While spring can really hang you up the most, as a great old song put it, autumn 2021 feels like an honorary spring in the making. Suspended cultural animation. Uncertain variants and a million separate, often competing comfort zones.

The movie capturing the moment best, I think, is the new James Bond film “No Time to Die.” The movie’s coming out Oct. 8, some 18 months after the $250 million franchise item was first scheduled to open. This is Daniel Craig’s final Bond picture, or so Craig says. It feels like a long goodbye, fulfilled at last.

Unfashionably, “No Time to Die” will open in theaters only. Then it adds its streaming release option a few weeks later. Here are 10 fall prospects, all of which I sincerely hope turn out to be pips. Release

dates are subject to change.

• “The Many Saints of Newark,” Oct. 1 in theaters and on HBO Max. I’ve seen this one, and it’s good — a witty, melancholy “Sopranos” prequel in which teenage Tony (Michael Gandolfini, son of the late James Gandolfini) and his loving, fraught relationship with his uncle Dickie (Alessandro Nivola) are framed by family torment and late 1960s unrest.

• “Diana: The Musical,” Oct. 1 on Netflix for one day only; Broadway premiere, Dec. 16; Netflix streaming premiere to be determined. This is Diana’s season, all right, with Netflix sneaking in director Christopher Ashley’s “Broadway capture” edition of the new musical Oct. 1, two months prior to the show’s Broadway premiere. Meantime, director Pablo Larrain’s take on Lady Diana’s travails starring Kristen Stewart premieres in theaters Nov. 5.

• “No Time to Die,” Oct. 8 in theaters. Retirement doesn’t suit James Bond, which is handy, because there’d be no movie if his old friend Felix didn’t solicit his sense of surly obligation for a final, globe-saving gig.

• “Dune,” Oct. 22 in theaters and on HBO Max. Frank Herbert’s 1965 science-fiction phenom, previously filmed, after a fashion, by David Lynch, returns to transfix/disorient/stun/frustrate/entice moviegoers looking for a little spice. Director Denis Villeneuve’s cast features Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya and Oscar Isaac.

• “The Harder They Fall,” Nov. 3 in theaters and on Netflix. Fantastic cast: Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Zazie Beetz, Lakeith Stanfield, Regina King, Delroy Lindo. Here’s hoping it’s a bracing amalgam of fact-based history (protagonist Nat Love was a key Black post- Civil War figure of the Old West) and imaginative style courtesy of British director and musician The Bullitts, aka Jeymes Samuel.

• “Eternals,” Nov. 5 in theaters. It sounds daft: Director Chloe Zhao, whose poetic naturalism served her so well in “Nomadland” and especially “The Rider,” heading up a Marvel movie? The results will be confined to theaters for at least 45 days prior to streaming on Disney Plus, which suggests Disney learned a lesson from the success of “Shang- Chi” and the wisdom of not cannibalizing your own menu offerings.

• “Julia,” Nov. 5 in theaters. Sony Pictures Classics is distributing this documentary about legendary cookbook author, chef and lover of life Julia Child. It premiered at Telluride Film Festival to a warm, comfort-food welcome.

• “Belfast,” Nov. 12 in theaters. This black-and-white cinematic memoir delves into writer-director Kenneth Branagh’s early years in Northern Ireland. The filmmaker’s ensemble features Jamie Dornan, Judi Dench, Ciarán Hinds and Caitriona Balfe.

• “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” Nov. 19 in theaters. Jason Reitman, son of original “Ghostbusters” director Ivan Reitman, takes a whack at revitalizing the 1980s-sprung franchise. This one brings back several of the first movie’s ringers, Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver among them; headliners include Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Carrie Coon and Paul Rudd.

• “King Richard,” Nov. 19 in theaters and on HBO Max. Will Smith smells like an Oscar based on the early, tear-stained response to this biopic of Richard Williams — father, pile-driving coach and homespun fount of wisdom, on and off the tennis court, to his stunningly talented daughters Venus and Serena.