IMDb Staff Picks for December: Vanessa W.

Although I love a fast-paced "meteor hits planet" or "overnight ice age" disaster movie, I've really been looking forward to Sam Esmail's seemingly slower, creepier take on the genre. Adapted from Rumaan Alam's 2020 novel, and starring Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, and Kevin Bacon, 'Leave the World Behind' mixes some of my favorite Esmail "Mr. Robot" elements, like world-changing cyber attacks and escalating paranoia, with one of my greatest fears — "houseguests that won't leave." No idea how this one is going to end, but can't wait to follow the twists to get there.

If you've been following the avalanche of video games that dropped in 2023, then like me, you're probably excited for the 3+ hours of game trailer premieres, awkward speeches, live soundtrack performances, and occasional security breaches that make up "The Game Awards." The incredible slate of titles vying for Game of the Year include "Baldur's Gate 3", "Alan Wake 2," "Marvel's Spider-Man 2", "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom", "Super Mario Bros. Wonder," and "Resident Evil 4." Even if only one studio gets to take home the title (come on Larian!), we can't deny that video game fans were the biggest winners this year. ("The Game Awards" premieres on Dec. 7 on YouTube.)

'Dune' and "Foundation" have helped fill the space opera-sized hole in my life, but I'm always on the lookout for something new. Thankfully, I don't have much longer to wait as Zack Snyder doubles down on both SPACE and OPERA in his upcoming Rebel Moon duology, which kicks off this month with 'A Child of Fire' and wraps up with 'The Scargiver' in 2024. This might have started off as a potential 'Star Wars' story, but it's since become a universe that Snyder hopes to expand upon and I'm really interested to see his jump from superheroes to sci-fi.

If you've ever wondered what would have happened if Peggy Carter took the super soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers, or if T'Challa left Earth as a child and became Star Lord, there's a show for that, and it's really good. After a two-year hiatus, we're getting an advent calendar of nostalgia-inducing MCU mashups with nine days (NINE DAYS!!!) of new "What If...?" episodes. I'm looking forward to finding out what twists in the multiverse has Hank Pym teaming up with the Winter Soldier, or how Tony Stark ends up in a death race against Gamora and Korg. This will definitely be nightly viewing.

December brings us Doctors both new and old and a rollercoaster of emotions as the long-awaited reunion of the Fourteenth (David Tennant) and Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) comes to a close. But, I'm looking excitedly to the future as Russell T. Davies settles back in as showrunner and the stellar Ncuti Gatwa ("Sex Education") takes up the mantle of the Fifteenth Doctor. We don't have much longer to wait as Gatwa's Doctor and newest companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) embark on their first adventure through time and space in the Christmas special, "The Church on Ruby Road."