2026 is shaping up to be a big year pop culture-wise with a new Spiderman movie, the debut of DCU’s Supergirl, the return of both the Avengers and RDJ in Avengers Doomsday and even the return of Star Wars to the big screen, but there are a few franchises I would like to see return that we haven’t heard from in a while…

Mercenaries

This maybe the longest shot, but both Mercenaries games in the late 2000s were total fun open-world shooters that I would welcome a return of. While World in Flames was not quite as good as the original and the studio behind it closed down and cancelled a proposed third game: Mercenaries, INC I would like to see a return or maybe even just a remaster of the first 2 games for modern consoles.

Destroy all Humans!

It has been almost 4 years since Destroy all Humans 2 Reprobed and I think fans are still hoping both it and its preceding remake of the first game would lead to a new installment after 2008’s Path of the Furon or at least one more remaster to complete the series. I don’t know if we’ll see a new game in 2026, but I think we may see some kind of announcement

Spyro the Dragon

I already covered how the still-popular PlayStation mascot would be perfect for a holiday adventure and while his popularity seemed to have peaked with the original PlayStation one games 2018 reignited trilogy proved there are still plenty of fans of the purple dragon who would like to see a brand-new adventure in whatever form it takes

Artemis Fowl

Yes, I will admit the movie was pretty bad, but the books are so good and deserve another shot at adaption, which it looks like they will with an animated series which I hope comes in 2026 or at least gets a release date. While the main book series ended with The Last Guardian in 2012 and the spinoff trilogy centered of the Artemis’ twin brothers ended in 2021, I think there is still room to explore the Fowlverse and the author Eoin Colfer even agrees, saying he would like to explore an older Artemis, perhaps akin to Old Man Logan.

In the meantime, I wouldn’t mind seeing some kind of crossover between The Artemis Fowl universe and Colfer’s other works, notably the Juniper Lane series or perhaps even Highfire

Bartimaeus

Jonathan Stroud’s fantasy series involving magical djinn in an alternate version of London only contains one trilogy of books and a prequel, but even though there hasn’t been a new entry in over 10 years and the story was pretty well wrapped up I think there is more stories to tell in the world. It’s a shame it hasn’t been brought to the screen as I think it is highly adaptable. Hopefully in 2026 we will hear news of either a new book or an tv/movie adaption

Digimon Rumble Arena

The Digimon franchise as a whole is still going strong with the Digimon Beatbox anime releasing now and the recent release of Digimon Story: Time Stranger, but maybe I’m feeling nostalgic for the spin-off series Digimon Rumble Arena, which some might say was a rip-off of super-smash brothers, but was still fun. With 3 games: Digimon Rumble Arena on PlayStation, Digimon Rumble Arena 2 on PlayStation 2, and Digimon Rumble All-stars for PS3 and X-box 360 I would at least like to see a remastered collection of all 3 games for modern consoles if not a full-blown new entry

Heroes

This one is the most likely to happen as a reboot entitled Heroes: Eclipse has been announced, but not concrete news has really been released since then and certainly not a solid release date, but I think 2026 could be a huge year for Heroes, not only if the new season is released, but also perhaps a comic book series or another videogame to tie into the new series.

Superstore

Superstore has only been off the air for almost 5 years and St. Denis Medical(by the same creator Justin Spitzer) has been feeling the gap a little bit I think fans would still like to see more of the Cloud 9 world whether that be through a spinoff focusing on Glen’s hardware store, or Kelly who was mainly an obstacle between Jonah and Amy, but who I also enjoyed as a character. or the previously proposed one following Cheyenne and Bo or maybe even a reboot with a new setting and new characters featuring appearances by old cast members or even just a small St. Denis Medical crossover, 2026 could be a year to see something from Cloud 9

Returns I’m excited for

Scrubs

This one is confirmed for February 25and as a huge fan of the original series I am excited to see what the Sacred Heart gang is up to now. While I don’t think Season 9 was as bad as some people made it out to be I think a reboot would be best served mostly ignoring it.

Community

This may turn out to be wishful thinking, but the Community movie, streaming on Peacock was announced all the way back in 2024 and still doesn’t have a release date, but I am optimistic we’ll see the return of the study group in 2026

What are you excited for or want to see in 2026? Let us know in comments