Thriller anticipation is different from normal hype. With superhero movies or giant fantasy films, people get excited over scale first. Thrillers have to earn excitement through promise. A setup. A pairing. A trailer beat. A director’s rhythm. One image that tells you the movie might actually get under your skin instead of just filling release-calendar space. That is why ranking upcoming thrillers is so fun and so dangerous. You are not only guessing what will be good. You are guessing which projects already feel like they have tension in their bloodstream.

The last few years have been a roller-coaster ride for Ridley Scott, who has had a couple of big-time box office misfires with Napoleon (starring Joaquin Phoenix) and Gladiator II (starring Paul Mescal). The former was much more divisive than the latter — after being heavily criticized for historical inaccuracies, Napoleon grossed only $222 million at the box office against a $200 million budget, leaving it more than $100 million short of its break-even point. With a $250 million budget, Gladiator II also fell short of its $500 million break-even point by turning in only $460 million globally, and the lack of Russell Crowe in the film certainly made fans more hesitant to show up to theaters. Scott has suffered a few misfires in the historical epic department, but this summer, he’ll officially return to the genre he has helped revolutionize.

Fans don’t have to wait much longer for Ridley Scott’s newest star-studded sci-fi epic, The Dog Stars, but before taking on a post-apocalyptic world opposite Jacob Elordi and Josh Brolin, Allison Janney and Andrew Rannells are tackling an arguably bigger feat. The Academy Award and Emmy winner and the two-time Tony Award nominee star in HBO Max’s new drama Miss You, Love You, a nearly extinct “quiet movie” from Oscar-winning writer-director Jim Rash. Dialogue-heavy films like these are a rarity in today’s Hollywood, and the two powerhouses couldn’t be more proud of what they accomplished while filming.