For the past year, many shocking things have happened in pop culture. This past summer has become a safe haven for highly anticipated and controversial blockbusters, such as Ghostbusters: Answer the Call and Suicide Squad. Long awaited albums, including Frank Ocean’s Blonde and Ariana Grande’s Dangerous Woman, have been released, and they have been playing in everyone’s headphones since.

Even Twitter has involved the public in the media, including the infamous Harambe incident   (#RipHarambe, gone but never forgotten) or this year’s crazy presidential election. Even though this year is not yet over, pop culture is about to get into a whirlwind of great releases this fall. From Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them to Shawn Mendes’ Illuminate, here’s what to expect for the rest of 2016.

Recently, Potterheads finally got one more trip back to the wizarding world with the questionable book release of the play script of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Fortunately, fans get yet another journey back to Hogwarts with the first installment of the movie trilogy entitled Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (out November 18).

Sadly, we do not catch up with everyone’s favorite wizard, Harry Potter, of course. Rather, we are introduced to a new face: Newt Scamander. Based on the popular 2001 guide book by the same name about magical creatures across the globe, Newt studies magical creatures and is offered work in the Magical Congress of the United States of America. Newt then discovers the American wizarding community is hiding from Muggles and learns about a misplaced magical case that only he can solve. Hopefully, this long-awaited trip back to the world of witches and wizards give fans the same nostalgic sense that the beloved books gave children and adults around the globe.

In the past few years, superheroes have become more popular than ever. Marvel and DC movies are released left and right, with blockbusters such as Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Captain America: Civil War. The CW channel has taken notice of this and has become home to many popular superhero centric TV series including Arrow, The Flash, and Supergirl, just to name a few.

Senior Tori Kallas is an avid fan of all of these shows. “Shows like The Flash and Arrow are such unique shows,” she said. “They are based on their comic book characters but those creators grabbed those characters and built new plots as well as new characters. If you are a comic book fan, you will love these shows. You may disagree with some points that are thrown out on the show that were originally in the comics. These shows are comedic as well as action packed. I definitely recommend watching them!”

This fall, these CW super heroes fly back into fall’s TV schedule with new action packed season premieres. Find out more about CW’s upcoming fall schedule here.  

Between Lady Gaga’s long-awaited comeback album Joanne (October 21) and Set It Off’s Upside Down (October 5), the upcoming months are very exciting for the world of pop. The album that no one was able to wait for is Shawn Mendes’ Illuminate. Even though it’s only his sophomore album, he has, in just two years, found a way to build a gigantic fanbase. Starting in 2013, he posted 6 second covers on the popular platform Vine. Those vines gaines millions and millions of views and followers for his covers of popular songs such as “Say Something” and “As Long As You Love Me”. Fast forward two years later, he released his debut album Handwritten with Republic Records, toured as an opener on Taylor Swift’s “1989 World Tour”, and has had radio hits such as “Stitches” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer”. Mendes has stated in Entertainment Weekly that he thinks “…people will be surprised by how edgy we get with the lyrics and the concepts.” Vocally, this album demolishes Handwritten, so people are not going to be ready for some of the songs in that sense.” Shawn’s Illuminate record is now available on Apple Music and was released September 23rd. Even tour lineups are incredible for this fall; Kanye’s world renowned “Saint Pablo Tour” (Palace of Auburn Hills October 6) and Internet superstar Troye Sivan’s “Suburbia Tour” (The Filmore Detroit November 7) top the list.

2016 has been a year full of surprises, and there is still more to come. With nostalgia and long awaited comebacks coming into play, the pop culture game will be given a certain change of pace that the public needs. It also will set a new perspective on what is to come for the rest of 2016. These upcoming releases will hopefully set the standard for pop culture in 2017 and beyond.