Few events pique the interest of cinephiles like an old-fashioned Hollywood comeback. The only thing that could maybe give that phenomenon a run for its money is seeing those second chances crash and burn. 2026 gave fans both.
Some of the actors on this list picked the right project and made fans remember why they were such a big deal back in the day. Others swung for the fences and missed so badly that the memes wrote themselves. One is still a moving target, and the gossip is still moving by the hour. Here’s who is trying to make a comeback in 2026.
Cameron Diaz
For the better part of the 2000s, Cameron Diaz was America’s go-to actor for cheesy, spicy rom-coms. She was the delectable Christina Walters in The Sweetest Thing and the stylish Amanda Woods in The Holiday. Then at the height of her fame, she stepped away from acting for about a decade. Her 2025 comeback in the fittingly titled Back in Action paired her with Jamie Foxx in a spy comedy people actually liked.
She followed it up with Outcome, a Jonah Hill dark comedy where she shared the screen with Keanu Reeves. Big swing and miss. Critics piled on, and the Rotten Tomatoes score settled in the high 20s. So she’s back to playing it safe, doing what she does best. She has an as-yet-untitled MGM Amazon rom-com with Stephen Merchant. The film is about a workaholic Brit who needs a wife for appearances and a struggling stand-up comic who needs the marriage for health insurance. Merchant also scripted and directs, with Jake Lacy and Rob Lowe joining the cast.
Marlon Wayans
Marlon Wayans is best known for his portrayal of Marcus Copeland in White Chicks. That same goofy guy just spent real screen time on Him playing a broken quarterback whose mentorship turns into full-on body horror. Critics couldn’t quite agree on the movie itself, but they all agree that Wayans has real acting chops. Anyone who saw him in Requiem for a Dream already knew that, but it’s been buried under comedy for so long that people may have forgotten.
Scary Movie 6 was supposed to be his victory lap. It brought the Wayans brothers back together after 25 years and opened bigger than any Scary Movie ever before, but critics still trashed it. However, the real news is Ride or Die, an action rom-com Wayans wrote with Rick Alvarez years ago. It’s finally happening with Keke Palmer attached. Wayans calls it When Harry Met Sally with guns. That’s probably the most on-brand pitch he could have made, and Lionsgate is on board. If it delivers, this could be the comeback that Scary Movie 6 was not.
Macaulay Culkin
Macaulay Culkin figured out something most child stars never do: how to step back without disappearing completely. So far, it has worked a treat. He’s currently playing a robed lieutenant in Caesar’s Legion in Fallout season 2. He also kept showing up on Running Point, the Netflix show starring his partner Brenda Song. First as a heckling fan in season 1, and later in a sweet callback to the 1991 movie My Girl, featured in a flashback scene.
None of this feels like a big comeback, especially the Running Point cameo, which only happened because he was visiting Song on set, and that seems to be the whole point. He’s said he’s “technically retired,” and only comes back for stuff that sounds fun. He’s also talked about how rough child stardom was, and why he spent years avoiding the spotlight. Playing it low-key is a smart move for someone who’s seen first-hand what mega-fame does to a person. Yet, it can’t help but feel like he is gearing up for something bigger.
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Casual fans often talk like Sarah Michelle Gellar just vanished after Buffy. She didn’t. She just pivoted to smaller TV roles while everyone treated her like a throwback. That changed in 2025 when she returned to horror with a dream-sequence cameo as Helen Shivers in the I Know What You Did Last Summer revival. She followed that up with a crucial role in Ready or Not 2: Here I Come. That’s a nice couple of wins in a row.
Then there’s Thud, a supernatural rom-com, where Gellar plays the Grim Reaper falling for Rudy Pankow’s devil at a wedding. It sounds ridiculous, but after three straight horror wins, Gellar clearly knows what her fans want, and she’s happily obliging. Betting against her now would seem impractical.
Meghan Markle
Meghan Markle lives in the tabloids, whether she acts or not. But this year, she actually made the news for something work-related. The Duchess of Sussex hasn’t been on a set since leaving Suits in 2018. But Close Personal Friends brings her back to the screen, playing herself alongside Brie Larson, Jack Quaid, and Lily Collins. It’s less a splashy relaunch and more a low-key way to dip her toe back in after a relatively lengthy absence.
The bigger story was The Gentlemen, Guy Ritchie‘s Netflix crime series. Reports had Markle in advanced talks for a season 3 role. That news spread fast. Days later, fresh reports said that the whole thing stalled because of pushback in the U.K. Whether that deal is dead or just sleeping is anyone’s guess right now.
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