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Christopher Nolan is one of the highest-profile filmmakers in Hollywood, so any news about what he’s making next is a big deal. While 2020’s Tenet wasn’t a huge success commercially or critically, Nolan’s 2023 atomic-bomb movie Oppenheimer was a massive hit, and now the director is plotting his next film.
Deadline reported that Nolan will once again partner with Universal for his next movie, and that’s no big surprise after Oppenheimer earned nearly $1 billion worldwide. What, exactly, the film is about remains a closely guarded secret, but the movie already has a release date: July 17, 2026.
Matt Damon is in talks to star in Nolan’s next movie, Deadline reported. This would be a re-teaming of Damon and Nolan, as Damon played a starring role in Oppenheimer as Leslie Groves. Damon also appeared in Nolan’s 2014 film Interstellar. He would become just the latest big name to work with Nolan on at least three occasions, following Christian Bale (Batman series) and Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer, Inception, Dunkirk, Batman series).
Deadline went on to say that, with production on Nolan’s mysterious new movie set to begin in 2025, it’s expected there will be “plenty of A-list talent” joining Damon in the film, though no potential names were floated in the story.
Oppenheimer, for example, had a long list of huge names in its cast, including Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Gary Oldman, Casey Affleck, David Krumholtz, Benny Safdie, David Dastmalchian, Matthew Modine, Rami Malek, Jason Clarke, and Kenneth Branagh. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Nolan is one of only a few directors who can inspire popular actors to appear in his movies simply for the opportunity to work with him.
What is Nolan’s next movie about?
As mentioned, official details remain under wraps. However, it’s been reported that Nolan is writing the script and will also produce the new film alongside his wife, Emma Thomas, through their Syncopy banner. According to The Hollywood Reporter’s sources, the movie won’t be an adaptation of the British TV show The Prisoner, which was apparently floated at one point for a big-screen treatment.
Sources initially told The Hollywood Reporter’s Borys Kit that Nolan’s movie would be some kind of father-and-son story, but Kit later clarified that this is not the case and apologized to readers for suggesting it was.
This new film is also of course not the next James Bond movie. Nolan himself shot down rumors that he would direct Bond 26, and those movies are not distributed by Universal in any event.
Staying with Universal
Nolan had a long and successful career with Warner Bros. that included films like his Batman series, Inception, Interstellar, and lastly Tenet. However, Nolan was highly critical of the decision by Warner Bros. during the pandemic to release movies on what was then known as HBO Max. Nolan said executives at the company were positioning 2021 films like The Matrix: Resurrections, The Suicide Squad, The Many Saints of Newark, and Dune as loss-leaders to help fuel and fund the growth of HBO Max (which is now called Max). He said HBO Max was the “worst streaming service.”
It was therefore unsurprising–and a major coup–when Nolan announced he would partner with Universal for Oppenheimer. And what a partnership it was, as Oppenheimer made big bucks and won multiple Oscars, including Best Director for Nolan and Best Actor and Supporting Actor for Murphy and Downey Jr.
Deadline reported that some in Hollywood believed Nolan might shop his new film around to try to get the best offer, but he ended up sticking with Universal, according to the report.
Other 2026 movies from high-profile directors
Assuming the July 2026 date holds, Nolan’s new film will be part of a huge year for theatrical releases from high-profile directors, including two from Universal. Steven Spielberg‘s next movie, an untitled UFO-themed project from Universal, is expected to release on May 15, while Get Out and Us director Jordan Peele’s new film, which is also unannounced and untitled, is coming on October 23 (and it’s also from Universal). Lastly, Dune director Denis Villenueve will release his next film on December 18, 2026. It remains to be seen if it will be his third Dune movie, Dune: Messiah, or his nuclear war project. Both hail from Legendary Entertainment.
