31 Movies I Hope to See in 2025

The dastardly Feathers McGraw returns in the first Wallace & Gromit movie since 2005’s The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. When Wallace’s latest invention develops a mind of its own and begins wreaking chaos, Gromit begins to suspect something more nefarious. With that, cue the hilarity and hijinks as the duo find themselves in increasingly outlandish situations.

The first two Paddington movies are just about as delightful as cinema gets, as the marmalade-loving bear finds a new home with the Brown family in London. But as its title suggests, the third Paddington movie finds our lovable hero returning to “darkest Peru” in search of his beloved Aunt Lucy. Olivia Colman, Antonio Banderas, and Hayley Atwell join the fun as Emily Mortimer takes over for Sally Hawkins as Mrs. Brown.

Ke Huy Quan (Loki, Everything Everywhere All at Once) is Marvin Gable, a successful realtor with a terrible secret: he used to be a deadly hitman. When a former partner returns from the dead to reveal that his brother is tracking him down, Marvin must rely on his hitman skills to survive. Love Hurts also stars Ariana DeBose, Daniel Wu, Marshawn Lynch, and Sean Astin.

Every year I say I’m done with the MCU, and every year they pull me back in. Picking up where 2021’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier series left off, Captain America: Brave New World finds Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) donning the shield and mantle of Captain America — and just in time to track down a global conspiracy. Based on the trailer, it looks like the MCU is finally going to address that giant Celestial corpse floating in the ocean — last seen in 2021’s Eternals — while also introducing the Red Hulk.

Writer/director Scott Derrikson — best known for horror films like Sinister as well as the MCU’s Doctor Strange — teams up with Apple TV+ for this survival action film about a pair of snipers (Anya Taylor-Joy, Miles Teller) tasked with a bizarre mission: guarding opposite sides of a vast and mysterious chasm, and keeping an eye on whatever it is that lurks in its depths. That’s a pretty bizarre premise, to be sure, but Apple TV+ has been killing it with their sci-fi titles (e.g., Silo, Severance, Foundation), and the names of everyone involved are definitely reason enough to be intrigued.

It’s tempting to dismiss any Looney Tunes movie because of 2021’s Space Jam: A New Legacy. But The Day the Earth Blew Up — which finds Daffy Duck and Porky Pig teaming up to stop an alien invasion — was widely acclaimed when it premiered at the 2024 Annecy Festival. And if this does well, then hopefully we’ll finally get to see Coyote vs. Acme.

Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan have achieved great critical and commercial success in the past with Black Panther, Creed, and Fruitvale Station. The duo reunite for Sinners, a drama set 1930s Louisiana about twin brothers (played by Jordan) who return to their hometown, only to discover something evil lurking below the surface. Sinners also stars Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell, and Delroy Lindo.

I’m tempted to write this one off due to Chris Pratt’s hair alone, but alas, I love Simon Stålenhag’s sci-fantasy artwork too much. This Netflix original is set in an alternate 1994 and stars Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown as a young woman who teams up with a robot and Pratt’s character to find her missing brother. The movie also stars Ke Huy Quan, Stanley Tucci, and Giancarlo Esposito. I suspect The Electric State will be much less subdued than Amazon’s adaptation of Stålenhag’s Tales from the Loop.

In this dark sci-fi comedy based on Edward Ashton’s Mickey7, a man desperate to leave Earth signs up for a job in space that requires him to become expendable, i.e., every time he dies, a new body is created with his memories intact. But when one version survives a mission and comes face-to-face with his latest version, confusion and hijinks ensue. Bong Joon-ho’s dark comedy stars Robert Pattinson as the titular Mickey (and all of his versions) as well as Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo.

In Thunderbolts*, the MCU’s antiheroes — including Yelena Belova, Red Guardian, Bucky, and John Walker — are brought together by the U.S. government to go on dangerous missions. There’s a lot of conjecture floating around concerning the group’s missions, as well as the true identity of Bob, but the trailer (and asterisk) suggests that Thunderbolts* will take on a slightly more humorous tone as our ragtag group of misfits learn to work together, find the value of teamwork, and so on. The movie also stars Lewis Pullman as the aforementioned Bob and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the scheming Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.

Thanks to 2017’s Columbus and 2021’s After Yang, Kogonada has established himself as one of America’s more interesting filmmakers. Details of his latest film are pretty scarce — all that’s been said to date is that it’s a “romantic fantasy” about two strangers who undergo an emotional journey — but the cast is impressive: Margot Robbie, Colin Farrell (who starred in After Yang), Jodie Turner-Smith, Phoebe Waller-Bridge star. Also promising, Seth Reiss’ script was featured in The Blacklist’s 2020 list of the year’s best unproduced scripts.

Ethan Hunt and the rest of the IMF team return in this followup to 2023’s Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One as they continue their quest to stop a rogue AI called The Entity and those who serve it — including a ghost from Hunt’s past. Although it featured plenty of mind-blowing stunts, Dead Reckoning Part One’s plot felt overly portentous and convoluted. Hopefully, The Final Reckoning streamlines things a bit and wraps them up with a real bang, as we’ve come to expect from the Mission: Impossible franchise.

John Wick might be dead, but his cinematic universe lives on. This time around, Ana de Armas stars as a young ballerina who, driven by vengeance, begins to train as a deadly assassin for the same people who trained Wick himself. The movie also stars Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, Lance Reddick (in his final on-screen appearance), and Norman Reedus. And given that Ballerina is set between the third and fourth John Wick movies, Keanu Reeves makes an appearance as the “Baba Yaga” himself.

In Pixar’s latest, aliens mistake a young boy named Elio as Earth’s ambassador, and whisk him off to join the Communiverse, a vast agency featuring alien representatives from throughout the universe. The film was originally directed by Adrian Molina (Coco) but was subsequently turned over Domee Shi (Turning Red) and Madeline Sharafian after Molina left to work on another project.

Scarlett Johansson stars in the latest Jurassic Park movie, playing a former soldier tasked with tracking down genetic samples that might hold the key to life-saving medical advancements for humanity. But when she and a civilian family are shipwrecked on a tropical island, they make a… brace yourself… shocking discovery. Make no mistake, I really disliked 2022’s Jurassic World Dominion. But I’m encouraged that Gareth Edwards is directing; as evidenced by The Creator and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the man knows how to make visually stunning cinema. Jurassic World Rebirth also stars Mahershala Ali, Rupert Friend, and Ed Skrein.

I’ve never really cared for the DC live-action films, but I’m excited to see Superman. For starters, it’s written and directed by James Gunn, who had great success with the Marvel universe (i.e., Guardians of the Galaxy). Second, the film — which stars Rachel Brosnahan, Nathan Fillion, Nicholas Hoult, Frank Grillo, and David Corenswet as the Man of Steel — looks to be moving away from the grimdark aesthetic that’s dominated DC live-action to date, and deals with Superman’s attempts to reconcile his Kryptonian heritage with his adoptive parents’ humanity.

To date, there have been four Fantastic Four movies of varying quality, and yes, I’m including the 1994 Roger Corman-produced adaptation that’s never been officially released. But I think it’s safe to say that none of them have really captured what makes Marvel’s “First Family” of superheroes so special. Directed by Matt Shakman and starring Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby, First Steps finds the four heroes protecting their retro-futuristic world from the world devourer Galactus and his herald, the Silver Surfer (aka, my favorite superhero). Interestingly, First Steps’ Surfer isn’t Norrin Radd but rather, Shalla-Bal, Radd’s Zenn-Lavian lover who was gifted a portion of the Power Cosmic in the comic books.

The Naked Gun movies, based on Police Squad! and starring Leslie Nielsen as the bumbling police lieutenant Frank Drebin, are comedy classics. Or at least the very first one, released in 1988, is. But never in a thousand years would I have imagined that they’d be remade. Still, here we are, with The Lonely Island’s Akiva Schaffer directing based on a story idea by The Family Guy’s Seth MacFarlane. In other words, this could easily be a train wreck. And yet, I confess I’m fascinated by the notion of Liam Neeson starring as Frank Drebin Jr. alongside the likes of Pamela Anderson, Danny Huston, and Busta Rhymes.

If you were to say “action star,” it’s highly unlikely that Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul) would come to mind. But he surprised everyone with 2021’s Nobody, an over-the-top John Wick-esque movie that starred Odenkirk as a former government assassin who takes on the Russian mafia. The low-budget film was a relatively big success, enough to earn a sequel, anyway. And the fact that it’s directed by Indonesia’s Timo Tjahjanto, best known for ultra-violent thrillers like 2024’s The Shadow Strays and 2018’s The Night Comes for Us, makes it clear that Odenkirk definitely ain’t messing around for round two.

I wish I liked 2010’s Tron: Legacy more than I do. Visually speaking, it’s phenomenal, and it’s got a bangin’ Daft Punk soundtrack, but the story always leaves me cold. But the world of Tron is so fascinating, and relevant to our modern gaming and online-centric world, that I’m always intrigued when a new entry is announced. This time around, Jared Leto stars as Ares, a sophisticated program that’s sent into the real world on a mission of the utmost urgency. The film is directed by Joachim Rønning (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil) with Greta Lee, Jodie Turner-Smith, Hasan Minhaj, Gillian Anderson, and Jeff Bridges starring. As an added bonus, Nine Inch Nails is composing the soundtrack.

Dan Trachtenberg struck gold with 2022’s Prey, which took the Predator franchise in a fascinating new direction (read my review). That film reinvigorated the sci-fi franchise, with folks (myself included) immediately clamoring for more. Plot details for Badlands are scarce so far, but Trachtenberg has confirmed that the Predator is the hero this time around. Also, Elle Fanning stars and plays more than one character.

The previous Now You See Me movies are far from high art, but their stories about a ragtag group of magicians and illusionists who must use their talents to get out of scrapes make for pretty enjoyable popcorn fare. No plot details have been released, but presumably it’ll feature the magicians learning more about the secret society they joined in Now You See Me 2. The principle cast — Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Lizzy Caplan,
and Morgan Freeman — are returning as is Isla Fisher from the first film. Also joining are Ariana Greenblatt, Justice Smith, and Rosamund Pike.

A new Edgar Wright film is always cause for celebration, and this time around, he’s adapting Stephen King’s The Running Man, which was previously adapted in 1987 with Arnold Schwarzenegger as an darkly humorous action satire. Wright’s film promises to hew closer to King’s novel, though, with Glen Powell (Twisters, Hit Man, Top Gun: Maverick) starring as a contestant in a deadly game show. The Running Man also stars Katy O’Brian, Josh Brolin, Lee Pace, Michael Cera, and William H. Macy.

2016’s Zootopia was a smash success, earning over a billion dollars at the box office and beating out Moana to win the Oscar for “Best Animated Feature.” So it was only a matter of time before a sequel arrived. This time around, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde must go undercover for their latest case, which might just be the most dangerous of their careers. Zootopia 2 will also feature the voices of Ke Huy Quan, Fortune Feimster, and Shakira.

Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, and Helena Bonham Carter return for a third movie about Sherlock Holmes’ younger sister, who is a formidable detective in her own right. The Enola Holmes movies are based on Nancy Springer’s young adult fiction series.

Guillermo del Toro loves his monsters, so it’s no surprise that his next film is his long-gestating adaptation of Frankenstein, the original monster story. Oscar Isaac stars as mad scientist Victor Frankenstein, Jacob Elordi as his monster, and the rest of the cast includes Mia Goth, Lars Mikkelsen, Charles Dance, and the always great Christoph Waltz. Like his 2022 adaptation of Pinocchio, del Toro’s Frankenstein will be a Netflix original.

Back in 2006, Spike Lee and Denzel Washington struck gold with Inside Man, a fun and twist-y thriller. And now, almost two decades later, the two are re-teaming for a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low, a classic and influential thriller about a wealthy CEO who faces extortion after his chauffeur’s child is kidnapped and held for ransom. Lee’s remake — an A24/Apple co-production — also stars Ilfenesh Hadera, Jeffrey Wright, and Dean Winters.

Andrew Stanton established quite the reputation for his work at Pixar; he wrote a couple of Toy Story movies, directed Finding Nemo and WALL-E, and has helped out with pretty much all of the rest. But his latest film — a sci-fi drama about three interconnected stories inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey, Magnolia, and Interstellar — is a live-action film for Hulu. The cast includes Kate McKinnon, Rashida Jones, and Daveed Diggs.

Taika Waititi’s latest film finds him returning to the sci-fi genre. This time around, he’s adapting Kazuo Ishiguro’s critically acclaimed novel about a woman who buys her daughter a robot to keep her company in a dystopian world. (However, I suspect Waititi will deviate substantially from Ishiguro’s novel, like he did with Jojo Rabbit.) Waititi’s Klara and the Sun stars Amy Adams, Jenna Ortega, and Natasha Lyonne.

A spy film by Wes Anderson? Yes, please. Anderson’s aesthetic is as distinctive as they come, and I’m really curious to see his take on the world of espionage with all of its action, double-crosses, anti-heroes, and ethical quandaries. As is the case with any Wes Anderson film, The Phoenician Scheme boasts a star-studded cast that includes Benicio del Toro, Michael Cera, Bill Murray, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Benedict Cumberbatch, Scarlett Johansson, and Charlotte Gainsbourg (to name but a few).

Plot details for the third Knives Out movie have yet to be released, but as expected, the movie does feature another ensemble cast that includes Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Andrew Scott, and of course, Daniel Craig as private detective Benoit Blanc.