2018 promises a whole host of spectacular film and TV events, and we’ve gathered the best of them here…

Star Trek: Discovery, season 1b…January 7th
The exciting conclusion to the second half of season one starts next week! Next week! Sunday, January 7th on CBS All Access in the US and the following day on Netflix in the UK. We go straight into episode 10, which is directed by Jonathan Frakes…and we’ll (hopefully) get to see what Captain Lorca (Jason Isaacs) was actually doing when he manipulated the jumps at the end of the last episode. Is Tyler actually Voq? (Basically…yes.) Are we in the Mirror Universe? Not too sure. But not long to wait now…

The Beyond…January 9th
Set in 2019, The Beyond chronicles the groundbreaking mission which sent astronauts – modified with advanced robotics, through a newly discovered wormhole known as the Void. When the mission returns unexpectedly, the space agency races to discover what the astronauts encountered on their first of its kind interstellar space journey. The movies stars David Bailie, Jane Perry and Brian Deacon and has already received some very positive feedback. In cinemas on January 9th.

Altered Carbon, season 1…February 2nd
Netflix’s new, gritty sci-fi drama starts on Friday, 2 February. Why are we excited? Holy cow, this looks like it’s going to be amazing. It’s based on Richard K. Morgan’s cyberpunk noir novel and set some 300 years in the future. The 10-part series takes place in a dystopian world where human consciousnesses is digitized and stored in cortical stacks implanted in the spine, allowing humans to survive physical death by having their memories and consciousness “re-sleeved” into new bodies.

The story follows specially trained “Envoy” soldier Takeshi Kovacs – played by both Will Yun Lee and Joel Kinnaman – who is downloaded from an off-world prison and into the body of a disgraced cop at the behest of Laurens Bancroft (James Purefoy), a highly influential aristocrat. Bancroft was killed and the last automatic backup of his stack was made hours before his death, leaving him with no memory of who killed him and why. While police ruled it a suicide, Bancroft is convinced he was murdered and wants Kovacs to find out the truth. Loads more info here.

“Cloverfield 3”…February 2nd
Also being released on  Friday, 2 February, is the third installment in the Cloverfield universe. Previously known as God Particle, the story follows a team of astronauts aboard the space station after a scientific experiment involving a particle accelerator has unexpected results.

Following the terrifying discovery, the astronauts find themselves isolated and must fight for survival. Not much is known about this yet, but it stars Elizabeth Debicki, Daniel Brühl, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Chris O’Dowd. It’s directed by Julius Onah and written by Oren Uziel and Doug Jung.

+++BREAKING NEWS +++ 

Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot have pushed the release date back to 20 April 2018. This isn’t the first time its release has been rescheduled: originally set to hit cinemas on 24 February 2017, the film was moved to 27 October 2017, and then to 2 February 2018.

Annihilation…February 23rd
Alex Garland’s epic-looking new sci-fi thriller is based on Jeff Vander Meer’s terrifying eco-horror novel of the same name (the first book in the Southern Reach trilogy) and starring Natalie Portman and Jennifer Jason Leigh, the story follows the expedition of four women who are sent into the mysterious “Area X”, a portion of land in the USA that has been secretly quarantined due to abnormal activity.

They are the 12th expedition sent into Area X on behalf of the mysterious Southern Reach organization. The second expedition ended in mass suicide, the third in a hail of gunfire as the members turned on one another and the 11th expedition returned as shells of their former selves, all dying of cancer shortly after coming back. Opens in theatres on February 23rd.

Better Call Saul, season 4…hopefully around April
Sadly there’s no air date – and it wasn’t officially renewed until June last year (why did it take so long?!) and it usually airs around April in the US, on AMC, but don’t be surprised if it doesn’t appear until the second half of next year. Sadly.

Why are we excited? In the last episode Jimmy’s (Bob Odenkirk) brother, Chuck (Michael McKean), was attempting suicide…and to be honest, our jaws are still on the floor. Kim (Rhea Seehorn) is still badly beaten up after her car accident and Nacho (Michael Mando) is trying to kill Hector (Mark Margolis) in an effort to protect his father.

Avengers: Infinity War…May 4th
Scheduled to hit cinema screens the world over on May 4th this is set to be a superhero extravaganza. The Avengers join forces with the Guardians of the Galaxy to defeat the powerful Thanos (played by Josh Brolin), who is trying to collect all the Infinity Stones.

Thanos was born into a group of superhumans, known as the Eternals, who live on Saturn’s moon, Titan. He plans to use the six stones for a gauntlet that will allow him to bend reality to his will. During this epic battle, we’ll see almost every major Marvel hero, including Iron Man, the Hulk, Black Widow, Thor, Star-Lord and the gang, Doctor Strange, Captain America and Spider-Man.

Solo: A Star Wars Story…May 25th
The next spinoff Star Wars movie that we know almost nothing about…will hit cinemas on 25th May. Despite rumours that Disney is bracing itself for a significantly smaller box office return than episode VIII – given the problems following the departure of Phil Lord and Chris Miller and even the apparent terrible acting of Alden Ehrenreich – it’s a safe bet we’re all going to be foaming at the mouth to see the origins story of super smuggler Han Solo. Will Boba Fett make an appearance? Who knows, but we can expect to see Disney’s giant marketing engine gearing up soon with a trailer and some publicity shots.

The Expanse, season 3…hopefully around May
Until the arrival of Star Trek: Discovery, The Orville and Altered Carbon…this used to be the best quality sci-fi on TV. It still rates among the best, but thank goodness it’s not the only one now.

No release date has been given yet, but season two aired on the 1st February last year, so fingers crossed we won’t have to wait too long. Steven Strait, Dominique Tipper, Wes Chatham and Cas Anvar will hopefully all return…and it’s not yet known whether we’ll get to see to Tomas Jane again. We last saw Mars and Earth on the brink of war and the ship sent to investigate the crash of the protomolecule-carrying asteroid is also on a collision course with Venus. This is spectacular sci-fi.

Preacher, season 3…hopefully around June
Again, no word on the official air date, but season one and two aired in the months of May and June, respectively, so hopefully we’ll start to see some trailers advertising a summer air date soon. Season three was only confirmed in October – again, like Better Call Saul, we do wonder why on earth it takes AMC so long to realize of course they need to renew this.

In the season two finale, the trio – Tulip, Jesse and Cassidy (Ruth Negga, Dominic Cooper and Joseph Gilgun, respectively) prepare for a new life. Jesse questions the path that Herr Starr is paving for him as Tulip uncovers a dangerous secret.

Other honourable mentions include…

Stargate Origins…will be available to stream from Stargate Command from February 15th
Black Panther…hits cinema screens on February 16th
Pacific Rim Uprising…March 23rd
Ready Player One…March 30th
Super Troopers 2…April 20th
Untitled Deadpool Sequel…June 1st
Incredibles 2…June 15th
Sicario 2: Soldado…June 29th
Ant-Man and the Wasp…July 6th
The Predator…August 3rd

Related stories
• Preacher season 3 confirmed
• Altered Carbon: new featurette
• New Annihilation trailer offers glimpse of Alex Garland’s surreal sci-fi
• Star Trek: Discovery Voq/Tyler connection all but confirmed
• Every Star Trek: Discovery episode reviewed