Mark your calendars—it’s shaping up to be a busy year ahead for us movie and series buffs.
Just like that, it’s already 2025. While 2024 has been a good year for both film and television, especially coming after the end of the Hollywood writers’ strike, the new year seems to be just as promising.
The superhero genre might be experiencing a slump, but this year’s roster of Marvel and DC productions might jolt it back to life. There are also sequels and spin-offs aplenty, making sure fans of popular series aren’t found wanting.
This said, The POST rounds up the most highly anticipated titles to get you even more excited for what this shiny new year has in store for the big and small screens. Mark your calendars—it’s shaping up to be a busy year ahead for us movie and series buffs.
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Awards contenders and superhero flicks
As the climax of the awards season draws nearer, the first two months of the year usually see the release of trophy hopefuls, and 2025 is no different. There’s Maria headlined by Angelina Jolie as the titular Maria Callas, the legendary American-Greek soprano. Award-winning actors Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg, meanwhile, star in A Real Pain, a poignant story about two Jewish American cousins who go on a journey to places in Poland linked to the Holocaust.
Timothée Chalamet fans (I’m one of them screaming ladies) have A Complete Unknown to look forward to, wherein our favorite curly-haired actor stars as Bob Dylan. Then there’s Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste as a middle-aged woman battling depression. The historical flick September 5th, featuring Peter Sarsgaard and John Magaro, looks at the events of the 1972 Munich Olympics from the perspective of a US sports broadcast team when a group of Israeli athletes and coaches are taken hostage by a Palestinian militant group.
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’90s kids such as me will be pleased to know that an icon of our generation will be back in February. Renée Zellweger reprises her role as Bridget Jones, the role that catapulted her to global fame, in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. She opens her diary once again as she struggles with life as a widow and mother to two young children after the death of husband Mark (Colin Firth).
The Marvel franchise hasn’t had as much hype as it used to, so it’s banking on the success of the highly anticipated Captain America: Brave New World. Slated for a Valentine’s Day release, the film will see Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson suiting up as the Cap with his signature shield. There’s also Thunderbolts, where a group of anti-heroes led by Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova take on government missions. The movie will be the last in the MCU’s fifth phase.
I wasn’t a fan of the first two Fantastic Four films, so I’m hoping that the reboot titled The Fantastic Four: First Steps, starring fave actor Pedro Pascal, The Crown’s Vanessa Kirby, The Bear’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Gladiator II’s Joseph Quinn, will finally be…well, fantastic. The film, scheduled for worldwide release on July 25, will be the first in MCU’s sixth phase, and will be followed by Avengers: Doomsday (2026), an untitled fourth Spider-Man film (2026), and Avengers: Secret Wars (2027).
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Director Danny Boyle, who directed 28 Days Later in 2002, is back for the third film in the post-apocalyptic horror series, 28 Years Later, which stars Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Jack O’Connell. The movie follows a group of survivors of the “rage virus” living on a small island, who embark on a mission into the mainland where they discover more horrors.
June and July will see big franchises coming to theaters with the likes of Jurassic World Rebirth; the eighth Tom Cruise Mission: Impossible film, The Final Reckoning; the John Wick spin-off Ballerina; and the newest Superman film directed by James Gunn of Guardians of the Galaxy fame. The movie marks the official debut of the new Man of Steel played by David Corenswet—it was his dog Krypto which stole the hearts of many when the teaser was released a few weeks ago.
Going head-to-head with these predicted box-office heavyweights is the Brad Pitt starrer F1. The action drama film will also include appearances from real-life F1 superstars who will star as themselves, such as Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz Jr., among others.
Wicked: For Good, the sequel to the hit big screen adaptation of the musical Wicked will have its premiere on November 21, 2025. The Ariana Grande-Cynthia Erivo starrer has recently achieved a milestone: It is now the highest-grossing film adaptation of a stage musical after reaching $634 million (P36.66 billion) at the global box office. The title was previously held by 2008’s Mamma Mia which earned a total of $611.5 million (P35.36 billion).
James Cameron’s third Avatar film, Fire and Ash, will be released on December 19, 2025. The movie comes amid high expectations, with the first two installments being among the biggest box office hits of all time.
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Sequels and spin-offs galore
Couch potatoes also have plenty of reasons to be excited this year. Two of Netflix’s biggest shows will be returning, for instance—but both with no exact release date yet. There’s Wednesday, the Addams Family spin-off starring Jenna Ortega, while Stranger Things will have its fifth and final season. As fireworks lit up the sky on New Year’s Eve, the platform released Missing You which is adapted from a Harlan Coben novel about a police officer (Rosalind Eleazar) who finds her former fiancé on a dating app.
There are sequels aplenty as well. I can’t wait for the sophomore season of Star Wars: Andor starring Diego Luna, and the second installment of The Last of Us, starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. Andor is set to be the only live-action Star Wars series of the year and will have its premiere on April 22.
I’m also looking forward to the third outing of the delightfully malevolent The White Lotus which will whisk us to the turquoise waters and white sands of Thailand’s famed beaches. The series will premiere on February 16.
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We’ll see ourselves back in Westeros once again in the second Game of Thrones spin-off A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Another spin-off, The War Between The Land and the Sea, comes from the Doctor Who universe, or what fans lovingly call Whoniverse.
DC fans will have another James Gunn project to look forward to in the second season of Peacemaker. While production was delayed due to Gunn’s focus on Superman, early reports suggest the John Cena starrer will debut in August 2025.
Meanwhile, Marvel fans also have a few series to watch out for this year, starting with Daredevil: Born Again, with Charlie Cox reprising his role as the titular Daredevil/ Matt Murdock and has a March 4 release on Disney+. There’s also Ironheart, which follows child genius Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) as she follows in the footsteps of Tony Stark by wielding her own armor.
Towards the end of the year, we’ll have Wonder Man starring Abdul-Mateen II as the titular character, who is a Hollywood stuntman and actor who finds himself morphed into a superhero. The series will premiere on June 24.
In between these live-action series, Marvel also has a lineup of animated shows on Disney+ that are no less exciting: Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (January 29), Eyes of Wakanda (August 6), and Marvel Zombies (October).
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