The must-see movies of summer 2026—and a surprising frontrunner
The Excerpt
USA TODAY
4.1 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 5 May 2026
⏱️ 15 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Hollywood’s summer movie season is here and it’s packed with big names, familiar franchises and high-stakes bets at the box office. From "Spider-Man" to "Star Wars," studios are once again leaning on proven hits to draw audiences in. But this year, one film could break through the noise: Christopher Nolan’s "The Odyssey." With a stacked cast and built-in name recognition, it’s emerging as a potential frontrunner in a season that feels more wide open than usual. In this episode of The Excerpt, USA TODAY Movie Critic Brian Truitt breaks down several of the must-see films of the summer.
Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@usatoday.com.
Episode transcript available here.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Summer movie season is when Hollywood turns the volume up, bigger stars, bigger swings, and a pack slate that tries to hit every kind of audience. |
| 0:16.0 | USA Today's entertainment team is a new preview out now, highlighting 15 of the biggest releases, |
| 0:22.8 | heading into theaters between now and Labor Day. |
| 0:25.7 | And one early signal stands out. |
| 0:28.9 | The headline movie of the summer might not revolve around a superhero at all it might be, |
| 0:35.3 | The Odyssey. |
| 0:39.9 | Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. |
| 0:42.8 | I'm Dana Taylor. |
| 0:43.7 | Today is Tuesday, May 5, 26. |
| 0:47.4 | Here to talk about the movies you shouldn't miss. |
| 0:50.1 | I am now joined by USA Today movie critic, Brian Truitt. |
| 0:53.9 | It's great to have you here, Brian. |
| 0:55.0 | Great to be here. |
| 0:56.0 | Thanks for having me. |
| 0:57.0 | Your preview opens with The Odyssey, a Christopher Nolan movie, stacked cast, not a traditional |
| 1:04.0 | franchise. |
| 1:05.0 | Why does that feel like such a defining movie this summer? |
| 1:09.0 | What's interesting because, you know, we looked back to the Barbenheimer summer of a few years ago, |
| 1:14.3 | and they outperformed everybody. They outperformed the animated movies. They outperformed the other |
| 1:20.7 | superhero stuff. And I think this might happen again, too, with The Odyssey. I mean, |
| 1:25.1 | I think there's so much buzz. It's Christopher Nolan's first movie after Oppenheimer, and the cast is stacked. Matt Damon is Odysseus, John Bernthal's in it, Tom Holland's in it, Robert Patton's in it, Zandaya's in it. And it's something we all read in high school. So I think everybody comes in with it with a little bit of knowing like, oh, yeah, the Odyssey. Everybody knows who Odysseus is. And everybody knows like the furies and things like |
| 1:49.6 | that. So I feel like it could do really well. At the same time, we still have a very franchise |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from USA TODAY, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of USA TODAY and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.