Warner Bros. & DC Studios CinemaCon 2026 Panel: Live Blog (Concluded)

UPDATE: The Warner Bros. Discovery CinemaCon panel has concluded. Check out the article below for all the updates from the event!

Warner Bros. will bring thrilling news and updates about its theatrical slate for 2026 and beyond at CinemaCon 2026. CinemaCon is the world's largest annual gathering of the movie theater industry, where theater owners and studios come together to showcase theatrical releases and other exciting theater news. Following an exciting first day (at which Sony hyped up a massive round of movies), more studios are stepping up to the plate.

As of writing, CinemaCon 2026 is moving into its second day of events in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Warner Bros. panel will run from 4:30 - 6:30 p.m. PT, covering more than a handful of major theatrical releases while the studio is in the midst of a potential merger with Paramount.

Warner Bros. had a huge CinemaCon presentation in 2025, which included a deep dive into Superman, One Battle After Another, and Final Destination Bloodlines. For a full breakdown of last year's presentation, take a look here. 

One of the heaviest expected hitters at this panel is Dune: Part Three, the conclusion of Denis Villeneuve's space opera trilogy, starring a cast led by Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya. 

Also on the docket is DC Studios, which has two new superhero movies scheduled for release in 2026: Supergirl and Clayface. It's possible we might hear something about 2027's Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow, but it's unlikely, given DC Studios has two movies in between now and Man of Tomorrow's July 9, 2027, release date.

Some other Warner Bros. movies to expect at the panel include the animated Cat in the Hat, Mortal Kombat 2, Tom Cruise's Digger, and Evil Dead Burn. 

Every Update From Warner Bros.' CinemaCon 2026 Panel

Warner Bros.' (WB) panel for CinemaCon 2026 officially started. It began with a visual presentation that included images from some of the studio's biggest movies, including Happy Feet, Superman (1978), and Training Day.

The presentation started with actor/comedian Patton Oswalt coming onto the stage with comedic, exaggerated grandeur, accompanied by four showgirls who escorted him to the front. Hyping up "The Big Picture," his description for this panel, he joked about wanting to join Warner Bros.' DC Universe.

Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, co-chairs and CEOs of the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, walked out on stage to the music from 2025's Sinners, one of the year's best movies. They revealed that the studio has 14 theatrical releases planned for this year and 18 for 2027, compared to the 11 movies released last year.

Warner Bros. Clockwork

The two WB leaders also announced a new distribution label, Warner Bros. Clockwork, in the same vein as New Line Cinema, WB Animation, and DC Studios.

De Luca placed the responsibility on Warner Bros. to produce more films and increase the volume of releases, which would help box-office numbers reach the highs seen in previous years.

The presentation continued with a reel showing off Warner Bros.' 2025 slate, featuring movies like Sinners, One Battle After Another, and Superman. It also included the famous chicken jockey scene from Minecraft and videos from movie theaters showing fans cheering wildly.

Additionally, a new movie titled Te Amo was introduced, directed by Anora director Sean Baker and coming to theaters in 2027.

Warner Bros.' 2027 Slate Teased

In a video message, actor Jack Black spoke to the CinemaCon crowd about the upcoming Minecraft 2 and sang an original jokey song based on the Steve's Lava Chicken tune from the original movie.

Following this message, M. Night Shyamalan appeared in a video message to tease a new movie called Remain, and Sam Esmail followed him to discuss his movie Panic Carefully (which will be fully shot in 1:4:3 IMAX ratio).

Margot Robbie then appeared to promote her upcoming Ocean's 11 prequel, a heist movie set in 1962 at the Monaco Grand Prix. Melissa McCarthy spoke about her own animated Christmas movie called Margie, and Sam Raimi came on to promote Evil Dead Wrath, calling it "this year's most terrifying experience." Cynthia Erivo teased a new animated movie, and Keanu Reeves joined the party in the ocean to talk briefly about Shiver.

Man of Tomorrow

Nicholas Hoult (Lex Luthor) came on screen to help promote DC Studios' Man of Tomorrow, teasing "a new villain and unlikely alliance" being brought to the forefront in the movie. David Corenswet (Superman) added, "Try saving the world with your sworn enemy," before DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn shared how excited he is to see the film.

The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum

The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum came up next in the presentation, with a special clip that saw Andy Serkis' Gollum on a rock in his iconic cave, speaking to himself as they do. The end of his monologue teased that the film will offer "a tale that must never be told," setting up the dark nature of Gollum/Smeagol's story before confirming the movie's December 17, 2027, release date.

The movie's main cast was also confirmed, including Serkis (Gollum/Smeagol), Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Lee Pace (Thranduil), and Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins) returning from past movies. Additionally, Jamie Dornan will play Strider (replacing Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn), Kate Winslet will play Marigol, and Leo Woodall will play Halvard.

Digger

Tom Cruise and director Alejandro Iñárritu came on stage for their new movie, Digger, a concept Iñárritu came up with nine years ago before talking to Cruise about it. While filming Top Gun: Maverick, Cruise met with him in the middle of the night, and Iñárritu admitted to not being prepared to see Cruise becoming Digger Rockwell.

Tom Cruise teased that Digger is the type of movie that he's always wanted to make since he started making films.

Describing the story behind making the movie, the two expressed their excitement for fans to see it, teasing the character of Digger as "powerful" and "one [who] changed the way people see the world." Making the "worst decision in the world," it offers a unique brand of comedy, and it will be released in theaters on October 2.

The footage revealed Tom Cruise's Digger as an out-of-shape character who's secluded, with a white cat seemingly hanging on the edge of life. Many of Cruise's scenes saw him deliver impassioned monologues, and it's unique to see Cruise so heavily submerged in a comedy performance.

As the footage played out, it became clear that the film is focused on an environmental disaster. The scenes included intriguing quotes, like Digger noting how "If [they] can't control the force of nature, at least we can control the narrative," and "Mothernature, she loves to win."

The film, which is shot in VistaVision, also stars John Goodman as the President of the United States.

The End of Oak Street

The next movie on the docket was The End of Oak Street, directed and written by David Robert Mitchell and starring Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor. The film follows a family whose lives are upended when their entire neighborhood block is teleported to an unknown location thanks to a freak cosmic occurrence.

The footage included mostly previously revealed scenes from the movie's first trailer, however, there were a few new glimpses here and there. Some examples included McGregor's Greg promising his family that "God's not gonna let us die here," and an exciting brief new shot of a massive T-Rex-like dinosaur rampaging through the streets.

The film is set to debut in theaters on August 14.

Evil Dead Burn

After long hype reels for both 2025 horror movies and the upcoming slate from 2026, the presentation moved to Sébastien Vaniček's Evil Dead Burn, which will be released on July 24.

The footage, which was revealed to still be unfinished in nature, begins with a slower, eerie scene. A worried woman answers the door of their home, as two panicked people run into the house. After a few moments, another woman slowly walks up with the classic demon-possessed shamble. The woman is revealed to have had her fingers cut off, and has the headrest of a car seat lodged through her mouth into her neck, which she promptly, and slowly, pulls out.

"Our whole family will be reunited," a voice says as a montage of twisted visuals starts playing, including an intense altercation in a bathtub, a boat flipping on a lake, a possessed woman on a dock (very much reminiscient of that seen in Evil Dead Rise), a demon setting a gazebo on fire by touch, someone defending themselves with what looks like a weed wacker, and a final scene with a demon spooking a man who promtply trips and falls onto an ope dishwasher rack, impaling himself on upright utensils.

Mortal Kombat 2

Fans next saw new footage from Mortal Kombat 2, which is almost ready for its May 8 release date.

Karl Urban's Johnny Cage comes in overconfident and gets into a fight with Baraka, wanting out before it even starts. He says he's only an actor, calling Johnny Cage "just a character I play" and that he has "stunt men to do this" for him. While Johnny Cage successfully dodges spikes and some of Baraka's attacks, a few do hit him, and it's clear that Cage is no match for his enemy.

Sonya Blade, who stands next to Jax returning from the first film, encourages Johnny Cage by saying, "You're an actor, so act." This leads him to jump back into the fight, having now become clearly another, more competent fighter. "Alright, you big ugly f***, it's showtime," the iconic Mortal Kombat fighter declares, as he more impressively spars with Baraka, showing off his martial arts skills and flipping through the air before kicking Baraka in the nuts.

The Cat in the Hat

After WB Animation revealed its new logo, the studio unveiled a brand-new trailer for The Cat in the Hat, an animated movie set for release on November 6.

The first thing we noticed in the footage is that The Cat appears to bring color wherever he goes, which is a great visual, but also a thematic line throughout the movie's narrative. At one point, the film's young female character, Gabby, messes with one of the Cat's devices, which transports them to a world fueled by their dreams, leading to endless abstract and crazy visuals and worlds.

Alongside the already revealed legion of Things, we also get a glimpse at a new Narwhal character, and a mysterious, angry creature who seems to be one of the movie's key antagonists.

Clayface

DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran came onto the stage to the Peacemaker theme music before revealing that Man of Tomorrow will have cameras rolling by next week. From there, he quickly moved on to Clayface, a movie he described as "a riveting horror thriller" from director James Watkins. He also said it emphasizes the studio's interest in "character rather than genre."

In a teaser shown exclusively to CinemaCon attendees, viewers see a severely disfigured man wrapped in bandages in a hospital bed. The camera slowly moves in on his face, as the footage rapidly flashes back and forth from random scenes, including one that shows Tom Rhys Harries' regular face as Matt Hagen, that same face melting, someone wandering around a neon-lit circus, and moments of the experiments that changed him forever.

The coolest moment for fans featured the shadow of Clayface against an alley wall, with his arm forming into his iconic spiked mace hand, as fans of Batman: The Animated Series will know very well.

The final shot sees Matt lying in a bathtub, wiping his face, which erases all features, leaving him with a melted, blank face.

Clayface will debut in theaters on October 23.

Supergirl

DC Studios then delivered a presentation for its second 2026 movie, Supergirl, soaring into theaters on June 26. This presentation kicked off with director Craig Gillespie and star Milly Alcock coming out on stage, and Lobo star Jason Momoa made a grand entrance on the bike Lobo uses in the movie.

Alcock came out wearing a shirt with the House of El design on the front, but instead of the "S" in the middle, it had a red version of the Chanel logo. 

Momoa then called his role as Lobo "a dream come true," saying it was the comic he collected most and that the "12-year-old [him] is kind of freaking out."

The movie is described as almost completely off-world, with Supergirl visiting "six different planets" and "five different languages," which Alcock had to learn to speak. The actress also broke hearts when she confirmed there was no real Krypto on set, aside from one day when they had a homeless Romanian dog who just had to sit for the day—something it wasn't very good at.

Next, they turned to Momoa and asked who would win in a fight between the two DC characters he has played, Lobo and Aquaman. He responded in comedic fashion, saying they would "just take one look at each other, and then go drink a few hundred beers." He also joked to Safran about making an Aquaman/Lobo movie, and it was said he only had 15 or 18 days on set.

Gillespie then teased an emotional scene between Alcock and her father, David Krumholtz's Zor-El, in Kryptonian, before explaining that Alcock trained "every morning, for four and a half months for all the action." Alcock spoke on this movie needing to be seen in theaters, teasing the epic scale.

New footage from the movie was shown, starting on an intergalactic ship with numerous aliens as pedestrians. Kara then shows up and asks an alien to give everyone a break, only for another alien to invade her personal space.

Hearing the distressed sounds of Eve Ridley's Ruthye Marye Knoll, Kara speaks a strange screeching language to get the alien harassing Ruthye, encouraging it to leave the girl alone. Kara asks Ruthye why she is not with Krypto. As they sit down and start talking more, the ship is hijacked by tech pirates, though none of the situation phases Supergirl.

The pirate, tech raiders board the ship, dispatching a robotic droid to scan people for belongings. Kara believes they "want to rob [them] all blind" before the droid knocks out another alien a few rows in front of them. Ruthye then draws her sword in preparation for an attack. But Kara stops her, though the sword catches the attention of the raiders. Kara tries to negotiate, but it's taken anyway. This enrages Ruthye, as it is the sword she wants to end Krem of the Yellow Hills with in the comics.

Finally confronting the aliens, Kara struggles to fight her enemies while trying to get "her sea legs"—Having been under a red sun, she is not currently superpowered. She gets a hold of one of the raider's personal short-distance teleporters, which leads to an extended fun brawl as Kara is teleporting around the bus, struggling with raiders.

As Kara gets to the front of the bus, she eventually asks the driver how close they were to a yellow sun, hoping to get as close as she can to regain her power. There's one just across the way, but the alien says that he would get closer "if [he] had balls."

Since the alien won't help, Kara suits up in a yellow space suit, with the intent of getting there herself. However, before she can put her helmet on, a space pirate presses a button that ejects Supergirl, shooting her into the void as she floats like a lifeless, now frozen body.

Ruthye and the pedestrian aliens look onward through the bus windows as a sad but subtle, inspirational piano track starts to play. The sun then emerges over the planet behind them, with its rays hitting Kara. She smiles as her powers return.

Fully powered up, she takes the fight back to the raiders, ripping the raider droids from the hull of the bus, and obliterating the raider ships with her heat vision, ripping their engines off so that they are floating in space, unable to do anything.

The footage then moves to a sizzle reel, including shots of fresh shots Lobo fighting goons and blowing up a ship, brief new glimpses of Superman, potentially in front of Kara's newly landed escape pod, and an emotional glimpse of Kara and Krypto in their pod as it closes shortly before being shot off Krypton.

Other new moments include Ruthye and Supergirl talking about Superman and how he's a nerd, and Krem speaking menacingly to Kara, with Kryptonite poisoning seen on her face, before more action ensues. The final shot of the footage montage sees Kara in her full Supergirl garb absolutely destroying her enemies, a moment that hyped the CinemaCon crowd.

Practical Magic 2

Practical Magic 2 took the stage next, with Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock taking the stage to promote the movie ahead of its September 18 debut.

Bullock expressed that returning for the sequel "didn't feel like shooting a sequel" but rather "returning to [a home]." She also joked about Kidman's AMC advertisements before Kidman said her classic slogan, inducing cheers from the audience.

This movie will pick up "where we have the iconic house," as Kidman teased "midnight margaritas" and "jumping off the roof." The past will catch up with both of them as the movie revisits their families, and Kidman teased that it is "going to be really, really fun."

The Great Beyond

Star Wars writer/director JJ Abrams came to the stage to promote his new movie, The Great Beyond, which stars Glen Powell, Jenna Ortega, Emma Mackey, and Samuel L. Jackson. Wanting to "get back to telling original stories," this movie came to him a long time ago and took a while to develop, especially considering the world-building he had to do.

Wanting it to mash up multiple genres and be cross-generational, he hoped this movie would help with "reconnecting with that sense of wonder that we had as kids." Joking about Glen Powell, he noted that they had previously worked together and had a great relationship marked by "childlike silliness." He also shouted out Ortega, Mackey, and Jackson for their work before showing off footage from the movie that had not been seen outside of the editing room.

Centered on a young, newlywed couple struggling to fight a supernatural entity, the footage starts with a close-up of someone typing an H.G. Wells quote on an old-generation computer: "There is, though I do not know how there is, or how it may be, another world out of sight and sound." The trailer further teases how the world you think you know the limits of, you can't even begin to fathom.

Dune: Part Three

Dune: Part Three closed out the proceedings for Warner Bros.' 2026 slate, bringing dozens of performers on stage to celebrate the movie's upcoming release on December 18. Director Denis Villeneuve took the stage alongside stars Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, and Jason Momoa.

Villeneuve "wanted to do something new" with the threequel, saying the first two movies were like one movie split into two parts. The third will be much more intense and emotional, and it will also be more of a war movie. The film will be set 17 years after Dune: Part Two, saying it is a "very different world" and that Paul Atreides is "dealing with consequences, dealing with his actions" while hoping to redeem himself.

Chalamet added that Paul has "become his worst vision," while Zendaya explained that Chani's "youthful outlook is completely gone." Momoa chimed in by saying his character is "sent as a gift to Paul to see how he handles someone he hasn't seen," noting that he is "Hayt now," a character book readers will know as "a resurrected clone of Duncan."

CinemaCon attendees were then treated to the first seven minutes of Dune 3.

After the opening credits, ships zip through a thunderstorm as some of them get shot down, but a few of them get to the ground and hover a few feet. Javier Bardem's Stilgar is inside the ship with soldiers, trying to find optimism in the water falling from the sky as part of their prophecy.

The ship arrives, and the ramps open, with the soldiers being shocked and happy to see water falling from the sky. Marching out with a black case, many of them are blasted by a massive weapon before they scatter and try to find cover. Stilgar gets a massive weapon on his side to blast the weapons and pillars they stand on, prompting a silence as the sky turns red above them.

Stilgar tries to blast a rocket at those weapons, but it is sent back at him, prompting the weapon to aim at the men taking cover. This leads to even more chaos, as one man tries to run before being wrecked by the blasts.

A more proper trailer shows Paul asking Hayt what he knows about him, as Hayt knows Paul has risen to power and says he believes Paul is "way beyond redemption." A bloodied Anya Taylor-Joy's Alia Atreides is seen reading cards before Robert Pattinson's villainous Scytale describes a cloud blocking his vision and preventing him from "seeing beyond this moment."

Several moments in the montage footage see Paul and Chani face off, including one in which Paul points a gun at Chani and then another where the two prepare to fight one-on-one in the sand dunes of Arakkis. The footage ends with the iconic Dune imagery of a massive sandworm bursting from the ground.

What's Coming From Warner Bros. in 2027

To close, Warner Bros. shared a massive list of movies expected to be released in 2027 and 2028.

Along with a few highlighted in the panels, Zach Cregger will deliver a Weapons prequel movie called Gladys, centered on Amy Madigan's Aunt Gladys, following her Oscar-winning performance. Cregger is also working on another new movie called The Flood, the plot of which is unknown ahead of its August 11, 2028, release.

Warner is also taking Game of Thrones to the big screen for the first time with Game of Thrones: Aegon's Conquest, but it does not yet have a release date. In the books, this story shows Aegon I Targaryen and his sister-wives using three dragons to unite six of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros in two years, ending about 300 years before Game of Thrones starts.

The full list of movies coming in 2027 and beyond can be seen below:

• Animal Friends 
• Remain
• Panic Carefully
• Godzilla x Kong: Supernova
• Untitled F.A.S.T. film
• Bad Fairies
• Man of Tomorrow
• A Minecraft Sequel
• Shiver
• The Conjuring: First Communion
• The Batman: Part II
• Margie Claus
• Gremlins
• The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum
• Ocean's Prequel
• A Nancy Meyers Film
• Te Amo! 
• Oh, the Places We'll Go
• Dynamic Duo
• Hello Kitty
• The Lunar Chronicles
• Final Destination 7
• The Revenge of La Llorona
• Evil Dead Wrath
• A Baz Luhrmann Film
• Gladys
• The Glood
• Game of Thrones: Aegon's Conquest