julia Roberts, Eddie Redmayne, Brian Tyree Henry, Ben Chaplin, Aidan Gillen, Joe Alwyn, Naledi Murray, and Elizabeth Olsen; Warner Bros. has set it for release on February 26, 2027.
WB also dated an untitled Tim Miller film starring Keanu Reeves to open August 13, 2027, and a new “Conjuring” film at New Line Cinema, this one called “First Communion,” will open September 10, 2027. Rodrigue Huart is directing the latest “Conjuring” film after 2025’s “Last Rites” grossed nearly half a billion dollars globally.
Just as it did in 2025 with projects like “One Battle After Another,” “Sinners,” and “Weapons,” Warner Bros. is making big bets on filmmaker-driven, original ideas. It has “The Bride!” opening in March and the Tom Cruise collaboration with Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, “Digger,” opening in October. Emerald Fennell next month is also putting her unique spin on “Wuthering Heights,” and David Robert Mitchell’s “Flowervale Street,” starring Anne Hathaway and also produced by Abrams, is due for release in August.
