If you like movies from the biggest filmmakers in the world right now, but don’t want to go to the cinema, you’re in luck with this week’s upcoming streaming releases thanks to Netflix’s Spiderhead and the latest Doctor Strange movie hitting Disney+. The latter isn’t the only superhero story around though, as we also get the long-awaited third season of The Umbrella Academy, among others.
MOVIES
Spiderhead
Netflix – 17 June 2022
I have to admit that the lack of Netflix’s promo for Spiderhead is baffling. Directed by Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick, literally the biggest movie in the world right now), starring Chris Hemsworth (just a few weeks from reprising his titular role in Thor: Love and Thunder, which will probably become the biggest movie in the world on release), co-starring Miles Teller (the co-star in the aforementioned Top Gun: Maverick), and adapted by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (the writing duo behing Deadpool and Zombieland) from a short story by award-winning author George Saunders… and yet, we’ve had just a single trailer with almost no fanfare. Based on the rather positive early reviews, this could possibly be the most high-profile sleeper hit of the year.
Cha Cha Real Smooth
AppleTV+ – 17 June 2022
Looking for something completely the opposite from a star-studded sci-fi mind-twister? Well then AppleTV+’s Cha Cha Real Smooth is here with an emotional dramedy story about love, life, and starting dance parties at bar mitsvahs.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Disney+ – 22 June 2022
A previous holder of the title of biggest movie in the world, this latest Marvel Cinematic Universe entry was a monstrously important film for the overall story of the MCU, introducing some major elements. For the five of you that have somehow dodged the spoilers of what those are, I’m not about to ruin it now. Not when you can now finally get to watch it for yourself as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness debuts on Disney+ next week.
SERIES
The Summer I Turned Pretty S1
Amazon Prime Video – 17 June 2022
The “To All the Boys I Loved Before” movies are a gigantic smash-hit for Netflix, and it looks like rival Amazon wants in on that action. Adapted from a different teen romantic trilogy of books from “To All the Boys I Loved Before” author Jenny Han, this one follows Isabel “Belly” Conklin as she spends the summer at a family friends’ beach house, reuniting with two brothers who were once childhood friends but now both offer romantic opportunities for the teenaged Belly. And for the rom-com fans who may get stuck into this, good news is that it’s already been renewed for a second season.
Spriggan S1 – Netflix – 18 June 2022
Back in the early 2000s, a young me was absolutely obsessed with anime, and one anime movie that blew my mind was Spriggan. A wild sci-fi adventure film adapted from the long-running manga about a team of special operatives tasked with finding and securing powerful relics left behind by an ancient advanced civilization that pre-dated humanity, Spriggan boasted a level of animation and action rarely seen back then. It also didn’t make that much sense since it adapted just a single arc of a much larger story. Enter this new 6-episode series from Netflix that looks give a more comprehensive adaptation, but will this newer version’s action impress as much as the brilliant original?
The Future Of S1
Netflix – 21 June 2022
If you’re a child of the 1980s like I am (really giving away my age today), then you would probably remember Beyond2000, the super fascinating show about future tech that also had half us believing we would be driving flying cars by now. Well, Netflix’s The Future Of is not making any claims as extravagant as that, but the upcoming docu-series looks at how emerging technology is set to impact our everyday life in some stark and surprising ways in the near future.
The Umbrella Academy S3
Netflix – 22 June 2022
The most dysfunctional and kooky superhero family around is back! After a crazy adventure through time to prevent the apocalypse – again! – the Umbrella Academy is back in the present… Except the Umbrella Academy no longer exists and has somehow been replaced with the Sparrow Academy. What the heck is going on? Well, we can finally find out as this brilliant fan-favourite comic book adaptation returns for a hugely anticipated third season. And it looks every bit as bonkers as we’ve come to expect.