It’s fair to say that Hollywood is in crisis, or at least in transition. Studios getting taken over, culture wars all over the place, and gen AI rearing its head. The last thing they need is an interventionist president determined to wage war on the entertainment industry, as well as no doubt extracting what value he can. Donald Trump, as we know, is very interested in the movie business: in his pre-politics days, he made dozens of appearances in films, as well as on TV. It seems very likely that he’s eyeing a place at Hollywood’s top table after he leaves office (presuming he does).

Perhaps that’s what is behind his most spectacular recent intervention: demanding, and getting, a fourth Rush Hour movie from the new owners of Paramount Pictures, the studio that was recently taken over by David Ellison, son of Larry, one of Trump’s key allies. Coincidentally, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is one of the funders of Paramount’s subsequent bid to derail Netflix’s takeover of Warner Bros, with Trump himself suggesting he might influence US corporate regulators to prevent the Netflix deal from going ahead. And of course, in the background, is Trump’s threat of non-specific “tariffs” on the film industry, ostensibly aimed at keeping movie production inside the US. But, arguably, this could also be a way of keeping Hollywood’s top executives nervous and pliable.

So how far has it gone? Can we trace any actual Trump effect on the movies we might be watching in 2026? Is the “woke” blockbuster in retreat? Unless it’s put on a bullet-train travelator, we’re not likely to see Rush Hour 4 this year (but it’s been in the works since 2009 so you never know). Entirely typically in Trumpworld, if it does go ahead, it will be the Hollywood comeback for the controversial director Brett Ratner, who hasn’t directed a feature since a series of complaints of sexual assault and harassment were made against him in 2017. (Ratner denied all allegations and settled a case with one of his accusers, Melanie Kohler, after suing her for defamation.) One film we will get from Ratner this year, though, is a documentary about Melania Trump.

Next year we will also get a biopic of Michael Jackson. He was acquitted of child molestation in his lifetime but allegations of abuse continued to emerge after his death, particularly through the 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland. The new film has been called “sugar-coated” by Jackson’s daughter, who has said it “panders to a very specific section of my dad’s fandom that still lives in the fantasy”. Wuthering Heights, the new adaptation of Emily Brontë’s novel by Emerald Fennell, has so far brazened out the kind of social media firestorm over the ethnicity of its Heathcliff that might have scuppered it in a pre-Trump universe.

All of which brings us to the perhaps more serious issue of the continuing intimidation of mainstream films over the inclusion of anything deemed “woke”. Given the glacial pace at which big-studio production proceeds, it’s unlikely any of the putative blockbusters of 2026 have been foundationally influenced by fear of Trump’s wrath, but DC are no doubt relieved that this year sees the release of films about the relatively low-profile figures of Supergirl and Clayface, after the pasting Superman took in 2025 over its supposed veneration of immigrants. And after the grief it took over Snow White and the internal strife over content, it will be interesting to see if Disney has pulled in its horns. The 2026 crop – which includes a robot beaver cartoon called Hoppers, a fifth Toy Story movie and a live-action remake of Moana – could easily trip the studio up, as could the Marvel and Star Wars-branded films it looks after: Avengers: Doomsday and Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu respectively.

Will there be any pushback? A film called Young Washington, about the early years of prez 1, might be promising, until you see it’s from Angel Studios, the “faith film” specialists who previously gave us the QAnonish thriller Sound of Freedom. The Maggie Gyllenhaal-directed remake of the Bride of Frankenstein (called simply The Bride!) says it will offer “romance, police interest and radical social change”. You might expect The Devil Wears Prada 2 to aim a few barbs in Trump’s direction, even if its presiding deity, Anna Wintour, breaks bread with the man himself.

But as usual, all eyes will turn to the team behind South Park to stick it to Maga in 2026, as they have done in 2025. Whitney Springs, their new film, is about a black slave re-enactor who finds out his white girlfriend’s family once owned his ancestors. It looks like just the kind of bad-taste satire to stir the pot. We can but hope.