Stories We Expect to See in 2018

How will entertainment media relate to social issues in the year ahead? Here are just a few anticipated themes.

African American superheroes triumph in the CW’s new series “Black Lightning,” about a school principal and dad (Cress Williams) who’s able to control electricity, and the highly anticipated movie “Black Panther,” in theaters February 16, about the strength-enhanced leader (Chadwick Boseman) of a futuristic African nation with highly advanced technology. (Lupita Nyong’o plays one of his all-female set of bodyguards.) Netflix is also developing “Raising Dion,” about a black single mom who discovers her young son has superpowers.

Following last fall’s documentary “Wasted: The Story of Food Waste,” the future of sustainable food and the disadvantages of the current food system are subjects of Netflix’s six-part docuseries “Rotten,” now streaming on Netflix, and an upcoming documentary based on Jonathan Safran Foer’s book “Eating Animals.”

Films recounting the lives of trailblazing women are strong on the Sundance lineup—it includes the biopic “Colette,” starring Keira Knightley as the French writer; “RBG,” about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg; “Seeing Allred,” about attorney Gloria Allred; and the documentary “Jane Fonda in Five Acts.”