From TayTay’s wedding to skinny jeans, here are 9 pop-culture predictions for 2026
SOURCE:Sydney Morning Herald|BY:Nell Geraets
A new year dawns, which means another 12 months’ worth of pop-culture hijinks will soon be upon us. Allow me, your pop-culture oracle, to predict what 2026 has in store.
A new year dawns, and another 12 months’ worth of pop-culture hijinks will soon be upon us. So what trouble will celebrities get into in 2026? What new phenomenon will make us collectively lose our minds? And most importantly, as the Grinch once famously said, what will we wear?
Allow me to be your pop-culture oracle – the Mystic Meg of all things (relatively) trivial. I’ve studied my crystal ball, and here are a few of my (slightly questionable) predictions for the year ahead.
We have looked into the crystal ball in a bid to predict 2026’s defining pop-culture moments.
Taylor’s bridal era
It will surprise nobody if pop juggernaut Taylor Swift and NFL tight end Travis Kelce get hitched next year – they are engaged, after all. But what no one knows – yet – is what Swift will be wearing.
But whatever she dons will cause the internet to melt down. Vintage, modern, lacy, satin – it doesn’t matter, people will tear it to shreds online, moaning about its estimated cost and accusing her of being either too mainstream and predictable, or out-there and “try-hard”. Sorry, Taylor, I don’t call the shots, I just predict them.
The internet freaked out about Taylor Swift’s engagement ring, so they’re sure to freak out about her wedding dress.Credit: Instagram
Euphoria becomes The Idol
Too much has happened since the second season of Euphoria. Since it began in 2022, the stars have not only aged, but become incredibly famous (just look at Zendaya, Jacob Elordi and Sydney Sweeney). The energy surrounding them has thus changed too much for it to feel like the beloved Euphoria of yore.
Elordi as Nate, with Alex Demie as Maddy, in season two of Euphoria. It’s been a few years and the cast are getting older. Credit: HBO
They’ve also aged enough that creator Sam Levinson has had to shift the third season into the future, but what’s Euphoria without high school? Then, of course, there’s the death of actor Angus Cloud in 2023, which will surely hang heavily over the upcoming season. This is all to say that Levinson could be looking down the barrel of a repeat of his show The Idol, which has gone down in history as nothing but a “hate watch”.
All of these factors, along with the general “brainrot” discussed ad nauseam this year, may see a collective step away from TikTok. Alternative platforms such as Lemon8 (a combination of Instagram and Pinterest) and Coverstar (essentially a Gen Alpha TikTok) could quickly fill the gap.
Loading
Rewind to physical media
The Netflix/Paramount/Warner Bros bidding war, along with increasing interest in arthouse and indie films, such as those featured in The Criterion ClosetPicks (named for the physical collection of films released by Criterion that has featured in myriad social media videos), could drive a return to physical media.
Loading
Many fear that Netflix potentially owning Warner Bros may threaten the future of cinema, reducing the number of movies receiving a theatrical run and perhaps wreaking havoc on subscription prices. And over in the music space, there is mounting concern over the low royalties paid to musicians by Spotify and by other streamers and increasing AI content. So, a logical rebellion would be to revert to the good ol’ days when DVDs, CDs and Blu-ray reigned supreme.
Brat 2.0
Club rat queen Charli XCX is gearing up for another big year, but it won’t just be her music driving the cultural phenomenon – she’s an actress now.
The British singer will release The Moment in January, a quasi mockumentary-style film starring Charli that essentially explores how “Brat Summer” came to be, thus potentially reviving it (this time during Australia’s summer). Wuthering Heights, Emerald Fennell’s new film which is scored by Charli, will be released in February, so there’ll be a new album to thrash around to. We’ve already heard House and Chains of Love, and it’s clear Charli’s relevance is in no danger of diminishing.
Tom Cruise will begin another impossible mission
Sure, they said Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning was the last, but did anyone really believe that? Now that an Academy Award for stunt design has been established, it’s presumably only a matter of time before Tom Cruise is back in Ethan Hunt’s shoes, hanging off planes and jumping off cliffs. I know he received an honorary Oscar earlier this year, but this surely won’t be enough. He’ll need the real deal come 2028 and that means beginning another impossible mission very shortly.
Bye bye, Labubu
If anything epitomises the fever dream that was 2025, it’s the obsession with Labubus. Gen Zs shell out thousands for the demonic collectables, reselling the rare ones for disgusting prices. Most collectors call them an “investment”. I hate to say it, but that investment will probably come crashing down next year, when everyone loses interest and collectors run out of space to store them.
Fear not, this collectable nightmare could lose relevance soon.Credit: Bloomberg
KPop Demon Hunters slay again
This animation about a K-pop group that fights demons with song and badass dance routines became far too big for Netflix to just leave be. I mean, come on, it’s the most-watched movie on the streamer ever with over 236 million views. Netflix will surely cash in on this success by making a sequel, one that could see Huntrix travel to the demon world to find Rumi’s father … But that’s just a wild guess.
Hello again, low-ride skinny jeans
To the horror of Millennials everywhere, the skinny jean seems to be on the brink of returning. Hugely popular influencers like Alix Earle are not only wearing them, but also launching custom collaborations. They’ve even been spotted on runways.
What may be even more concerning is that the deeper we get into 2000s nostalgia, the more likely it is that jeans won’t just tighten, but they’ll ride so low that the whale-tail look will return. Is that you, Y2K Paris Hilton?
Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.
