Everything we know about Christopher Nolan’s next movie

After the extraordinary success of Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s next movie is officially in the works – and it’s going to reunite him with Matt Damon and star Spider-Man himself, Tom Holland.

Nolan’s prowess has seen him become the modern-day household name director. His latest, starring Cillian Murphy as the titular “father of the atomic bomb” is a wartime-spanning, dazzling epic.

Our Oppenheimer review said it was “less biopic and more horror movie,” and a “towering achievement that’s up there with Nolan’s very best, and a film of both great importance and true humanity.”

It was one of the biggest new movies of 2023 and was a big winner at the 2024 Oscars. As for what’s up his sleeve, we finally know a few details.

When is Christopher Nolan’s next movie coming out?

Universal Pictures

Christopher Nolan’s next movie will be released on July 17, 2026.

The movie is expected to start filming in early 2025, though details about its production (and everything else, really) are being kept under wraps.

Who’s in the cast?

Tom Holland and Matt Damon are set to lead an all-star ensemble in Christopher Nolan’s next movie, starring alongside:

• Zendaya
• Charlize Theron
• Anne Hathaway
• Lupita Nyong’o
• Robert Pattinson

Damon has starred in two Nolan movies: Interstellar, in which he appeared in a shock third-act role on a frosted planet, and Oppenheimer, in which he played Leslie Groves. Robert Pattinson and Anne Hathaway have also stared in previous works from Nolan, the director known for often using the same actors across all his films.

Holland on the other hand has never starred in a Christopher Nolan project and the news of his casting a massive career move for the young Spider-man actor.

Nolan’s wife and producer on all his movies, Emma Thomas, earlier teased it was a “very exciting” time for the pair as they have “limitless” opportunities.

Speaking in Empire Magazine, Thomas said, “I would say it’s very exciting. This is the moment where the possibilities are sort of limitless, we haven’t started thinking practicalities, or anything. Oppenheimer was so absurdly successful and we feel like we have an opportunity.”

While that doesn’t offer much in the way of what the next film will be, it does tell us that Nolan basically has carte blanche to do whatever he wants.

That figures, considering the financial and critical success of Oppenheimer, and the fact Nolan is inarguably the greatest living filmmaker today.

What will the plot be? Predictions and rumors

Columbia Pictures

According to Deadline, “Nolan is returning to Universal for his next film,” with plans for a wide IMAX release.

Plot details are being kept secret for now, as is its title. The Hollywood Reporter’s Borys Kit initially posted that it was a father-son story, which he’s since retracted.

According to Variety, it “isn’t another sci-fi epic; some speculate that it may be in the espionage genre.”

Gizmodo earlier reported that Christopher Nolan’s next film is rumored to be a horror project, one that will be set in the 1920s and be a story about vampires. However, according to Deadline, “sources note that loglines or descriptions of the film that have been published to date are wrong.”

There is another compelling rumor: Nolan may be doing his own version of Blue Thunder, a 1983 action movie about helicopter pilots for the Los Angeles Police Department.

As per Dark Horizons, “Nolan and his team have been in touch with the NYPD Aviation Unit about shooting a New York-based futuristic action film about a helicopter pilot cop who heads up the Aviation Unit.”

This theory was bolstered by a Production Weekly memo that claimed Nolan’s next movie follows “a pair of aerial helicopter pilots, with an older mentor and younger lead.”

Nolan is open to any genre

In a November 2023 profile by Variety, Nolan didn’t tease any specific project but explained that he’s open to any sort of movie, be it an altogether new project, remake, or adaptation — as long it’s original to him.

“Ideas come from everywhere,” he said. “I’ve done a remake, I’ve made adaptations from comic books and novels, and I’ve written original screenplays. I’m open to anything. But as a writer and director, whatever I do, I have to feel like I own it completely. I have to make it original to me: The initial seed of an idea may come from elsewhere, but it has to go through my fingers on a keyboard and come out through my eyes alone.”

“As I do interviews and the film’s coming out, I’m always asked, do you know what you’re doing next?” Nolan also told The New York Times. “And the answer is always the same. For me, I do one thing at a time and I put everything into it obsessively, and the film is not finished. Well, the way I like to put it is, the audience finishes the film.”

However, there’ll be another film because the director has no intention of retiring anytime soon.

If you want to know more about the incredible filmmaker, here’s our guide to how many Oscars Christopher Nolan has, where to watch every Christopher Nolan movie, and a breakdown of the true story behind Oppenheimer. You can also check out our list of the best movies of 2024.