As the sun lengthens its trek across the sky and sweaters are traded for t-shirts, summer in California comes calling. Although final exams and AP tests are the talks of the crowd during the passing period, the fact that summer vacation is due to arrive in a little over one month is a boost to our spirits as we begin to close a coronavirus-plagued school year.

In other words, it’s about time to start thinking of setting up some summer plans with friends and family — and there are few options more popular than a good movie and some snacks. So what are some popular movies set to release and heat up the summer stage?

First off, animated producer giants Disney and Pixar are prepared to hit the ground running in their joint production of Luca. Set on the banks of a coastal town in Italy, the story follows its titular protagonist, Luca Paguro, on his summer adventures with his best friend Alberto. Although the two initially prepare for a summer topped with gelato and scooter shenanigans, the story takes a turn when Alberto and Luca discover that they are secretly sea monsters from an underwater world below their hometown.

Luca is primed to release exclusively to Disney’s popular streaming service, Disney Plus, this year on June 18. This is mostly due to the low attendance in theaters surrounding the coronavirus, as Disney Plus enables audiences to quickly stream at home a majority of Disney’s productions for a monthly subscription. 

Releasing shortly after Luca, on July 9 is Marvel’s Black Widow, starring the iconic Scarlett Johansson. The plot follows Natasha Romanoff — aka the Black Widow — in the wake of the disintegration of the Soviet Union. As she moves to modern-day New York, the KGB — the Soviet secret police that groomed her into a powerful agent — relentlessly pursues its former operative.

Black Widow will premiere simultaneously in theaters and in Disney Plus through premium access — meaning an additional one-time fee on top of the Disney Plus subscription to catch the movie before its free release to all other Disney Plus subscribers a few months later. 

Black Widow is likely to be the eye-catcher of summer movies this year. Amber Han (11) attests to the excitement surrounding Black Widow’s backstory: “The movie will finally be giving her the backstory and screen time she deserves, and it’ll bring back Scarlett Johansen as Black Widow who we’ve been missing since endgame.” She adds, “I’m not the biggest movie watcher, but I’ll definitely be watching that this year.”

Like Marvel Studios, Disney is also set to make a splash with a backstory drop. Cruella, titled after Cruella de Vil from the iconic 101 Dalmatians film will release on May 28, receiving the same theater/Disney Plus Premier Access treatment as Black Widow. Similarly, Cruella will also deliver the long-anticipated backstory that turned a London grifter named Estella into the Dalmatians villain Cruella de Vil. 

Remember The Suicide Squad that tore up theaters in 2016? It’ll be back again five years later, with a sequel of the same name and the same characters in further adventures together. This time, in 2021, the movie follows the Suicide Squad landing on a mission in DC Comics’ South American island of Corto Maltese, where they are assigned to destroy a prison and laboratory conducting experiments on its political prisoners. The movie will hit theaters and also be available on the streaming platform HBO Max on August 6. 

Here are some of the most anticipated movies set to release this summer, so boot up your television and stock up on snacks and dips soon! Despite the continued chaos of the pandemic, the theaters and streaming platforms are prepared to host an exciting array of movies to occupy and entertain us during a summer era of social distancing.