2016 Nostalgia: 16 Films and TV Shows That Debuted a Decade Ago

The first extension of American Horror StoryRyan Murphy’s debut installment of American Crime Storycentered around OJ Simpson, came out on Feb. 2, 2016. It followed the late NFL player’s infamous murder trial, of which he was found not guilty for the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.

At the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards, held in September, The People v. OJ Simpson was a hit, with a total of nine wins (accompanied by its 22 overall nominations). The series won best limited series; lead actor in a limited series (Courtney B. Vance); lead actress in a limited series (Sarah Paulson); best supporting actor in a limited series (Sterling K. Brown); and outstanding writing for a limited series, movie or dramatic special, among others.

In THR‘s original review of the series, chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg wrote, “The People v. O.J has a welcomely, wonky interest in the legal process, which is the best thing that could happen to the series in this era of Serial and The Jinx and Making a Murderer. Murphy, so frequently a master of visceral and emotional manipulation, proves adept at following systematic manipulation, whether it’s in jury selection, evidence presentation or witness wrangling. The by-any-means-necessary push and pull between the defense and prosecutors seems to confirm that no matter your feelings on Simpson’s guilt or innocence, justice had only a little to do with what unfolded.”

With Ryan Reynolds at the forefront, Deadpool came out on Feb. 12, 2016, taking the Marvel world by storm. A stark contrast to other movies in the Disney-backed franchise, the risk of its raunchiness certainly paid off, as the film landed as the sixth highest-grossing movie of the year domestically, landing at ninth worldwide.

Its success spawned a number of follow-ups, including Deadpool 2 (2018) and Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), with Reynolds working on another film including the character and a few of Wade Wilson’s X-Men confidants.

THR also predicted the commercial success of the first Deadpool in its 2016 film review: “It takes a little while to get in gear — or perhaps just to adjust to what’s going on here — but once it does, Deadpool drops trou to reveal itself as a really raunchy, very dirty and pretty funny goof on the entire superhero ethos, as well as the first Marvel film to irreverently trash the brand. Just what anyone suffering from genre burnout might appreciate at this point, as well as a big in-joke treat for all but the most reverent fanboys, this film looks to be hitting the market at just the right time — with Christmas releases now in the rearview mirror — to rake in some sweet returns.”

The official sequel to the once-beloved American sitcom Fuller House arrived on Netflix Feb. 26, 2016. Fuller House reunited Candace Cameron Bure, Jodie Sweetin and Andrea Barber, as fellow OGs John Stamos, Bob Saget, Dave Coulier and Lori Loughlin made appearances. It was one of the first sequel series before many legacy TV shows created their own follow-ups, one that harped on the nostalgia factor that the internet is now tapping into in 2026, 10 years later.

Fienberg called out Fuller House‘s tendency to rely on its predecessor in THR‘s 2016 review, writing, “The Fuller House premiere is almost non-stop references to the original series, filling-in-the-gaps exposition and then a climactic homage to the Full House pilot that includes both clips from that series and reenactment. It has no desire to live as its own thing and it’s a trend that continues in the early episodes. The second episode doesn’t include any Full House clips, but it mentions and restores an allegedly classic scene.

Another major movie for Disney premiered on March 4, 2016; almost a decade before its sequel, Zootopia 2came out last winter. Zootopia centered on the story of the bunny cop Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and scam artist fox Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) who were forced to work together to solve a crime in their town of Zootopia. And it would be an understatement to say the film was a success.

At the time, it became the fourth animated film in history to ever cross the $1 billion mark, landing as the fourth top-grossing worldwide movie of the year. That success parlayed itself quite well to Zootopia 2which also became the fastest animated and PG-rated movie to pass $1 billion. To add to its list of successes, Zootopia won the Academy Award for best animated feature at the 89th Oscars.

“Boasting a pitch perfect voice cast led by a terrific Ginnifer Goodwin as a righteous rural rabbit who becomes the first cotton-tailed police recruit in the mammal-centric city of Zootopia, the 3D caper expertly combines keen wit with a gentle, and very timely, message of inclusivity and empowerment,” THR wrote in its original Zootopia review.

Starring Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice flew into theaters on March 25, 2016. It was the first time the characters of Batman and Superman were seen on-screen together in a live-action adaptation, plus the first live-action depiction of Wonder Woman. But it was met with mixed reviews.

While Dawn of Justice was muddly received, it was a triumph for Warner Bros. in 2016. It was the seventh highest-grossing worldwide movie that year; also placing eighth among the domestic box office. However, THR was on the side of not really enjoying the movie, writing in the 2016 review that “the film may be imposing, but it’s not fun.”

“The main issue facing the writers of a superhero smackdown like this is concocting a reason why, given all the evil out there, they have to fight each other — as well as, in this case, coming up with a way to level the playing field when one hero is essentially immortal and the other is just a really buff rich guy with a costume and lots of gizmos. Screenwriters Chris Terrio (Argo) and David S. Goyer (all three of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight blockbusters) have sort of solved this by devising ways to make Superman more frequently vulnerable than he’s ever been before,” the review reads. “But the villain here, Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor, is so intensely annoying that, very early on, you wish Batman and Superman would just patch up their differences and join forces to put the squirrelly rascal out of his, and our, misery.”

Before there were the live-action remakes like Lilo & Stitch or The Little Mermaidthere was 2016’s The Jungle Book. On April 15, Neel Sethi stepped into Mowgli’s shoes, supported by a star-studded voice cast including Idris Elba, Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. It was one of Disney’s first live-action adaptations to utilize CGI to create real-life animals, and its box office success very likely influenced a slew of similar remakes to come.

The Jungle Book ranks as the fifth highest-grossing film of 2016, both worldwide and domestically. The movie also notably won an Oscar in 2017 for best visual effects, a notion that THR commended in the 2016 film review.

“But even as the drama and its treatment become increasingly conventional and familiar as the film moves toward its pathetic (and arguably overly) audience-pleasing wrap-up, the exceptional visual quality and lifelike animal renditions remain stunning throughout. Favreau and cinematographer Bill Pope vigorously keep the camera moving at all but the quietest moments, and the visual effects team led by Robert Legato and Adam Valdez has both created sumptuous settings that look as lifelike as any CGI ever presented in a studio feature and integrated both humans and animal characters into them in seamless ways,” read the review. “After having completely succeeded in transporting you to its primeval jungle setting, the pic concludes, at the very end of the lengthy final credits, with the cheeky note, ‘Filmed in Downtown Los Angeles.’ At least one sort of movie magic is still very much at work here.”

The third Captain American movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Civil War was a somewhat prelude for what was to come with Avengers: Endgame. With nearly every superhero in the franchise present in the film at the time, Civil War also marked the debut of Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther and Tom Holland’s Spider-Man.

Nearly all the OG Avengers were featured in the film (Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner), plus a slew of (at the time) upcoming new additions in Anthony Mackie, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Sebastian Stan and Paul Bettany. And Marvel fans surely showed out in theaters after it was released on May 6, 2016 to support the theatrical event.

Civil War became the 25th movie to ever cross the $1 billion mark in May, and is the highest-grossing worldwide film of 2016. (It’s third on the domestic list, falling only behind two other Disney flicks.)

THR’s film critic Sheri Linden predicted Civil War‘s profit in her 2016 review, writing, “As the third Captain America film jump-starts the summer movie season, and something called Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, its box-office muscle is beyond question.”

“Like the previous Captain America feature, 2014’s The Winter Soldier, the film was scripted by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, with Anthony and Joe Russo at the helm. Within genre requirements, they achieve an overall balance between super-kinetic — or numbing, depending on your point of view — action sequences and character detail, although more of the latter would have been welcome,” continued the review. “And while the chance to see old-school Steve Rogers and modern guy Tony Stark, aka Captain America and Iron Man, go mano a mano is inherently thrilling only to diehard fans, even nonbelievers who make it to that climactic moment will feel that something is at stake when the two face off.”

While Stranger Things just closed its fifth and final chapter in late 2025, the beloved Netflix hit will celebrate its 10-year anniversary this summer. On July 15, 2026, audiences were transformed to 1980s Indiana, where a group of children were tasked with solving strange mysteries, and offscreen, they became real-life superstars overnight.

In his 2016 TV review, Fienberg referenced Netflix’s Fuller Housewhich debuted in the same year, writing, “Unlike Fuller Housethe Stranger Things approach to nostalgia isn’t solely parasitic, but it also isn’t [Stephen] King’s conflicted prism on the past, that the good old days weren’t all that much better even if their songs were catchier and their snack foods tastier.”

He also praised the cast’s performances: “You care what happens to the characters in Stranger Things because they’re written authentically and they’re cast exceptionally, especially when it comes to the kids. [Millie Bobbie] Brown, one of the few watchable parts of BBC America’s obnoxiously cryptic Intrudersmakes Eleven menacing, sad, funny and startlingly sweet, especially in scenes shared with [Finn] Wolfhard. [Gaten] Matarazzo’s Dustin, short on teeth but long on hilarious indignation, grew on me with each episode, as did Nancy, with [Natalia] Dyer nailing probably the season’s standout character journey. Ryder digs into Joyce’s initial desperation and misery with gusto, but thankfully doesn’t have to spiral for eight full hours.”

The long-awaited follow-up to Finding Nemothis time spotlighting Ellen DeGeneres’ blue tang fish Dory, came out on June 17, 2016. A common theme among movies on this list stems from maximizing nostalgia, and Finding Dory was jam-packed with such that it became a standout at the box office.

It’s the second highest-grossing domestic film of 2016, placing third on the worldwide gross list. However, THR argued that the sequel did not live up to its predecessor in the 2016 review, noting, “while rambunctious and passably humorous, this offspring isn’t nearly as imaginative and nimble-minded as the forerunner that spawned it.”

Suicide Squad released on Aug. 5, 2016, emerging as a win for Warner Bros. that year. Starring Jared Leto, Will Smith and Margot Robbie, it was the 10th highest-grossing worldwide film of the year, and landed at ninth on the domestic gross list. The film also garnered one Oscar nomination for best makeup and hairstyling.

In the 2016 film review, THR wrote thatSuicide Squad assembles an all-star team of supervillains and then doesn’t know what to do with them.”

“The alluring cast and great expectations roused by some deceptively fun trailers should spark major box office at the outset,” the review continued. “But a sense of disappointment will soon enshroud Suicide Squadas it did recently Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” another movie on this list.

FX’s Atlanta premiered on Sept. 6, 2016, standing as one of the most notable TV shows to have debuted that year. The comedy, created by Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino), earned him the best lead comedy actor Emmy at the 2017 Emmys, also nabbing himself an Emmy for directing.

THR praised Glover’s performance in Atlanta in the 2016 season one TV review, noting, “It’s Glover who really arrives — a magnetic and sympathetic character who can be funny (that’s what we expect), introspectively dramatic (there’s this Zen well that [Hiro] Murai seems to capture every time Glover is in motion and observing without talking), but above all real. Half of the appeal of Atlanta comes from looking at Glover and wondering what he’s slowly revealing with this Earn character, with his day-in-the-life, minor and unexpected revelations about people.”

Moonlightthe best picture winner at the 89th Academy Awards, arrived on Oct. 21, 2016. It navigated the story of Chiron, a Black gay man from Miami, throughout three varying points in his life. The film became the first-ever best picture Oscar winner with an LGBTQ theme to feature an all-Black cast.

The film’s Oscar-winning moment also became a pop culture moment, when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway falsely announced La La Land as the 2017 best picture champion. It was a viral moment, one that often overshadows the significance of Moonlight‘s triumph.

In David Rooney’s, THR‘s chief film critic, review of Moonlight in 2016, he wrote, “Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight pulls you into its introspective protagonist’s world from the start and transfixes throughout as it observes, with uncommon poignancy and emotional perceptiveness, his roughly two-decade path to find a definitive answer to the question, ‘Who am I?’ While the fundamental nature of that central question gives this exquisite character study universality, the film also brings infinite nuance and laser-like specificity to its portrait of African American gay male experience, which resonates powerfully in the era of Black Lives Matter.”

Netflix’s acclaimed political drama The Crown released its inaugural installment on Nov. 4, 2016. Centered around the life of Queen Elizabeth II, the series went on to become a stunning awards collector for the streamer, amassing 24 Emmys and 87 nominations throughout its six seasons.

During season one, though, The Crown collected 13 nods, while John Lithgow won the Emmy for best supporting drama actor. The series picked up additional wins in the production design for a narrative period program (over an hour) and period/fantasy costumes for a series, limited series or movie categories.

“Netflix’s new series The Crown makes a solid argument for the exercise of power as the stuff of compelling drama in its own right,” Fienberg wrote in THR‘s 2016 review of the series. “The first chapter of Peter Morgan’s chronicle of the rule of Queen Elizabeth II remains gripping across the entirety of the 10 episodes made available to critics, finding both emotional heft in Elizabeth’s youthful ascension and unexpected suspense in matters of courtly protocol and etiquette. Led by a complicated and star-making performance by Claire Foy and an ensemble primed to fill Emmy categories, The Crown is surely Netflix’s strongest push yet into the realm of prestige drama.

After releasing on Dec. 9, 2016, La La Land emerged as quite the awards darling at the 89th Academy Awards. The story spotlights Mia (Emma Stone), an aspiring actress, and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), a jazz pianist, who are trying to make it big in Los Angeles, of course.

Stone’s performance earned the actress her first Oscar, and La La Land went on to win a total of six awards (including best director for Damien Chazelle). It was also falsely announced as the best picture winner at the 2017 Academy Awards, further adding to the movie’s lore.

THR wrote in the original 2016 review that “lovers of classic musicals will be swept away by this utterly unexpected and original third feature from Damien Chazelle.”

“As did so many American musicals made before the mid-1960s, this one pivots on a simple boy-meets-girl/they fall in love/complications ensue scenario,” the review continued. “For this to work at all, you need to have attractive and sympathetic leading actors, and once you see Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone go into their moves here, it’s as pleasurable to accept them in such roles as it once might have been to embrace, say, Gene Kelly and Shirley MacLaine.”

Adding to Disney’s dominance of the 2016 box office was Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. On Dec. 16, Diego Luna made his debut as Cassian Andor, which led to a sprawling history within the franchise — and the box office points to just how successful this film was.

Rogue One landed as the highest-grossing domestic film of 2016, placing second in the worldwide gross, second only to Captain America: Civil War. In the original review for the film, THR pondered if of Rogue One‘s characters would appear again in future installments.

“So this new entry in the series, stand-alone o r not, earns a solid middle-to-upper-middle standing in the overall franchise scheme of things. Whether we ever see any of these new characters again remains an open question; some would be welcome, others will not be missed,” the review reads. “What fans will get here is loads of action, great effects, good comic relief, stunning locations (Iceland, Jordan and the Maldives) and some intriguing early glimpses of the Galactic Empire as it begins to flex its intergalactic power.”

Debuting just before the year ended on Dec. 21, 2016, Sing still managed to rise as the 10th highest-grossing movie at the domestic box office for the year. The animated film spotlights a string of animals who take part in a singing competition, led by Koala Buster Moon who is trying to keep his struggling moving theater open.

It was the 10th highest-grossing film at the domestic box office, with THR contributing film critic Leslie Felperin writing in her review that the movie was “a veritable farmyard of fun.”

She added, “With such a stellar cast on hand (even supporting and minor parts are voiced by the likes of Nick Offerman, Leslie Jones, Jennifer Saunders, Rhea Perlman and John C. Reilly, with singing support from the likes of Jennifer Hudson), it’s no surprise that Sing is a treat for both the ears and eyes.”