Weekend Watch: The 10 Films I'm Anticipating In 2025
Looking ahead
Welcome to an unusual Weekend Watch. Having not had the chance to see this week’s movies, I’m pivoting to look ahead at the 10 movies I’m anticipating in 2025. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite and Threads/Instagram: @jammerwhite
With the calendar long ticked over to 2025, if you’re anything like me, you’re looking forward to the movies you’ll be watching in the coming year. With the proviso that this is simply a preview –– I haven’t seen any of these yet, nor do I know if they’ll all work –– here is my list of 10 titles that I can’t wait to check out…
Paddington In Peru (14 February in the US)
This third Paddington film has already been released in the UK, to mixed/positive reviews. Even if the new movie can’t quite live up to the first two (let’s be honest, that’s an incredibly high bar to clear), I’m anticipating some warm, gentle fun with the furry do-gooder who somehow gets into an incredible number of scrapes. The presence of Olivia Colman is also reason to celebrate.
Sinners (7 March in the UK and US)
Director Ryan Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan tend to be a winning combination: witness Fruitvale Station, Creed and Black Panther. So the idea of them reuniting for a mysterious new supernatural thriller certainly ticks a lot of boxes for me. Sinners features Johnson playing twin brothers in a story set in Jim Crow-era America, so expect plenty of rumination on race as well as horror.
Thunderbolts* (2 May in the UK and US)
Marvel had a solid 2024 thanks to Deadpool & Wolverine and Agatha All Along, and from the looks of the trailers, its 2025 offerings are showing hopeful signs of returning the company back to doing what it does best –– throwing good characters played by talented actors into well-choreographed mayhem. Captain America: Brave New World and Fantastic Four: First Steps promise to move the MCU along, but Thunderbolts* has all the makings of a team-up movie that is just fun to watch.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (21 May in the UK, 23 May in the US)
Can Tom Cruise and filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie keep the Mission flag flying? While Dead Reckoning (now shorn of its Part 1) suffered at the box office, it still delivered on the action front. The Final Reckoning points to an end point, though I think we all know that Paramount is unlikely to let its cash cow go out to pasture. Still, McQuarrie and Cruise have long proved they know what they’re doing, even if the process appears mind-boggling.
Elio (13 June in the UK and US)
Disney’s animated 2024 was beyond solid –– both Inside Out 2 and Moana 2 proved to be A) good movies and B) wildly successful, but this year it faces a big test, getting back into original territory. Still, this story of an enthusiastic boy who accidentally becomes an interplanetary ambassador certainly looks like it could be a family-friendly treat. Between them, directors Adrian Molina, Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi have worked on the likes of Coco and Turning Red, and those are quite the calling cards.
28 Years Later (20 June in the UK and US)
Returning to the franchise they created way back in 2002, Danny Boyle and Alex Garland are ready to tell the further story of a UK devastated by a rage virus that turned most of the population in violent creatures. With an ambitious plan for a new trilogy (a second entry is already in the works), this one boasts the likes of Ralph Fiennes, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Jodie Comer. That’s a cast to definitely make you happy rather than mad.
Superman (11 July in the UK and US)
It seems every incarnation of the DC movie universe kicks off with a take on the company’s most iconic superhero and with James Gunn in charge of the whole thing, he’s chosen to do the same. I’m intrigued to see what he’s done with the material, and he’s gathered quite the cast, including David Corenswet as Clark/Supes and Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, so hopes are sky high for the new film from the man who made the Guardians Of The Galaxy movies so entertaining at Marvel.
The Running Man (21 November in the US, UK TBC)
Edgar Wright is a filmmaker more known for generating his own material, though I do love his adaptation of Scott Pilgrim. So let’s see what happens with this new outing, a fresh take on the dystopian Stephen King story about a government controlling the populace through a game show. Originally brought to screens back in 1987 with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role, the new movie has Glen Powell, Josh Brolin, Katy O’Brian, Lee Pace, William H. Macy and Emilia Jones among its cast and I’m already fascinated to see the style that Wright will bring to this film.
Wicked: For Good (21 November in the UK and US)
If there’s anything that is closest to a sure thing, it’s the second part of Jon M. Chu’s dazzling adaptation of the Broadway musical (and, to a degree, Gregory Maguire’s novel). Given how much I enjoyed the first part, I’m expecting big things from the second. And if you know the story at all (no spoilers here!), then you know that some very dramatic stuff goes down in this part of the narrative. There are a couple of songs I’m certainly looking forward to hearing given the cinematic treatment and you may walk out of the cinema changed for good…
Frankenstein (TBC)
Fans of Mary Shelley’s story are in for a treat this year. Not only are we getting Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! (the exclamation mark is indeed part of the title right now), which boasts Christian Bale, Jesse Buckley, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening and Penelope Cruz in its cast, and a promise to properly explore the creature’s re-animated bride), but no less a director than Guillermo del Toro is realising a long-held dream to bring his own take to life. He has Oscar Isaac, Christoph Waltz, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Charles Dance, Burn Gorman and Ralph Ineson among his cast and if any director can find something fresh to say about the classic tale, it’s del Toro. The Bride! will be out in the US on 26 September, but has yet to lock in a UK date. And Frankenstein is still awaiting a date, though I’m hopeful it’ll be with us in 2025.