Legacy sequels don’t have an amazing track record at the box office. But in April 2022, as Covid-19 restrictions eased and nostalgia for the good ol’ days was at an all-time high, Top Gun: Maverick hit theaters and grossed more than a billion dollars worldwide. Tom Cruise’s return to the world of insanely fast fighter jets and shirtless beach sports was such a success that audiences and critics alike share the belief that the sequel—released 36 years after the original Top Gun—was even better than its predecessor.
But if you ask Glen Powell, who became a real name in Hollywood following his role as pilot Jake “Hangman” Seresin in Maverick, the sequel didn’t feel like a sure thing. “Top Gun: Maverick seems obvious now, but it was not obvious at the time,” Powell told Esquire’s editor in chief Michael Sebastian in the latest episode of “What I’ve Learned.” According to the actor, even Tom Cruise himself would agree. “He said it was like hitting a bullet with a bullet.”
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One of the most chilling passages in biblical scripture is when Christ confronts a man possessed by an “unclean spirit.” “My name is Legion,” the being declares in Mark 5:9. “For we are many.” This is even more ominous when you consider this passage from a few verses before: “This man lived in the tombs and no one could any longer bind him, even with chains.”
We all know evil exists in the world and that there are countless perpetrators of it. But what if it’s not possible to stop it? What if you can’t protect yourself—or anyone else? That hopelessness is what encroaches on Scarlett Johansson’s homicide detective in The Exorcist: Martyrs, filmmaker Mike Flanagan’s new chapter in the demonic-possession series, which aims to reignite old fears that date back not just to the 1973 original movie but to something primal and immemorial.
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Some sweaters are bound for glory. Burly cable knits, rugged crewnecks, and easygoing cardigans are all part of this camp. They’ve been cool for decades (if not longer) and show no signs of losing their step in the years to come. Other sweaters, though, are bound for the trash heap, whether the proverbial one in our collective consciousness or the literal one on the outskirts of town. The flimsy, techy quarter-zip your least-stylish friend wears every time he needs to “dress up” is definitely one of those sweaters. With any luck, he’ll take it off and someone will abscond with it, saving him—and his friends and family—from any continued embarrassment.
We’re here to make sure your closet is well stocked with winners and free of the sort of clothing that elicits eye-rolls and pitying murmurs. Which is why we’ve compiled this list. It has all the styles you need to know and none of the junk on which fashion start-ups want you to waste your hard-earned money. There are cable knits, crewnecks, and cardigans, of course, as well as a few deep cuts. You don’t need to buy one from every category, but we won’t fault you if you do. It’s officially sweater season, after all. Now’s the time to stock up, cozy up, and look your best.
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Do you feel the crisp chill in the air? The icy breeze of winter’s approach poking past the auburn bloom of autumn? Probably not; 2026 is shaping up to have one of the hottest Octobers on record. But it’s still Halloween, and the time is nigh to indulge in all things spooky, scary, and pumpkin spice. If you’ve had your fill of horror-movie marathons or rewatching television classics, why not shut off the screens—always a good idea—and crack open a new horror novel? And we really mean new here.
All throughout 2026, publishers big and small sent mountains of advance copies to the Esquire offices. Many of them were horror titles. Just by turning around at our desks, we could almost literally survey the current landscape of literary horror. From there, we picked out ones we knew we’d want in our own personal TBR lists. Below are ten horror novels published in 2026 that Esquire’s editors deem the best to read this Halloween.
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Hoon Lee hadn’t read East of Eden when he auditioned for Zoe Kazan’s much-anticipated adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel, but it would soon change his life. The standout character actor, known for his turns on Banshee and Your Friends & Neighbors, was told he’d be a good fit to play Lee, the Chinese American caretaker (and, soon enough, pseudo mother and father) of the splintered Trask family.
“It was one of many books I was supposed to have read in high school and did not read,” Lee, 53, tells me over Zoom on the eve of East of Eden’s October 1 premiere on Netflix. “Moby Dick’s still on the list.” But when Lee received the material he’d have to perform, all he felt was disbelief.
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His Marvel movie Blade has long since fallen apart, but Bassam Tariq is still studying the sword.
The Pakistani-born filmmaker, who grew up in New York’s Astoria neighborhood and spent his teen years in Houston, cultivated his interest in martial arts during the making of a vampire superhero tentpole that never was. “While I was working on Blade, I picked up the sword,” he tells me. “My teacher, Sensei Ryan Robertson, taught me the sword is an extension of you. It’s an extension of your ego. You have to strike with intention.”
Tariq’s newest film, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, is more than an action thriller with faint echoes of the popcorn movie he and Oscar winner Mahershala Ali had in mind. It seizes on the talents of its lead actor, whose months of weapons training just couldn’t go to waste, to be a personal and graceful movie that meditates on masculinity and fatherhood through the specific lens of Muslims in working-class Texas.
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