While 2016 has been a busy year in terms of breaking celebrity news stories, TV shows, movies and happenings in the music industry, it’s likely that 2017 will be just as sensational.
Looking forward, here are some predictions of the stars, shows and events that will leave their mark in 2017:
Music
Radiohead at Glastonbury
After the band were cryptically revealed as headliners in October, the clamour
for next year’s Somerset-based festival has risen sharply. Fresh off the back of surprise album A Moon Shaped Pool, the group will take to the Pyramid Stage for a third time to the glee of fans at Worthy Farm and those watching from home.
As Glastonbury approaches another of its regular fallow years in 2018, next
summer’s festival promises to be a highlight of grand proportions in the music calendar.
Take That new album and tour
Twenty-five years after their debut album, Gary Barlow and co return with their eighth studio record and the follow-up to 2014′s III which marked their debut as a trio.
Wonderland is accompanied by a 32-date UK tour, including six nights at
London’s O2.
Although Robbie Williams has denied he will join the group on next
year’s tour, he teased fans by saying he would like to take part in a reunion
“at some point, definitely”.
Rag ‘n’ Bone Man
Fresh from following in the footsteps of Adele and Jessie J to take the Critics’
Choice Award, the Brighton-born singer-songwriter is one to watch in 2017. Rag ‘n’ Bone Man – real name Rory Graham – will release his debut album in the early part of next year after a successful 2016 that saw him perform a sold-out show at Electric Brixton, as well as take to the stage at Glastonbury and Lovebox.
Grime
Talks of a “second coming” of the underground genre began around two years ago.
2016 was when grime ripped back through into the mainstream with cultural relevance.
More than a decade after Dizzee Rascal’s Boy In Da Corner Mercury
Prize win, Skepta swooped to success and shook off grime’s association with being a novelty genre, which was never helped by Lethal Bizzle’s determination to shout the word dench at every opportunity.
So if 2016 was when grime recovered its heart, watch out for it in 2017 when the so-called second wave of Stormzy, Novelist and co come to represent the best of British music to the world.
Adele vs Beyonce at the Grammys
Two of pop music’s biggest stars will compete for the three top awards at the
2017 Grammys.
Beyonce, a 20-time Grammy winner, will compete with the Hello singer for best album, best song and best record.
Adele is aiming to become only the second woman to receive the best album prize twice after Taylor Swift achieved the feat earlier this year, while Beyonce’s 62 nominations over her career make her the most-nominated woman in Grammy history.
Beyonce’s visual album Lemonade against Adele’s traditional big hitter 25 will
be the highlight of the ceremony while the battle between the singers’
respective lead tracks on each record will also catch the attention. Two huge
songs vying for recognition, it should be a tasty one.
Television
Bake Off on Channel 4
A tumultuous year for Britain’s favourite baking programme. With just Paul
Hollywood remaining from the much-loved line-up, Channel 4 has a lot of work on its hands to keep viewers sweet. Advice from Hollywood that the show should remain “exactly the same” should be heeded by its new broadcaster, which has been criticised by fans before it has even sampled the new-look presenting team.
Whoever does replace Mel and Sue will need to carve out their own brand of
cheesy wit that does not drift too closely to, or too far from, their
predecessors. See also, Chris Evans on Top Gear.
BBC royal charter
The BBC will follow new rules in 2017 with the introduction of the latest royal
charter coming in March. Under the planned shake-up, a new BBC board will be created which will govern the corporation, while Ofcom will regulate it.
Most notably, the corporation will be required to name BBC stars earning more than £150,000. The change is expected to force the disclosure by next summer of the pay packets of more than 100 of the BBC’s best-known faces – including football presenter Gary Lineker and chat show host Graham Norton.
The corporation will also face new standards for diversity, distinctiveness and
impartiality.
Stranger Things
The fantasy-thriller will return with nine new episodes in 2017. It’s rumoured
to air before July and creators Matt and Ross Duffer have already teased fans
with episode titles that are “subject to change”.
Starring Winona Ryder and Matthew Modine, the first eight instalments follow thesearch for a young boy who vanishes in small-town Indiana in 1983.
Netflix has said the second series will be set in 1984 and that Millie Bobby
Brown (Eleven) is set to return, alongside newcomers Dacre Montgomery, an
Australian actor who will appear in the new Power Rangers movie, and Sadie Sink from American Odyssey.
Game Of Thrones
Bloodied and bruised, Game Of Thrones is approaching its final lap. The
penultimate season will be broadcast a little later than usual, airing in the
summer and shortened to just seven episodes.
The cast and crew have returned to Iceland for filming for the upcoming series,and have also been spotted in Spain and Northern Ireland. Rumours hint that Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) will finally meet Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) while child warrior queen and hero of season six Lyanna Mormont (Bella Ramsey) has also been spotted on set.
Britannia
A new fantasy drama is set to draw in new fans in 2017. Sky One’s Britannia, set in 43AD, will see The Missing’s David Morrissey don his Roman armour and True Detective’s Kelly Reilly transform into a Celtic princess. Filmed in Prague, Czech Republic, the show will also star Harry Potter actress Zoe Wanamaker, Being Human’s Annabel Scholey and Green Wing’s Julian Rhind-Tutt.
Film
La La Land
Hailed as an early contender for Oscar success, La La Land reunites Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.
Gosling plays a musician who falls in love with an aspiring actress played by
Stone in the comedy-drama – the third film they have starred in together after Crazy Stupid Love in 2011 and 2013′s Gangster Squad.
La La Land is released in the US on Friday and in UK cinemas on January 13.
T2 Trainspotting
The long-awaited Trainspotting sequel will be released just a short 21-year wait after the original film was in cinemas.
T2 reunites director Danny Boyle with stars Ewan McGregor, Jonny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle and Ewen Bremner. The first film, which followed a group of heroin addicts and explored urban poverty, was based on the novel of the same name by Irvine Welsh, while the sequel is based on his book Porno.
T2 Trainspotting will be released in UK cinemas on January 27.
Star Wars Episode VIII
John Boyega and Daisy Ridley will be back in December 2017 with Star Wars
Episode VIII.
Traditionally with the epic space opera, there are plenty of
questions left unanswered from A Force Awakens. With a year to go there’s plenty of speculating still to be done, but in the meantime fans have Rogue One to enjoy.
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2
James Gunn, director of Guardians Of The Galaxy, has teased that the sequel will be “more emotional” – and paradoxically both “bigger” and “smaller”.
The follow-up to his 2015 smash hit continues to follow the team’s adventures as they unravel the mystery of Peter Quill’s true parentage.
“We get to learn a lot about fathers in the second movie, and I think that we
focus a lot on that,” Gunn has said.
The second instalment of the Marvel box office hit will also feature the
contents of Awesome Mix Vol. 2, the cassette unwrapped by Star-Lord – played by Chris Pratt – at the end of the first film.
It is set for release in April.
Blade Runner 2049
Harrison Ford is back on the big screen in 2017. Ford is reprising his role as
Rick Deckard in the Blade Runner sequel, a follow-up to Ridley Scott’s 1982
sci-fi classic. The film will also star Ryan Gosling, Robin Wright and Jared
Leto.
The movie is being directed by Denis Villeneuve, who previously worked on
Sicario and Prisoners, and is set several decades after the original.
Scott is an executive producer on the new Blade Runner film, which is set for
release in October 2017.