The 50 fresh movies to watch out for in 2025

2024’s movie calendar may have closed a small bit softly, but 2025 opens with a bang and just keeps rolling. To get you ready for a year full of excellent releases, we’ve put together a list of 50 movies that should already have a place reserved on your watch list.

The upcoming movie slate this year includes an myriad of superhero sequels and reboots from Superman to Fantastic Four: First Steps, along with any creative-looking horror movies, the long-awaited return of Parasite manager Bong Joon-ho, a mysterious Kendrick Lamar musical, and Wicked: For Good. And if no of that were enough, there’s besides a 3rd Avatar movie to cap off the full thing. Here’s all thoses movies and everything else you should be keeping an eye out for in 2025.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

Release date: On Netflix Jan. 3
Directors: Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham
Cast: Ben Whitehead, Peter Kay, Reece Shearsmith

Drawing the eponymous doofus-and-dog squad Wallace and Gromit into the era of strict IP continuity, the first Wallace & Gromit communicative since 2008 (and only the second full-length feature) brings back silent penguin antagonist Feathers McGraw for more hijinks around Wallace’s awkward inventions. This is the first movie with Ben Whitehead as Wallace; he’s been Wallace’s voice in marketing and video games since 2008, and is reprising the function in the movies as well following the 2017 death of first Wallace voice Peter Sallis. anticipate cheese jokes, stop-motion slapstick, and periodic long-suffering eyerolls from Gromit as Wallace deals with his latest invention, a “helpful” robotic garden gnome that runs amok. —Tasha Robinson

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera

Release date: In theaters Jan. 10
Director: Christian Gudegast
Cast: Gerard Butler, O’Shea Jackson Jr.

The first Den of Thieves has been lovingly called (by myself and others) “Dirtbag Heat,” and, judging by the explosive trailer, the sequel is poised to proceed down that way by seemingly teaming up Gerard Butler’s aggro cop “Big Nick” with O’Shea Jackson Jr.’s smooth criminal Donnie Wilson. If you always wanted to see Al Pacino and Robert De Niro’s characters from Heat team up in Europe, this is as close as you’re going to get. And if it’s anywhere close as good as the first movie, you’re in for an all-time January classic. —Pete Volk

Release date: In theaters Jan. 17
Director: Dougal Wilson
Cast: Hugh Bonneville, Emily Mortimer, Julie Walters

The weirdly critically beloved Paddington movie series continues the communicative of the hapless fish-out-of-water CG bear adopted by humans, inspired by Michael Bond’s classical kids’ books. This 3rd installment in the series has the small bear (Ben Whishaw) returning to his homeland of Peru to visit his aunt, and getting active in an Amazonian mystery-adventure. This movie has already been out for a while in any countries, and critical word has been a beautiful universal “It’s OK, but not as good as the first two.” So temper your sky-high Paddington expectations accordingly. —TR

Release date: In theaters Jan. 17
Director: Leigh Whannell
Cast: Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner, Matilda Firth

Director Leigh Whannell’s 2020 version of The Invisible Man was a terrific yet sadly overlooked update of the classical monster-movie story. It expertly pulled the communicative into modern times by letting it prey on 21st-century anxieties about technology, power, and human connection. Hopefully his fresh update of The Wolf Man is just as successful and even more widely recognized. —Austen Goslin

Release date: In theaters Jan. 24
Director: Naoko Yamada
Cast: Akari Takaishi, Sayu Suzukawa, Taisei Kido

Animator-director Naoko Yamada (A Silent Voice, Liz and the Blue Bird) is back with an all-new feature film, this time produced by discipline Saru, the acclaimed studio behind Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! and Inu-Oh. The Colors Within centers on the communicative of Totsuko, a advanced school student with synesthesia, who is inadvertently recruited to play in a band alongside her classmates Kimi and Rui. Together, the trio’s relationship grows alongside their love of music, while each of them confronts their own struggles in coming of age. —Toussaint Egan

Release date: In theaters Jan. 24
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: Lucy Liu, Julia Fox, Chris Sullivan

The latest in Steven Soderbergh’s endless experiments with the cinematic form is an unconventional ghost story, seen from the POV of the “presence” of the title — an invisible figure watching the struggles of a parent and father (Lucy Liu and Chris Sullivan) dealing with household stresses in a fresh house. It got a strongly affirmative consequence in festival screenings, which emphasized that it isn’t a blood-and-guts-and-jump-scares horror movie, just a melancholy, haunting communicative centered on, as the title has it, a disturbing unseen presence. —TR

Release date: In theaters Feb. 7
Director: Jonathan Eusebio
Cast: Ke Huy Quan, Ariana DeBose, Daniel Wu

Independent production company 87North has rapidly gone from action movie upstart to 1 of Hollywood’s major players in the genre. It started with the John Wick movies, continued with hits like Atomic Blonde and The Fall Guy, and now, Ke Huy Quan gets another chance to be an action star with Love Hurts. The movie will besides be the directorial debut of veteran stunt performer and action manager Jonathan Eusebio, who worked as a fight coordinator on the first 3 John Wick movies, Doctor Strange, and The Fall Guy, and as a stunt coordinator on Black Panther and Birds of Prey. The guy’s got the goods. —PV

Captain America: Brave fresh World

Release date: In theaters Feb. 14
Director: Julius Onah
Cast: Anthony Mackie, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas

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Release date: On Apple tv Plus Feb. 14
Director: Scott Derrickson
Cast: Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, Sigourney Weaver

The Gorge has an incredible concept. It’s an sci-fi action movie about 2 snipers who are each tasked with guarding 1 side of a massive gorge with no thought what’s inside. If that weren’t enough, it’s directed by the large Scott Derrickson (The Black Phone, Sinister, Doctor Strange), and stars the always excellent Anya Taylor-Joy as well as Miles Teller. —Austen Goslin

Release date: In theaters Feb. 21
Director: Osgood Perkins
Cast: Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Elijah Wood

Hot off the massive success of Longlegs, writer-director Oz Perkins is back in theaters little than a year later with this fresh adaptation of Stephen King’s classical communicative about a clapping toy monkey that’s far more dangerous and sinister than it appears. Longlegs expertly mixed bizarre black humor with scares, which sounds like a perfect speech for The Monkey to strike too. —AG

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie

Release date: In theaters Feb. 28
Director: Peter Browngardt
Cast: Eric Bauza, Candi Milo, Peter MacNicol

The Looney Tunes are set to return to the large screen this year with their first first full animated feature film! The Day the Earth Blew Up stars Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, who, after a series of hijinks at a bubblegum factory, accidentally discover a clandestine alien game to conquer the world! The good news is that they have each another to trust on in order to save the day. The bad news is… well, they gotta trust on each another in order to save the day. —TE

Release date: In theaters Feb. 28
Director: Isaiah Saxon
Cast: Helena Zengel, Finn Wolfhard, Emily Watson

Is “elevated fantasy” the next discourse-worthy movie label? After arguably creating its own subgenre with Hereditary and The Witch, A24 is ready to rethink magical realism with The Legend of Ochi, the debut feature from puppets-and-practical-effects visionary Isaiah Saxon. Unlike the studio’s horror outings, Ochi looks more like heartfelt, all-ages fantasy, following the journey of a young girl, Yuri (Helena Zengel), and a baby “ochi,” a primate-ish creature from a close foggy forest. A spin on E.T. with the heart of Jim Henson and a Moonrise Kingdom sheen sounds like precisely the antidote to big-budget Lord of the Rings wannabes. —Matt Patches

Release date: In theaters March 7
Director: Ryan Coogler
Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell

Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan are teaming up erstwhile again, this time for an first supernatural horror movie set in the 1930s Jim Crow-era South. Sinners stars Jordan in the dual function of Elijah and Elias, duplicate brothers who return to their hometown in search of relief and a chance to start over. What they find, however, is simply a horror greater than anything they could imagine brewing below the surface. —TE

Release date: In theaters March 14
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Regé-Jean Page

Steven Soderbergh never misses, which is why it’s so breathtaking that his immediate follow-up to Presence is going to be a spy thriller starring Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett as a married couple. It seems like it’s going to have a Mr. & Mrs. Smith-type vibe, but possibly with a bit more political intrigue sprinkled on top. —AG

Release date: In theaters March 21
Director: Marc Webb
Cast: Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, Andrew Burnap

The live-action Snow White has someway attracted the most heated discourse — is it feminist for Snow White to not request a prince? Are the Dwarfs played by small people or are they magical creatures or just CGI monstrosities? What’s up with that dress? But damn it if Rachel Zegler doesn’t have the voice of an angel. We’re here to see her belt her heart out in a movie that most likely doesn’t deserve her. —Petrana Radulovic

Release date: In theaters April 4
Director: Jared Hess
Cast: Jack Black, Jason Momoa, Emma Myers

The highly anticipated, long-in-development Minecraft movie yet arrives in 2025, and it certain looks… interesting. manager Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre) is taking a acquainted communicative approach to the adaptation, as 4 misfits find themselves pulled through a mysterious portal and dropped into the blocky, creative planet of Minecraft, with Steve (Jack Black) serving as their guide in this cubic universe. The improbable heroes of A Minecraft Movie will be challenged to “be bold and to reconnect with the qualities that make each of them uniquely creative” as they fight to find their way home. —Michael McWhertor

Release date: In theaters April 18
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette

Bong Joon-ho follows up his Oscar-winning movie Parasite with an adaptation of Edward Ashton’s 2022 sci-fi fresh Mickey 7. Mickey 17 centers on Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson), a space colonist who agrees to become an “expendable” as part of his occupation colonizing the ice planet Niflheim. Mickey is killed multiple times during his job, only to be subsequently cloned over and over again to proceed his mission. But erstwhile a terrible accident results in 2 of Mickey’s clones existing at the same time as 1 another, they’ll gotta figure out a way to make their situation work without either of them being killed.

Initially slated to be released on March 29, 2024, before being pushed back to January of this year, due in part to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, Mickey 17 was one more time pushed back to this April. —TE

Release date: In theaters April 25
Director: Gavin O’Connor
Cast: Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, J. K. Simmons

After a mediocre performance at the box office erstwhile it came out in 2016, Gavin O’Connor’s (Warrior) The Accountant has become a bit of a cult hit as the kind of TNT-ass movie that would replay on cable endlessly. It’s a fun action movie with a strong lead performance by Ben Affleck as an autistic accountant in deep with any very dangerous people, and the upcoming sequel returns most of the major players (including Affleck, O’Connor, author Bill Dubuque, and Affleck’s co-stars J.K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, and Cynthia Addai-Robinson). As individual always down for a TNT-ass movie, I will be there. —PV

Release date: In theaters April 25
Director: David F. Sandberg
Cast: Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino, Ji-young Yoo

PlayStation 4 game Until Dawn was a Choose Your Own Adventure-style slasher-horror game that built on decades of cinematic horror tropes and featured any beautiful large stars (Hayden Panettiere, Rami Malek, Peter Stormare). Now, that interactive communicative is being adapted for the large screen as an “R-rated love letter to the horror genre.” Since it’s based on a branching story, it’ll be interesting to see what choices manager David F. Sandberg (Annabelle: Creation, Shazam!) makes in his adaptation of the 2015 game. Until Dawn, the movie, will feature a young fresh cast of possible slasher victims, with Stormare reprising his function from the game. —MM

Release date: In theaters May 2
Director: Jake Schreier
Cast: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour

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Final Destination: Bloodlines

Release date: In theaters May 16
Directors: Zach Lipovsky, Adam Stein
Cast: Brec Bassinger, Teo Briones, Tony Todd

No 1 in the Final Destination movies can escape death… including the franchise itself. Fourteen years after Final Destination 5, the premonition-heavy horror series is back in hopes of a Scream-style relaunch.
Produced by Spider-Man trilogy manager Jon Watts, and with a script by Guy Busick (Ready or Not, Scream) and Lori Evans Taylor, the success of Bloodlines — the most direct-to-video-esque title imaginable? — truly comes down to the hijinks of directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, who reportedly staged their own deaths during a Zoom call pitch session for the movie. That’s commitment, and a hope that the sixth installment can live up to the franchise’s spiritual successor, the Escape area films. The bar is high! —MP

Release date: In theaters May 23
Director: Dean Fleischer Camp
Cast: Chris Sanders, Maia Kealoha, Sydney Agudong

All the trailers for the Lilo & Stitch remake have focused a lot on the adorable blue alien. But the movie is supposedly going to focus a lot more on the island community, fleshing out any of the side characters in Lilo and Nani’s life. The first movie’s promotions besides focused more on Stitch and little on the human side of the story, so possibly it’s not that out of pocket and the movie will deliver on that front. —PR

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

Release date: In theaters May 23
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Cast: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames

It’s mildly bonkers how much AI has developed and become an existential threat to all sorts of industries in the year and a half since the erstwhile Mission: Impossible movie, Dead Reckoning Part One, set up an inimical AI as the villain. The conceit already looked quaint back in 2023. Who’s to say what it’ll look like erstwhile Tom Cruise/Ethan Hunt charges back into action against the AI in 2025? Regardless, it’s unclear why this movie isn’t called Dead Reckoning Part Two, since it’s picking up at the “to be continued…” point where the last movie left off. The large question is whether it’ll actually be any kind of final reckoning — manager Christopher McQuarrie has already said this movie won’t end the series, though rumors propose it might be the final bow for Cruise as Ethan Hunt. —TR

From the planet of John Wick: Ballerina

Release date: In theaters June 6
Director: Len Wiseman
Cast: Ana de Armas, Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne

This John Wick spinoff movie starring Ana de Armas has gone through a bit of a tumultuous improvement process, but since the latest update is that the movie brought in Keanu Reeves and series manager Chad Stahelski for any action punch-ups, it seems like it’s yet on the right track to be a appropriate entry in the franchise. —AG

Release date: In theaters June 13
Director: Dean DeBlois
Cast: Mason Thames, Gerard Butler, Nico Parker

Dean DeBlois, the first manager of How to Train Your Dragon, returns for the live-action remake. The first trailer showed off realistic re-creations of Berk, Hiccup, and the another Vikings, and a more photorealistic Toothless. The dragon inactive looks cute with the texture resolution cranked up to ultra! 1 thing’s for certain: John Powell’s iconic score will go hard. —PR

Release date: In theaters June 13
Directors: Domee Shi, Madeline Sharafian, Adrian Molina
Cast: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldaña, Jameela Jamil

After any developmental hiccups and delays, Pixar’s fresh alien comedy is finally coming out in 2025. Originally directed by Coco’s Adrian Molina, Elio is now helmed by Domee Shi (Turning Red) and Madeline Sharafian in her directorial debut. Elio follows a young boy who’s passionate about aliens — and accidentally gets beamed up into an interplanetary organization, where he’s mistakenly identified as Earth’s leader. —PR

Release date: In theaters June 28
Director: Danny Boyle
Cast: Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes

Writer Alex Garland and manager Danny Boyle’s apocalyptic 28 series might quietly be 1 of the best horror franchises of the 2000s, which is why it’s a surprise that it took them nearly 18 years to return to the series. But if the first trailer for 28 Years Later is any indication, their brand of zombie-ish horror hasn’t stalled at all in the years since it last appeared. —AG

Release date: In theaters June 27
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Cast: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon

Top Gun: Maverick manager Joseph Kosinski is hoping that the combination of natural velocity and the popularity of expression 1 racing — oh, and the star power of Brad Pitt — will lure moviegoers to theaters to see F1 in 2025. Pitt plays a retired expression 1 driver who returns to the athletics to mentor a rookie racing prodigy (Damson Idris), starring alongside Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem, and a host of real-world F1 drivers like Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, and Oscar Piastri. —MM

Release date: In theaters July 27
Director: Gerard Johnstone
Cast: Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Jenna Davis

Everyone’s favourite homicidal children’s toy robot is back in 2025 with more murder, and hopefully more dancing. While we don’t know much about M3GAN’s next outing, we know that the stars of the first will be back, along with author Akela Cooper and manager Gerard Johnstone, which is adequate to get us excited. —AG

Release date: In theaters July 2
Director: Gareth Edwards
Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey

After 3 back-to-back billion-dollar box-office hits, the Jurassic planet franchise returns for a seventh outing, this time with Scarlett Johansson taking the lead. Jurassic planet Rebirth follows on the events of Dominion, with Earth’s remaining dinos surviving in isolated equatorial environments. And in series tradition, someone’s out to make a profit, so Johansson leads a covert ops squad tasked with securing dinosaur genetic material that holds the key to a drug with lifesaving benefits. Rebirth promises a “sinister, shocking discovery that’s been hidden from the planet for decades,” in case you request any intrigue to go with your large dino action. —MM

Untitled Matt Stone & Trey Parker Musical

Release date: In theaters July 4
Director: Trey Parker
Cast: ?

South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have a controversial rap sheet but a advanced batting average erstwhile it comes to projects outside their 26-season-deep series: South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut is simply a musical masterpiece; Team America: planet Police is totally underrated; The Book of Mormon needs a rewrite, but the songs are legendary. So there’s reason to think a team-up between Matt Stone, Trey Parker, and Drake-destroyer Kendrick Lamar could be the funniest damn thing we’ll see this year. At the moment, we know nothing about it — at last year’s CinemaCon, Paramount’s CEO called the untitled movie the “craziest and most first scripts we’ve always read” — and possibly we’re overhyping the next BASEketball. But you know what… with so fewer comedies actually uncovering their ways to theaters these days, the next BASEketball might be a thrill, too. —Matt Patches

Release date: In theaters July 11
Director: James Gunn
Cast: David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Isabela Merced

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The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Release date: In theaters July 25
Director: Matt Shakman
Cast: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach

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Release date: In theaters Aug. 1
Director: Pierre Perifel, JP Sans
Cast: Zazie Beetz, Sam Rockwell, Awkwafina

The Bad Guys specials Netflix has been churning out have inevitably been a bit disappointing — visibly animated for a much lower budget than the 2022 feature movie, and lacking the movie’s reckless, chaotic visual sense and big-name cast. Hopefully that will change with the theatrical feature The Bad Guys 2, which brings the not-so-villanous anthropomorphic animal villains of Aaron Blabey’s popular kids’ books back under the direction of Pierre Perifel and reunites the first cast, including Sam Rockwell, Awkwafina, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, Zazie Beetz, and Anthony Ramos. This time around, the heels turned heroes are trying to live up to their fresh good-guy intentions, until they give into the biggest trope in crime movies, and an all-female crime crew pulls them back in for 1 Last Job. —TR

Release date: In theaters Aug. 15
Director: Timo Tjahjanto
Cast: Connie Nielsen, Christopher Lloyd, Sharon Stone

While I’ve liked a good chunk of 87North’s work, I wasn’t a fan of Nobody, starring Bob Odenkirk. The movie had any good fights, and Odenkirk truly put in the work, but any of the communicative elements put me off of the movie. But there is simply a solid foundation for possible there, and that possible skyrockets with the addition of action gore maestro Timo Tjahjanto in the director’s chair. His movies are always must-see events. —PV

The Conjuring: Last Rites

Release date: In theaters Sept. 5
Director: Michael Chaves
Cast: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson

We’re about 9 movies into the Conjuring universe at this point, which is most likely bigger than most of us always thought a movie franchise based on Ed and Lorraine Warren could be. While we don’t know for certain what Last Rites will be about just yet, we do know that it’s set to be any kind of finale to the stories that the Conjuring series has told thus far, and we know it’s being directed by series veteran Michael Chaves, who directed The Curse of La Llorona, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, and The Nun II in the franchise already. —AG

Release date: In theaters Sept. 26
Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Cast: Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Penélope Cruz

Any fresh adaptation of Frankenstein, or Bride of Frankenstein in this case, is origin for excitement, but this version directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal is especially notable considering its incredibly stacked cast. The movie stars Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Penélope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening, Julianne Hough, and Jake Gyllenhaal, just to name a few. —AG

Release date: In theaters Sept. 26
Director: Kevin Greutert

2023’s Saw X was a terrific return to form for the long-running horror franchise, reintroducing Tobin Bell as the enigmatic serial killer John Kramer in a communicative set between the events of Saw and Saw 2. The film’s director, Kevin Greutert, is set to return with yet another sequel later this year, with Tobin Bell presumably set to one more time reprise his iconic role. —TE

Release date: In theaters Oct. 10
Director: Joachim Rønning
Cast: Jared Leto, Evan Peters, Jodie Turner-Smith

Disney’s Tron, amazingly, is inactive kicking — thanks in large part to Jared Leto and a flashy Disney planet roller coaster. But you know what? Whatever it takes for a premise that will always consequence in eye-popping visuals, even if the communicative can’t keep up.

With franchise-appropriate distance from 2010’s Tron: Legacy (itself a legacy sequel to 1982’s Tron), Tron: Ares finds certified Disney manager Joachim Rønning (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) reviving the we’re-in-the-computer sci-fi aesthetic of Legacy but with a fresh pitch: This time, the computer programs are moving amok in the real world. Jeff Bridges is back, but the real draw this time around is Past Lives star Greta Lee breaking into the blockbuster scene. And while we’ll miss Daft Punk doing the soundtrack, hey, we’re getting 9 Inch Nails. Let the hype (light) cycle begin. —MP

Release date: In theaters Oct. 17
Director: Scott Derrickson
Cast: Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Ethan Hawke

The existence of a sequel to The Black Phone raises quite a few questions that only The Black telephone 2 can answer. But while the first movie getting a sequel at all is simply a small confusing, we do know that first author Joe Hill pitched the thought for the sequel before the first was even out, and that manager Scott Derrickson is back for the second iteration, along with Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, Miguel Cazarez Mora, and even Ethan Hawke, who will all be reprising their roles from the original. —AG

Release date: In theaters Oct. 24
Director: Simon McQuoid
Cast: Hiroyuki Sanada, Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph

The first Mortal Kombat movie in the fresh reboot of the franchise was a large disappointment: any of the casting was inspired, and the costuming looked great, but the fights were lackluster, sparse, and edited beyond designation — it was the kind of action movie where the behind-the-scenes footage looked better than the real thing. That means there’s 1 thing on everyone’s head for Mortal Kombat 2, which one more time boasts a very strong cast: Will the movie actually have Mortal Kombat in it this time? —PV

Release date: In theaters Nov. 7
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Cast: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Alicia Silverstone

The latest from Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite, Poor Things, Kinds of Kindness) stars Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons in a task that seems even odder than Lanthimos’ usual fare, if only in its origins: It’s a live-action remake of the Korean comedy Save the Green Planet! about a man who kidnaps a pharmaceutical exec who he believes is an alien, paving the way for an invasion. Stone stars as the gender-swapped exec; Plemons is the kidnapper, working with his parent (Alicia Silverstone), like any good conspiracy enthusiast would. —TR

Release date: In theaters Nov. 7
Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Cast: Elle Fanning

Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane) provided a jolt of energy to the Predator franchise with Prey, a very different take on the series set in 1719 that followed a young Comanche female (Amber Midthunder). Trachtenberg returns for Predator: Badlands and takes the franchise to the future, with Elle Fanning in the leading role. Not much is known about the movie, but Trachtenberg has reportedly shot a secret Predator movie that is besides slated to come out in 2025. Predator fans, we are eating good. —PV

Release date: In theaters Nov. 14
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Cast: Dan Radcliffe, Rosamund Pike, Morgan Freeman

Who had the return of Louis Leterrier’s “stage magicians pull off a complicated heist” series Now You See Me on their bingo card for 2025? The erstwhile movie in the series — directed by Wicked’s Jon M. Chu — was all the way back in 2016. Given the expansive cast (Jesse Eisenberg, Morgan Freeman, Isla Fisher, Ariana Greenblatt, Mark Ruffalo, Dominic Sessa, Justice Smith, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Rosamund Pike), this franchise feels like individual in the background has Fast and Furious franchise aims, but 9 years between installments and a 3rd manager (Venom’s Ruben Fleischer) over 3 movies makes that ambition seem a small dubious — unless heavy-duty Now You See Me nostalgia has set in in the interim. —TR

Release date: In theaters Nov. 21
Director: Edgar Wright
Cast: Glen Powell, Josh Brolin, Lee Pace

Did the planet request another adaptation of Stephen King’s comparatively insignificant book The moving Man, after the profoundly cheesy 1987 version starring Arnold Schwarzenegger at the tallness of his “kill an antagonist, make a bad pun about it” era? (Re: the guy he just cut in half: “Ah, he had to split.”) Consider this, though: This fresh version comes from Shaun of the Dead and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World manager Edgar Wright. And the advance summaries emphasize that it’s set in the hideous dystopic future of… 2025. Given the themes about wealth inequity and desperation — in this world, mediocre people compete on lethal game shows for money — this 1 might feel all besides timely. The cast (Glen Powell in the lead, Lee Pace as the antagonist, William H. Macy and Josh Brolin in the wings) sounds beautiful promising, too. —TR

Release date: In theaters Nov. 21
Director: Jon M. Chu
Cast: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Michelle Yeoh

There were any eyebrow raises erstwhile manager Jon M. Chu announced that he was splitting Wicked into 2 movies, myself included among them. But after the splendor of Wicked: Part I, I full support that decision. It’s an epic communicative that needs time to build and breathe! And now the time skip between the 2 acts will hit all the harder! Wicked: For Good will likely grow on the play’s second act more than the first part did with the first act, and possibly include more of the Wizard of Oz. —PR

Release date: In theaters Nov. 26
Directors: Jared Bush, Byron Howard
Cast: Jason Bateman, luck Feimster, Ginnifer Goodwin

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Five Night at Freddy’s 2

Release date: In theaters Dec. 5
Director: Emma Tanmi
Cast: Matthew Lillard, Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail

The tween-friendly scares of Scott Cawthon’s 5 Nights at Freddy’s franchise made for a very profitable movie adaptation in 2023, so Blumhouse is rapidly making a sequel. Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 will see Josh Hutcherson return as the safety defender paid to last his stint at an abandoned pizzeria home to killer animatronic mascots for more PG-13-rated horror. —MM

Release date: In theaters Dec. 19
Director: James Cameron
Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver

James Cameron proved the skeptics wrong with Avatar: The Way of Water, which revived the dormant sci-fi property with spectacular advancements and classical epic-story rigor. Fire and Ash, the next chapter, faces a different kind of task: Can Cameron truly build a franchise on the moon of Pandora? With only a fewer years since The Way of Water, the filmmaker is relying on years of world-building with a crack squad of Hollywood screenwriters to advance the planet of Avatar in a way that can go toe-to-toe with Marvel and Star Wars. The promise of Fire and Ash is beautiful basic: This time there are fire Na’vi! Whether Cameron can deepen the stories of Jake Sully and Neytiri while concocting bigger and wilder set-pieces is the breathtaking unknown. —MP

Release date: In theaters and streaming on Netflix in 2025
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth

2025 is set to be a immense year for Guillermo del Toro, as the Academy Award-winning filmmaker is set to unveil 1 of the biggest passion projects of his career. Del Toro has been trying to produce an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s seminal horror classical Frankenstein in any form or another since as early as 2007, at 1 point calling the book his “favorite fresh in the world.” Can del Toro manage to make a movie that lives up to his own lofty expectations? —TE