The basics:

• Anne Hathaway stars in five 2026 films, showcasing her range across the industry
• 2026 releases include ‘The Odyssey,’ ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2,’ ‘The End of Oak Street’
• Industry watchers point to NJ native’s status as a highly bankable, powerhouse talent
• Turned past backlash into a career defined by confidence, authenticity and staying power

Anne Hathaway posed on the red carpet outside AMC Lincoln Square in Manhattan, almost iridescent with joy. It was just her latest stop on a global press tour for Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey.” Hathaway stars as Penelope, the vigilant queen of Ithaca and steadfastly loyal wife of Matt Damon’s missing King Odysseus.

An imposing 40-foot Trojan horse modeled after the beached wooden steed in the movie was parked on the New York street for the glittery celebrity event. Meanwhile, Hathaway was her own marvel. Hair upswept, wearing a gown with a silver-spangled halter top and empire-waisted, Grecian-inspired skirt, she rested her arms around her pregnant belly at the suggestion of a photographer.

Yes, Anne Hathaway is “mother.” She’s also an actual mother, with a third child on the way. But it’s the New Jersey actor’s other creations have everyone talking this year. Hathaway claims five movie releases in 2026, with titles spread across a wide range of genres, studios and distributors.

That kind of theatrical domination is partly owed to quirks of the ever-shifting film release calendar, which has historically been influenced by delays due to events like strikes and the COVID-19 pandemic. But that’s certainly not the only reason.

Hollywood powerhouse

Industry watchers point to Hathaway’s status as a highly bankable, powerhouse talent. She can be everywhere at once — mammoth legacy franchises as well as action, sci-fi and indie movies. Because these days, everyone is in the “Anne Hathaway business.”

Hathaway started 2026 playing a pop star looking for reinvention in A24’s “Mother Mary.” Then came box office dynamite from 20th Century Studios’ “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” with Hathaway’s journalist character Andy Sachs returning to theaters after more than 20 years alongside Meryl Streep’s iconic deadpan magazine editor Miranda Priestly.

By all means …

Anne Hathaway shares her Jersey roots with fellow “The Devil Wears Prada 2” cast and crew members. Meet them here.

Hathaway then moved from Disney to Universal Pictures for her reunion with Christopher Nolan in “The Odyssey.” The auteur director’s $250 million take revisits Homer’s nearly 3,000-year-old epic. Released July 17, the box office titan has grossed more than $1.1 billion as of Aug. 13. Now, she stars in the Warner Bros. sci-fi film “The End of Oak Street,” which opened Aug. 14. The actor caps her release-packed year in October with “Verity,” an Amazon MGM Studios thriller based on Colleen Hoover’s bestselling book.

Jersey girl

Hathaway, 43, who grew up in Millburn performing at the Paper Mill Playhouse, has the five titles listed in succession on her Instagram bio. The very sight of it became a popular screenshot, given the stacked lineup.

Over the years, much has been made of the “death” of the movie star at large — the idea that such highly popular actors, the kind who draw an audience no matter what, are fading into Hollywood’s past. But Katie Chambers says it’s hard to deny how Anne Hathaway is moving in the business.

“When you look at the range of projects that she’s had in the last year, I mean, if that’s not a movie star, what is?” she says.

Chambers is the spokeswoman for New York Women in Film & Television.

“These major, major studios are all investing in her because they believe in her, and it’s incredible to see that she’s equally as comfortable in these prestige dramas as she is in thrillers, as she is in this kind of wild independent space that A24 caters to, to literary adaptations, to comedies. Doing ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ again and bringing that to a whole new generation has just been incredible to see. It’s even greater to see a woman taking on that kind of range … I can’t think of a genre that she hasn’t touched in some way.”

We knew you when …

Hathaway is the type of actor who grew up on screen. A generation of moviegoers who delighted in “The Devil Wears Prada” in 2005 also grew up with her in films like “The Princess Diaries” (2001) and “Ella Enchanted” (2004) before she made the move to more “adult” dramas like “Brokeback Mountain” (2005) and “Rachel Getting Married” (2008), which generated serious awards attention, including her first Oscar nomination in 2009.

Hathaway’s “Devil Wears Prada” return provided a “hit of nostalgia at a time where people really feel like they need to be uplifted,” Chambers says. Audiences turned up in a massive way, pushing the franchise total (including the box office grosses of the first and second film) past $1 billion.

“It is not surprising that that would be so widely embraced,” she says of a film built on a treasured Hollywood commodity — existing IP. The sequel benefited from decades of love and rewatches of the original. But the reception to the movie also says much about the kind of pull and longevity actors like Hathaway and Streep command.

“It’s great to see just from a women’s representation standpoint,” Chambers says. “Representation isn’t just about who’s entering the industry and who the new bright, young hot star at the moment is, it’s also about who gets to stay and who gets to grow within the industry and become a leader and create a career and life for themselves, and we’ve been able to see Anne Hathaway do that in real time.”

In industry terms: She has range

Staying power is no small feat in a notoriously fickle industry, one that is itself suffering from existential threats to theatrical exhibitions.

Hathaway can star in a movie like “Mother Mary,” which was made for roughly $20 million and brought in about $3 million after its April release, and not fear for her career because of box office, especially with “The Devil Wears Prada 2” looming a few weeks later. She often returns to indie fare like the 2023 psychological thriller “Eileen,” which brought in $1.6 million along with positive critical reception for Hathaway’s performance in the Jersey-filmed, New England-set powder keg of a story.

Power in the movie business often translates to the ability to take risks, and that’s not something you often get to see women do.
– Katie Chambers, spokeswoman, New York Women in Film & Television

“Power in the movie business often translates to the ability to take risks, and that’s not something you often get to see women do,” Chambers says. “It’s a testament to how far she’s come in her career and how highly she’s regarded and how much she was trusted by filmmakers and by studios that she can take these creative risks and still come out on top.”

In role after role, Hathaway also plays complex women — women who live in the media business of 2026 but also speak to us in recast tales from antiquity. “It demonstrates that people want to keep watching women throughout their lives,” Chambers says of Hathaway’s surge as a 40-something actor.

It’s a development that arrives not as a blip or even an Anne-issance, but the next chapter in an already strong career.

Penelope’s dilemma

Hathaway plunged into intense training in dancing and singing for “Mother Mary.”

For “The Odyssey,” she learned to weave on a loom, which Penelope uses as a crucial tool in her courageous fight against a cruel fate. Hathaway was elated to sign on for the film, having been a Greek mythology buff since eighth grade at Millburn Middle School.

The shrewd Penelope, queen of Ithaca, is wife of Odysseus and mother of Telemachus, played by Spider-Man himself, Tom Holland. She is expected to remarry in the absence of the king, as per custom. But the queen, adorned in regal, draped jewel tones, staves off that reality. She says she will remarry after she finishes weaving a death shroud for her father-in-law. Each night, Penelope further stalls by undoing the progress she’s made on the shroud, trying to guard against a room of restless, aggressive suitors who are eager to kill Telemachus, heir to Odysseus’ throne.

Hathaway’s Penelope, as written by Nolan in this adaptation of Homer’s work, emphasizes that with Odysseus gone and unaccounted for, she’s already been sitting on the throne in all but name for 20 years. Her devotion stands firm against the threat of the suitors, but she’s also making the case that she has been the regent — the one left to keep the troubled kingdom from falling into complete chaos. Unlike the suitors, she remains composed. But inside, she roils with emotion.

Hathaway previously teamed with Nolan in “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012) and “Interstellar” (2014), so their reunion has been more than a decade in the making.

People will seemingly head to the theater for any Nolan movie, given the Oscar-winning director’s track record with films like the overwhelmingly successful “Oppenheimer” (2023), which was named best picture. The very question of how he’ll approach a classic like “The Odyssey” is compelling enough to get audiences in seats, whether they have access to his preferred IMAX 70mm screenings or not. They also know that his films feature A-list actors he’s worked with in other titles — a group that expands significantly with this installment. Joining Nolan’s stable is a coveted rite of passage for even the most accomplished, Oscar-winning actors.

Pop culture critic and author Padraic Maroney refers to “The Odyssey” lineup as “half of Hollywood.”

In addition to Damon, Hathaway and Holland playing the royal family of Ithaca, the cast of Hollywood heavyweights boasts Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong’o, John Leguizamo and Robert Pattinson, along with striking performances from actors like Samantha Morton and Elliot Page.

The post-‘Hathahate’ era

Hathaway has enjoyed a distinguished career as one of the most successful actors of her generation. Today, she’s noted for her relaxed, easygoing, contented vibes in press junkets and public appearances. Her viral moments include one where she cuts loose on the dance floor, and another where she quiets a loud crowd in Italy with a gentle yet firm “calma.”

However, she didn’t get there without a famous rough patch.

Filmed right here in NJ

Get a behind-the-scenes look at Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day,” which was filmed in six New Jersey counties. Take a look.

Before and after her 2013 Oscar win for her performance as Fantine in “Les Misérables,” Hathaway, then 30, faced a lot of backlash. The 2010s were not particularly kind to the actor when it came to public image.

Jane Owen, who was working as a film and TV publicist, remembers it well. The public scorn of Hathaway even had a name — “Hathahate.”  There was a notion that she seemed insincere, too sincere, or somehow disingenuous.

“It was so crazy, but the world is in a different place,” says Owen, who thinks the pre-#MeToo response was partly due to the perception of Hathaway’s dominance in the industry at that time. “We criticized women purely for being successful.”

Now Hathaway is on the other side of the “Hathahate” as the beneficiary of plentiful adoration and a staunchly loyal fandom. She’s even getting ready to embrace the character that marked her feature film debut. More than 25 years later, she’ll return as another queen: Mia Thermopolis, queen of Genovia, in “The Princess Diaries 3.”

“Anne Hathaway is a symbol of what is happening to women all over this country,” says Melissa Silverstein, founder of Women and Hollywood. “She is stepping into her power and authenticity. She might have been ahead of the curve early in her career, but now when you see her speak and based on the roles she picks, she is comfortable in herself and that is a joy to see.”

No need to stay in her lane

Hathaway announced her pregnancy with an Instagram reveal in June, as press for “The Odyssey” started to ramp up.

Her visibility helps to “normalize that idea that women can and should continue to work and pursue their passions as they pursue something equally as exciting as motherhood,” Chambers says.

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With a record spanning prestige dramas, musicals and dramedies along with romances like “The Idea of You,” Hathaway isn’t confined to a specific lane for what she’ll do next.

“She appeals to all different types of audiences,” says entertainment attorney Marc Hershberg. “It’s an exciting time for her because she really does have this iconic filmography.”

Could there be a resurgence of Hathahate?

“Whenever you hear someone has five movies, the immediate thought is ‘are they going to burn people out?'” Maroney says.

Sure, movie star fatigue can happen, but that story’s already been written. Betting against Hathaway?

You may as well bet against Odysseus coming home.