November 2026 releases worth your time

Takashi Yamazaki's follow-up to Godzilla Minus One picks up in 1949, two years after the first film, with Ryunosuke Kamiki and Minami Hamabe back in the lead roles.

Godzilla Minus One was the surprise of 2023: a monster movie made for a fraction of a Hollywood budget that won the Oscar for visual effects and made people cry over a fictional kamikaze pilot. What made it work was that the human story came first and Godzilla arrived like a natural disaster. If Yamazaki keeps that balance, this is the film of the month. It is also the easiest November release to recommend to someone who doesn't usually watch monster films, because the first one wasn't really made for monster fans.

Before it arrives: Watch Godzilla Minus One (2023). This is a direct sequel, and the ending of the first film only means something if you have sat through what came before it.

In Japanese with subtitles in most theaters. Expect it to be darker than the American Godzilla films; the first one did not spare its characters, and the war is still very close.

A PG-13 version of A Christmas Carol from Ti West, the director of X and Pearl, with Johnny Depp as Scrooge, Ian McKellen as Jacob Marley and Rupert Grint as Bob Cratchit.

There have been dozens of Christmas Carols, and the story is easy to make cosy. Ti West has spent his career on slow-building horror, and Dickens wrote a ghost story: a man visited at night by the dead and shown his own grave. A version that takes the ghosts seriously could be the most interesting take in years. McKellen as Marley, rattling his chains, is the casting we are most curious about.

Before it arrives: Read the novella. It is about 30,000 words, an evening's reading, and much funnier and stranger than most adaptations remember.

Johnny Depp in the lead will put some people off, and that is a fair reason to skip it. PG-13 means West can't go as far as his R-rated work, so don't expect X.

The story of the 50th Hunger Games, 24 years before Katniss, when a teenage Haymitch Abernathy (Joseph Zada) is reaped for a Quarter Quell with twice the usual number of tributes.

Suzanne Collins's 2025 novel is the best of the prequels, because everyone who read the original books already knows Haymitch survives. The question is what it cost him, and the answer is grim. Francis Lawrence has now directed five of these films and knows how to stage the arena. The cast around Zada is strong: Ralph Fiennes as President Snow, Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee and Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket. This is the safest bet in the month for a group outing.

Before it arrives: Read the novel if you have a free weekend; it is about 400 pages and moves fast. If not, rewatch Catching Fire, which shows the grown-up Haymitch at his most guarded. The Hunger Games in order

Probably the bleakest film in the series, with children killing children as its premise and an ending that offers very little comfort. Not for younger fans of the first film.

Disney's Thanksgiving animated film: Billie Doe (Hailee Steinfeld), a teenager with hidden powers, is pulled into a realm of witches, with Rashida Jones as her mother.

Disney has opened an animated film over Thanksgiving almost every year since Frozen, and the originals have been hit and miss lately. We are hopeful about this one for a simple reason: it is a story about a mother and a daughter who don't understand each other, which is what Disney does best when it isn't selling a sequel.

We know the premise and the voice cast, and not much else. Family films this close to Thanksgiving are rarely screened for critics early, so you may be choosing on the trailer.

Brad Pitt returns as the stuntman from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, now in 1977, in a film written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by David Fincher.

Tarantino scripts directed by someone else are rare, and Fincher is the last director you would expect: precise and cold where Tarantino is loose and talky. That collision is the reason to go. Pitt won an Oscar for this character, a man who is easy company until he very suddenly isn't, and the 1970s setting suits both of them. If you want to see it on a big screen, the IMAX window is short.

Before it arrives: Rewatch Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). It runs 2 hours 41 minutes, and Cliff's backstory is all in there, including the part people still argue about.

If you didn't like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, a whole film of Cliff Booth is unlikely to change your mind. Expect violence and a long running time.

A limited series about the life of Muhammad Ali, created by Ben Watkins (Cross), with Michael B. Jordan and Lonnie Ali, Ali's widow, among the executive producers.

Ali's life has too much in it for a two-hour film, which is the problem Michael Mann's Ali ran into in 2001. The Olympic gold, the name change, the refusal to be drafted and the three lost years, the Rumble in the Jungle, the Thrilla in Manila, and the long illness afterwards: eight episodes give each of those room. Lonnie Ali's involvement suggests the family trusts the project, which counts for something with a story this well guarded.

Before it arrives: Watch When We Were Kings (1996), the Oscar-winning documentary about the 1974 fight with George Foreman in Kinshasa. It is the best 90 minutes on Ali there is.

Boxing biopics live or die on the lead performance, and we haven't seen it. Expect fight scenes, period racism and a slow, sad final stretch.

The rise and collapse of the crypto exchange FTX, with Anthony Boyle as Sam Bankman-Fried and Julia Garner as Caroline Ellison.

FTX went from a $32 billion valuation to bankruptcy in about a week in November 2022, and the story has everything a drama needs: a small group of young people in a Bahamas penthouse, a theory about doing good by getting rich, and billions of other people's money. Garner was the best thing in Ozark and Inventing Anna. The question is whether the show can make the inner circle interesting without making them likeable.

Before it arrives: Read Going Infinite (2023), Michael Lewis's book about Bankman-Fried. It is gripping, and it is also a useful lesson in how close a writer can get to his subject.

These are real people and real losses; some viewers will find a glossy drama about them hard to enjoy. Expect drug use and a lot of explaining about how the money moved.

The last season of the series about a high-school girls' soccer team stranded in the Canadian wilderness in 1996, and the women they became 25 years later.

Few shows have started as strongly as Yellowjackets did in 2021, and few have tested their fans' patience as much since. The third season brought back some of the dread but left a lot of threads hanging. Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, who created it, have long said they knew how it ends. A final season is the moment to find out whether the wilderness was ever supernatural, and whether the show knew all along.

Before it arrives: If you dropped out during season 2, the third season is worth catching up on before the finale. It is shorter and sharper.

Graphic violence, cannibalism, self-harm and sexual content. If season 2 lost you, season 4 may not win you back; it is an ending for people who are already invested.

A comedy about four women on an archaeological dig in Greece who uncover an international conspiracy, from Amy Poehler and Michael Schur, with Poehler and Hugh Laurie in the cast.

Poehler and Schur made Parks and Recreation together, and Schur went on to make The Good Place, so this is the most reliable comedy pairing on the calendar. It is based on Kate Myers's 2023 novel Excavations. Hugh Laurie in a Schur comedy is about as safe a bet as television offers.

Before it arrives: Read Excavations if you like a funny mystery. Otherwise, nothing needed.

Schur's shows usually take three or four episodes to find their rhythm, and a conspiracy plot is new territory for him. Give it until the midpoint before deciding.

A live-action series set 50 years after Blade Runner 2049, in a world where replicants now outnumber humans, with Michelle Yeoh and Hunter Schafer, and Ridley Scott as executive producer.

Both Blade Runner films underperformed in theaters and became the most influential science fiction of their decades, which tells you what kind of audience this is for. A series has time the films didn't: time for the city, the rain and the long silences. Michelle Yeoh brings weight to anything she is in. We are less sure what a story looks like once the replicants have won, and that is exactly why we want to see it.

Before it arrives: Watch Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and the 1982 original if you never have. The Final Cut is the version to see. More slow, big science fiction

If it keeps the films' pace, expect slow episodes and few answers. The series has been in the works for years, and long productions don't always arrive in good shape.

A full remake of the 1998 Zelda game, announced at the series' 40th anniversary presentation in September, with full voice acting for the first time.

Ocarina of Time taught a generation how to play 3D action games: lock on to an enemy, circle, strike. Almost every adventure game since owes it something. It also shows its age now, with fiddly menus, an infamous Water Temple, and a Hyrule Field that feels empty after Breath of the Wild. A remake can fix all of that. The risk is the voice acting. Ocarina's characters have only ever spoken in text boxes, and hearing Saria or Ganondorf out loud will land differently after 28 years.

Before it arrives: Nothing required. If you want to compare, the original is part of the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack library. Where it fits in the Zelda timeline

Switch 2 only. If you played the 2011 3DS version, some of the fixes will be familiar. Purists may miss the original's fog and low-poly strangeness.

Video game

Metaphor: ReFantazio

Out November 12 Nintendo Switch 2 · Atlus

Atlus's 2024 fantasy role-playing game from the team behind Persona, coming to Switch 2: a kingdom whose king has been murdered picks his successor by popular vote, and you are a candidate.

It won three awards at The Game Awards 2024, including best RPG, and it deserved them. The election gives a fantasy adventure a modern edge, the turn-based battles are the best Atlus has made, and the art direction looks like a medieval manuscript come to life. If you skipped it on other machines, a portable version is the ideal way to play an 80-hour game in the commute-sized pieces it suits.

Long, with a calendar that makes you choose how to spend each day, which some players love and others find stressful. Lots of reading. The Switch 2 port is new, so check reviews for how it runs before you buy.

Rockstar's return to Vice City and the state of Leonida, a version of Florida, with two leads, Lucia and Jason, after two delays and the longest wait between GTA games in the series' history.

It has been thirteen years since GTA V, which is still selling. Rockstar makes the most detailed open worlds in games, and the trailers suggest a Florida satire as sharp as the original Vice City. Whether you play it or not, it will be the thing everyone talks about for the rest of the year. Our advice is unglamorous: if you are going to buy it, buy it in launch week, before the story gets spoiled online.

Before it arrives: Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018) is the best guide to what Rockstar does now: slow, enormous and far more interested in its characters than GTA V was.

Graphic violence, drugs, sex and crime as gameplay, which is the series' whole identity. There is no PC version at launch. Expect it to need a lot of storage.

Anime

The Apothecary Diaries

Out now Crunchyroll · season 3, weekly since October 2; English dub from October 16

Maomao, a pharmacist's daughter sold into service at the imperial palace, solves poisonings and court intrigues with the help of her chemistry and in spite of a beautiful, persistent eunuch.

It is the best mystery anime of the decade so far: each case is small and clever, and the larger story about palace politics creeps up on you. Maomao is a great lead, dry and curious, more excited by a new poison than a handsome man. The third season keeps the quality of the first two, which is not something you can say about many long-running shows.

Before it arrives: Seasons 1 and 2, 48 episodes in all. They are easy to binge, and the cases are mostly self-contained.

The romance moves very slowly, by design. There are references to the pleasure district, infant deaths and court violence, handled without being graphic.

A high-school badminton player falls for the older basketball star who ends up living in his family's house, and both of them train for national tournaments.

A sports romance where the sport matters. Blue Box is about two people who are both serious about something other than each other, and who respect that. The first season built slowly and honestly; the second is where the tournaments and the feelings both come to a head. If you like your romance kind and unhurried, this is the one.

Before it arrives: Season 1. It takes a few episodes to warm up, so give it four.

Very slow. Anyone hoping for drama or rivalry will find it too gentle. Netflix only.

MAPPA's remake of Rumiko Takahashi's martial-arts comedy about a boy who turns into a girl whenever he is splashed with cold water, and the many fiancées and rivals that causes.

The remake has been a pleasure: it keeps the slapstick and the absurd rivalries of the 1989 series, and the animation makes the fights look like the manga's best pages. It is the funniest thing airing this season. Takahashi's world never really changes, which is part of the charm; each new season is more of a good thing.

Before it arrives: The first two seasons of the remake. You don't need the 1989 version.

A 1980s comedy at heart, with gender-swap gags and some fan service that haven't all aged well. The plot barely moves; it is a sitcom.

A raw teenage striker from rural Ehime joins the youth academy of a Tokyo pro club and learns, painfully, that he is going to be a full-back.

The smartest football anime there is. Most sports shows are about special moves; Aoashi is about where to stand, when to look up and how to read a game, and it makes that thrilling. The first season came out four years ago and ended in the middle of the story, so the second has been a long time coming. If you play or coach, you will recognise things.

Before it arrives: Season 1, 24 episodes. It takes about five to really grip.

The opening episodes are rough on the lead, and his family situation is hard to watch. Lots of tactical explanation, which you will either love or skip.

A new standalone from John Scalzi, which his publisher calls a heartfelt exploration of a tentacular solution to the struggles of the modern world.

Scalzi is at his best when he puts something huge and ridiculous next to ordinary people and lets them be funny about it, as he did with The Kaiju Preservation Society in 2022. A book with tentacles and Ohio in the pitch sounds like more of that. It is the book on this list you could give anybody, including someone who says they don't read science fiction.

Before it arrives: The Kaiju Preservation Society (2022), if you haven't read it. It is short and very funny.

Scalzi's comedy is quick and chatty, and some readers find the jokes get in the way of the stakes. We haven't read this one yet.

The first book of The Wicked Powers, the trilogy Cassandra Clare has written to close out her Shadowhunter Chronicles, nearly twenty years after City of Bones.

For a lot of readers who grew up on The Mortal Instruments, this is the end of a very long road. Clare has been building to it across five series, and the Faerie court has been the most interesting part of her world since The Dark Artifices. If you are a fan, you have already pre-ordered. If you aren't, this is not the place to start.

Before it arrives: The Dark Artifices trilogy, which this follows most directly. New readers should start with City of Bones (2007).

Long, with a very large cast, and it assumes you know them. It is the first part of a trilogy, so expect a cliffhanger.

A historical novel from the author of The Christie Affair: Mariah, trapped in a wealthy, gilded marriage, finds an unexpected ally in her maid.

The Christie Affair (2022) was a smart, twisty take on Agatha Christie's real eleven-day disappearance, and de Gramont is good at women who have to plan their way out of rooms they can't simply leave. A wife and her maid on the same side is a set-up with a lot of tension in it. It is the most likely book here to become a book-club pick.

Before it arrives: The Christie Affair, for a sense of how she writes.

We know the premise and not much else. Expect the slow, domestic pace of a historical drama more than a thriller's speed.

The fifth volume of Solvej Balle's Danish series about Tara Selter, a dealer in antique books who wakes up every morning on November 18.

The first volume was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2025, and the series has become one of the literary events of the decade: a time loop told with no tricks, just a woman noticing how a single day behaves when she lives it hundreds of times. It is slow, careful, oddly funny, and it gets under your skin. Publishing it the day before November 18 is a nice touch.

Before it arrives: Start with On the Calculation of Volume I. The volumes are short, around 170 pages each, but they need to be read in order.

Almost nothing happens, on purpose. If you want the time loop to be solved or explained, this is not that book.