Written by Jon Williams
The new year is upon us.
We
noted before 2016 ended that it was, in many ways, a difficult year in pop
culture. With the beginning of 2017, however, we have an opportunity to wipe
the slate clean, to rinse out whatever bad taste might be lingering in our
mouths, and get a fresh start. With that in mind, here are just a few of the
cool pop culture projects on the horizon for this year.
For your patrons who like superheroes, there’s a
lot to be excited about. It starts in March with
Logan, which will be star
Hugh
Jackman’s last hurrah as
Wolverine.
In May, the second volume of
Guardians of
the Galaxy will follow up the
2014
blockbuster detailing the first adventure of the galactic team of misfits.
Then in June,
Spider-Man: Homecoming
gives a solo adventure to Tom Holland as the webslinger, following his
scene-stealing appearance in last summer’s
Captain America: Civil War. Later in
the year,
Thor: Ragnarok sees
Chris
Hemsworth return as the god of thunder for his first standalone since
The Dark World. For those who prefer
DC to Marvel, fear not: Wonder Woman gets her own movie in June, as
Gal
Gadot builds upon her small role in
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.
In November, the DC heroes come together for
Justice League, much like Marvel’s
The Avengers.
Quite a few popular films and series have sequels or
new installments coming to theaters in 2017.
Keanu
Reeves is back for a second action-packed round of
John Wick in February. The
Fast and the Furious gang is back in
April for the highly anticipated
The Fate
of the Furious. May’s
Alien: Covenant
brings
Ridley
Scott back to the director’s chair for a movie that bridges the gap between
Prometheus and
Alien. The popular rebooted
Planet of the Apes series continues
in July with
War for the Planet of the
Apes. October’s still-fairly-mysterious
God
Particle is the third installment of the
Cloverfield series. In December, the
Barden Bellas return for a third
Pitch Perfect movie. And one of the
most anticipated movies of the year also opens that month: the as-yet-untitled
Star Wars: Episode VIII, which will pick
up where
The Force Awakens left off.
The Force
Awakens itself, of course, is a series continuation, coming after—depending
on your point of view—1983’s
Return of the Jedi or 2005’s
Revenge of the Sith. Either way, it
was a long time for fans to wait. The same can be said for a pair of
long-awaited sequels finally coming in 2017. First up is
T2 Trainspotting, which sees
Ewan
McGregor and the rest of the cast from the beloved 1996 original return and
reunite. Then, in October,
Harrison
Ford resurrects yet another of his iconic characters for
Blade Runner 2049, which comes 35 years
after its sci-fi masterpiece predecessor.
There are also some intriguing book adaptations on
the way. Coming later this month is
A Dog’s Purpose, and who’s not a
sucker for a good dog story? That’s followed next month by
Fifty Shades Darker, the second
installment in the publishing (and now
film)
phenomenon by EL James. Christian audiences can look forward to
The Shack in March, based on William
Paul Young’s
2007
bestseller. The hit young adult novel
Wonder by R.J. Palacio comes to
theaters in April, starring
Room’s Jacob
Tremblay. In October, Jo Nesbo’s bestseller
The
Snowman becomes a big-screen adventure. And there is also a pair of highly
anticipated Stephen King adaptations on the way. First up, at the end of July,
is
The Dark Tower, based on his multi-book
magnum
opus. In September, there’s
It,
one of his most popular
books,
which was previously made into a
TV
miniseries in 1990.
But that’s not all! In addition to movies,
television (including streaming services) has become a hot place for book
adaptations to land. Available today on Netflix is
A Series of Unfortunate Events, from the popular kids’
fantasy
series. Rationing out those eight episodes will help pass the time until
April, which is a big month. On April 26, Margaret Atwood’s dystopian
The
Handmaid’s Tale comes to Hulu. On the 30th, NBC will premiere
Midnight, Texas, based on a series by
Charlaine
Harris, who also wrote the books that HBO’s
True
Blood was based on. Also that month, Neil Gaiman’s fantasy epic
American Gods will debut on Starz. Then,
at some point later this year, HBO will have
Cormoran Strike, a limited 7-hour series adapted from Robert
Galbraith/J.K. Rowling’s mystery novels
The
Cuckoo’s Calling,
The
Silkworm, and
Career
of Evil.
So that’s just a scratch of the surface of what’s
coming in 2017, and that’s without venturing into music or audiobooks. Please
let us know what you and your patrons are most looking forward to in the comments
section below.