Daily Archives: December 18, 2024

10 Best Ken Marino Movies & TV Shows, Ranked

Static Media

Ken Marino’s career as an actor, writer, and director has been largely defined by two things: comedy and collaboration. After establishing himself via the MTV sketch comedy series “The State” with the comedy troupe of the same name (comprised of his closest friends and creative confidants), he went on to work on some of the funniest, most brilliant, and underrated TV and film projects to come out of Hollywood in the last two decades.

Much of his work is the result either of his own creative will or that of his former troupe-mates, the group having spread through the industry to wreak hilarious havoc. They often explore absurd angles on popular genres such as medical dramas and reality dating shows. At the same time, he’s a familiar face on a smorgasbord of network sitcoms, as well as a few audacious dramedies you’ll certainly want to add to your watch list.

Honorable Mention: The State

MTV

It’s impossible to compare a sketch comedy show like the 1994-1995 MTV series “The State” to anything else in Ken Marino’s work history, and we debated including it all. However, it is without a doubt the most impactful show on Marino’s career, showcasing his work as both actor and writer alongside an ensemble that would support and elevate one another in the decades that followed its end.

In addition to Marino, the ensemble included several comedians who would later be responsible for even larger projects. Some standouts include actor, writer, and stand-up comic Michael Ian Black, “Drop Dead Gorgeous” director Michael Patrick Jann, “Reno 911!” stars Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kenney-Silver, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s” Joe Lo Truglio, and “Wet Hot American Summer” creators David Wain and Michael Showalter.
When asked by Bullz Eye in 2009 if the series ever revealed any partnerships he preferred over others, Marino marveled that the answer was no. “No, I mean, it was always fun working with everybody in the group,” he said. “That was the thing. It’s amazing to think about that now: we all got along. … There’s something about those guys and gal for me that I loved creating with them, and I always did.”

Axe Cop

FX

Based on the cult webcomic of the same name, Fox and FX’s animated action comedy “Axe Cop” is pretty much what it says on the tin — a wild story about a cop who uses an axe. If that sounds like an idea only a five-year-old could come up with, that’s because the comic’s story scribe was indeed five-year-old Malachai Nicolle (with his adult brother, artist Ethan Nicolle, turning Malachai’s ideas into fully drawn comics).

The series was adapted into a TV show seemingly due to the fact that so many in Hollywood were legitimate fans of it in their private lives — Ken Marino included. “‘Axe Cop’ was a graphic novel that I just felt was the best thing out there,” he told Variety in 2013, further describing it as “inspired and pure and real.” Opposite Nick Offerman as the titular hero, Marino voices Flute Cop, his partner in crime fighting.

Black Monday

On Monday, October 19, 1987, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by a whopping 22%, heralding one of the largest stock market crashes in history. Worldwide, traders lost over $1.7 trillion in the span of a few hours. It was a financial disaster so sudden and far reaching it was thereafter known as “Black Monday.” Though economists across the globe have plenty of theories about why this crash happened, there has never been a single official explanation — which is where writers and showrunners Jordan Cahan and David Caspe come in.

Together, they wrote and produced “Black Monday,” a Showtime comedy that imagines what several key, fictional people in the financial industry might have done during the year leading up to the real Black Monday. At the center of this hidden history is Maurice “Mo” Monroe (Don Cheadle), a rockstar stockbroker who’s as ruthless and experienced as he is unpredictable and chaotic. After accidentally spilling a bag of cocaine on an aspiring trader named Blair Pfaf (Andrew Rannells), effectively ruining the young man’s career before it begins, the pair form an unlikely and very toxic partnership. The main cast also features Paul Scheer and Regina Hall as similarly unscrupulous Wall Street players.
While Ken Marino does not star in the series, he appears in many episodes playing the dual roles of Larry and Lenny Lehman — yes, as in the Lehman Brothers, the massive banking institution which was brought crumbling down during the Great Recession. “Black Monday” is sleek, full of energy, and surprisingly insightful, eliciting laughs one moment before leaving you in stunned silence the next. In a crowded market, it’s a hidden gem of prestige TV that you’d be crazy not to invest in.

Marry Me

NBC

Speaking of David Caspe, he and Ken Marino collaborated several years before “Black Monday” (the series, that is) on a very different kind of show. NBC’s “Marry Me” stars Marino and Casey Wilson as a couple struggling to maintain momentum in their relationship after getting engaged. Though they are deeply in love, romantic life has been consumed almost entirely by mundane frustrations and petty arguments that call into question their long-term compatibility.

“Marry Me” is best looked at as a modern network sitcom done really well, made with comforting consistency, laughs, and plenty of heartwarming moments. It’s sort of a spiritual successor to Caspe’s previous project “Happy Endings” (which also starred Marino, Wilson, and many of the “Marry Me” supporting ensemble), but it’s perhaps worse off in some ways due to its significantly shorter tenure. After all, how well can a traditional sitcom perform its role if it disappears from your life after less than 20 episodes?
All the same, Marino shines in one of his few starring roles, given plenty of room to show off the comedic charm that makes him such a memorable actor. If “Happy Endings” made you smile, then “Marry Me” has plenty more to offer.

Veronica Mars

UPN

Created by Rob Thomas and starring Kristen Bell, “Veronica Mars” was a hit when it premiered on UPN back in 2004. Mixing the coming-of-age and teen genres with the intrigue of crime noir, it’s all at once light on its feet, engaging, and shocking.

Ken Marino recurs throughout the series as Vincent “Vinnie” Van Lowe, at first an arch force in the Mars’ private investigation enterprise. Like Veronica and her father, Vinnie is a detective himself — though his interests lie less with solving cases and helping people and more with getting as much money as possible. His loyalty can be easily bought (having literally abandoned an investigation to help its target simply because of a potential payday) and his moral compass points exclusively toward his own wallet. This often makes Vinnie a frustrating presence in Veronica’s life, though his predictability has allowed her to dispatch with him as simply as writing a check. At the same time, the more the two interact, the more Vinnie develops respect for Veronica as a peer and a decent human being, occasionally leading him down a slightly less self-centered path.

Sadly, “Veronica Mars'” later seasons never fully lived up to its first outing (though they’re still enjoyable to watch). It was canceled after three seasons, after which Thomas produced a decent feature film sequel that bombed at the box office. Hulu revived it briefly for a fourth season that was as good as the show has ever been, but it was ultimately canceled a second time. Still, Vinnie and Marino were brought back for each succeeding iteration, showing how much of an impact they both had on the series.

Children’s Hospital

Adult Swim

In the Adult Swim parody series “Children’s Hospital,” Ken Marino joins creator Rob Corddry and reunites with “The State’s” David Wain (as well as Jonathan Stern of “Wet Hot American Summer”) for a hilariously disconcerting send up of hospital dramas like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “ER.” Marino is part of the core cast as Dr. Glenn Richie, the love interest of Lake Bell’s Dr. Catholomule “Cat” Black. He first played this character in Wain’s anthology film “The Ten,” though Wain has since said that “Children’s Hospital” could be considered a loose prequel to the events seen in his movie.

Starting with Season 4, Marino began serving as one of the series’ co-executive producers. This allowed him to have a hand in the creative direction of the season, which took “Children’s Hospital” down a more ambitious road than it had previously sought. “[In Season 4] everything kind of seems like it’s breaking away and we’re doing something slightly special, you know, like they were all special episodes,” Marino told Daily Actor back in 2012 while comparing the style of the season to the special “Do The Right Thing” homage from the one previous.
After nodding to “Community” (which also did ambitiously hyper-stylized episodes and even featured Corddry frome time to time), he opined that the absurdity of the series meant they could take risks other shows wouldn’t. “I mean ‘Children’s Hospital’ just kind of does anything, we have the freedom to do anything on that show, because you don’t have to emotionally connect to the characters,” he continued. “It’s simply there to be funny and to be ridiculous and so that’s the goal each time we write a script or perform it.”

Reaper

The CW

Unless you were paying close attention to genre TV when it was on the air, chances are you haven’t heard of “Reaper.” That doesn’t change the fact that it’s one of the best supernatural comedies ever produced for the medium.

The basic premise is that a college dropout and all-around dead-ender named Sam Oliver (Bret Harrison) learns on his 21st birthday that his parents essentially sold his soul to the devil (Ray Wise) before he was born. Now that Sam is of age, Satan himself has come to collect on the deal by turning him into his own personal grim reaper. Imbued with special powers and given enchanted “vessels” with which to capture spirits, he is charged with returning wayward souls and spiritual entities to the fiery pits from whence they came. 
The pilot episode was directed by Kevin Smith, who revealed to us at the time that it fulfilled a career curiosity of his. “I’ve always been curious about trying my hand at directing something I didn’t write,” he said. “Never had an interest in doing that on the big screen, but ‘Reaper’ presented an excellent opportunity to give it a go in a smaller, yet, ironically, far larger, pond.”

The series flew under the radar for the most part and was unceremoniously canceled after two great seasons. The cast was packed with genuine comedic talent, includin Ken Marino as Sam’s neighbor Tony, a kind-hearted Demon who hopes to one day defeat Satan and his armies. His character is married to Steve, played by “The State” alum Michael Ian Black. In 2009, Marino expressed passionate interest in playing Tony again in a hypothetical “Reaper” movie, despite the extensive demon makeup involved.

Party Down

STARZ

After the cancellation of “Veronica Mars,” Rob Thomas was anxious to get started on his next idea — a straightforward comedy series about Hollywood hopefuls making ends meet as the begrudging employees of a hectic catering business. To do so, Thomas gathered a group of his funniest friends, including future “Glee” sensation Jane Lynch, future “Parks and Recreation” breakout Adam Scott, and “Veronica Mars” alums Ryan Hansen and Ken Marino. They shot a homemade pilot in his backyard for the series — now named “Party Down” after the titular catering company — and wound up with a season order from Starz.

In the “Party Down” ensemble cast, Marino plays team leader Ron Donald. Unlike his coworkers (whom he treats as subordinates), Ron’s dreams lie squarely outside the entertainment industry — in some part because the high-speed Hollywood lifestyle nearly killed him. Speaking to Awards Radar in 2023, Marino described Ron as someone desperate for respect and/or to be seen as a success, even though he’s constantly a victim to his own actions. “Much of Ron’s essence or much like the stories that we see of Ron, he takes one step forward and then he takes 17 steps backwards,” he told the outlet. “He’s got this enormous black cloud over his head. He’s his own worst enemy.”
The talent involved with the series wound up being somewhat of a drawback, as Lynch and Scott were soon much busier thanks to “Glee” and “Parks and Rec.” Combined with low ratings, this caused Starz to cancel the series after only two seasons. It was revived in 2023, however, receiving positive reviews while potentially opening the door to future seasons down the road.

Wet Hot American Summer

Focus Features

A little over five years after “The State” went off the air at MTV, its members got together to make “Wet Hot American Summer,” a film that extended everything about their series into an instant classic. Directed by David Wain and written by Wain and Michael Showalter, it follows a massive ensemble of “teens” who play like caricatures of the protagonists of 1980s sex comedies. In addition to Showalter, Michael Ian Black, Joe Lo Truglio, and, of course, Ken Marino, it stars much of the comedic blockbuster talent that continued to dominate the 2000s and 2010s, such as Elizabeth Banks, H. John Benjamin, Bradley Cooper, Judah Friedlander, Janeane Garofalo, Amy Poehler, and Paul Rudd. Marino plays Victor, a counselor at Camp Firewood whose struggle to lose his virginity becomes his central character trait.

Compared to the cinematic results of other sketch comedy shows (even those that notably air live on a certain day of the week), “Wet Hot American Summer” has had a unique staying power — so much so that Wain and Showalter have been able to successfully spin it off multiple times in the late 2010s. “They were always talking about [a spin-off],” Marino told Under the Radar Mag, “was it a movie, was it a prequel, was it a show? Was it flashing forward ten years into the future, like the one part in the movie? … I don’t think it ever really became fully realized until this wave of Netflix and Yahoo! and these internet companies that are maybe a little more open to letting people’s creative ideas come to fruition as opposed to trying to rework it.”

The Other Two

Max

Ken Marino’s body of work contains a truly upsetting amount of TV shows that, in our view, just didn’t get their due time in the sun. Of all these funny and innovative projects, “The Other Two” was arguably the most baffling to see ignored by so many. The series was certainly successful in its own right, even getting to jump from Comedy Central to HBO Max, where it had a better chance to make waves as the high-concept streaming dramedy it always was. But for a series that so perfectly captured social media culture and what being famous means in the 2020s, it can’t help but feel as though it deserved at least a few more followers.

Created by former Saturday Night Live writers Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider, “The Other Two” tells the story of how two adult siblings (Heléne Yorke and Drew Tarver) react when their waning dreams of stardom are suddenly disrupted by the overnight social media success of their kid brother (Case Walker). His opportunistic new manager Streeter Peter Peters is played by Marino, in a performance that may or may not be unconsciously channeling the energy of infamous music industry executive Scooter Braun. Though his character is squarely focused on the success of his new teenage client ChaseDreams, Marino felt the show had a lot to say about how a family might be affected by this new world.
“To me, I never saw [“The Other Two”] as being about [Chase],” he told LA Mag in 2023. “It was always about the effect his trajectory had on the family.” The series ended that same year, amid some controversy, but it went out with a decisive finish that needs to be witnessed in full.

Burning Love

E!

“Burning Love” might be one of the most bizarre love stories ever put on TV. It also might be one of the best.
Directed by Ken Marino and written and created by his wife Erica Oyama, this passion project is basically a high-fidelity spoof of dating shows like “The Bachelor.” In the first season, Marino stars as Mark Orlando, a sexy and superficial firefighter hoping to fall in love (or at the very least hook up) with one or more of the 16 contestants vying for his affections.

“I have to admit that [Oyama and I] watch a lot of reality TV,” he told Collider in 2012. “My wife was pregnant with our first child… She would watch marathons of ‘The Bachelor’ and ‘The Bachelorette,’ and then she just got this idea. She wrote this fake teaser of a show like that, that she said she thought would be funny to do for the web.” Several of their funny friends (including Adam Scott and Jonathan Stern) read the script and were immediately sold. They then helped put together a sizzle reel that sold Yahoo! on the concept as well.
Like most projects Marino is involved in, “Burning Love” is on fire with comedic talent seemingly due to the fact that folks just like working with him. In addition to Scott (who plays Mark’s psych doctor), the series features the likes of Jennifer Aniston, Kristen Bell, Michael Ian Black, Michael Cera, Ken Jeong, Nick Kroll, Natasha Leggero, Kumail Nanjiani, Paul Rudd, Paul Scheer, and Seth Rogen. Ben Stiller, who also produces, appears in several episodes as the series’ first eligible bachelor. The show as a whole captures the essence of who Marino is as an artist — irreverent, suitably goofy, wonderfully collaborative, and quietly genius.

10 Best Ken Marino Movies & TV Shows, Ranked

Static Media

Ken Marino’s career as an actor, writer, and director has been largely defined by two things: comedy and collaboration. After establishing himself via the MTV sketch comedy series “The State” with the comedy troupe of the same name (comprised of his closest friends and creative confidants), he went on to work on some of the funniest, most brilliant, and underrated TV and film projects to come out of Hollywood in the last two decades.

Much of his work is the result either of his own creative will or that of his former troupe-mates, the group having spread through the industry to wreak hilarious havoc. They often explore absurd angles on popular genres such as medical dramas and reality dating shows. At the same time, he’s a familiar face on a smorgasbord of network sitcoms, as well as a few audacious dramedies you’ll certainly want to add to your watch list.

Honorable Mention: The State

MTV

It’s impossible to compare a sketch comedy show like the 1994-1995 MTV series “The State” to anything else in Ken Marino’s work history, and we debated including it all. However, it is without a doubt the most impactful show on Marino’s career, showcasing his work as both actor and writer alongside an ensemble that would support and elevate one another in the decades that followed its end.

In addition to Marino, the ensemble included several comedians who would later be responsible for even larger projects. Some standouts include actor, writer, and stand-up comic Michael Ian Black, “Drop Dead Gorgeous” director Michael Patrick Jann, “Reno 911!” stars Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kenney-Silver, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s” Joe Lo Truglio, and “Wet Hot American Summer” creators David Wain and Michael Showalter.
When asked by Bullz Eye in 2009 if the series ever revealed any partnerships he preferred over others, Marino marveled that the answer was no. “No, I mean, it was always fun working with everybody in the group,” he said. “That was the thing. It’s amazing to think about that now: we all got along. … There’s something about those guys and gal for me that I loved creating with them, and I always did.”

Axe Cop

FX

Based on the cult webcomic of the same name, Fox and FX’s animated action comedy “Axe Cop” is pretty much what it says on the tin — a wild story about a cop who uses an axe. If that sounds like an idea only a five-year-old could come up with, that’s because the comic’s story scribe was indeed five-year-old Malachai Nicolle (with his adult brother, artist Ethan Nicolle, turning Malachai’s ideas into fully drawn comics).

The series was adapted into a TV show seemingly due to the fact that so many in Hollywood were legitimate fans of it in their private lives — Ken Marino included. “‘Axe Cop’ was a graphic novel that I just felt was the best thing out there,” he told Variety in 2013, further describing it as “inspired and pure and real.” Opposite Nick Offerman as the titular hero, Marino voices Flute Cop, his partner in crime fighting.

Black Monday

On Monday, October 19, 1987, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by a whopping 22%, heralding one of the largest stock market crashes in history. Worldwide, traders lost over $1.7 trillion in the span of a few hours. It was a financial disaster so sudden and far reaching it was thereafter known as “Black Monday.” Though economists across the globe have plenty of theories about why this crash happened, there has never been a single official explanation — which is where writers and showrunners Jordan Cahan and David Caspe come in.

Together, they wrote and produced “Black Monday,” a Showtime comedy that imagines what several key, fictional people in the financial industry might have done during the year leading up to the real Black Monday. At the center of this hidden history is Maurice “Mo” Monroe (Don Cheadle), a rockstar stockbroker who’s as ruthless and experienced as he is unpredictable and chaotic. After accidentally spilling a bag of cocaine on an aspiring trader named Blair Pfaf (Andrew Rannells), effectively ruining the young man’s career before it begins, the pair form an unlikely and very toxic partnership. The main cast also features Paul Scheer and Regina Hall as similarly unscrupulous Wall Street players.
While Ken Marino does not star in the series, he appears in many episodes playing the dual roles of Larry and Lenny Lehman — yes, as in the Lehman Brothers, the massive banking institution which was brought crumbling down during the Great Recession. “Black Monday” is sleek, full of energy, and surprisingly insightful, eliciting laughs one moment before leaving you in stunned silence the next. In a crowded market, it’s a hidden gem of prestige TV that you’d be crazy not to invest in.

Marry Me

NBC

Speaking of David Caspe, he and Ken Marino collaborated several years before “Black Monday” (the series, that is) on a very different kind of show. NBC’s “Marry Me” stars Marino and Casey Wilson as a couple struggling to maintain momentum in their relationship after getting engaged. Though they are deeply in love, romantic life has been consumed almost entirely by mundane frustrations and petty arguments that call into question their long-term compatibility.

“Marry Me” is best looked at as a modern network sitcom done really well, made with comforting consistency, laughs, and plenty of heartwarming moments. It’s sort of a spiritual successor to Caspe’s previous project “Happy Endings” (which also starred Marino, Wilson, and many of the “Marry Me” supporting ensemble), but it’s perhaps worse off in some ways due to its significantly shorter tenure. After all, how well can a traditional sitcom perform its role if it disappears from your life after less than 20 episodes?
All the same, Marino shines in one of his few starring roles, given plenty of room to show off the comedic charm that makes him such a memorable actor. If “Happy Endings” made you smile, then “Marry Me” has plenty more to offer.

Veronica Mars

UPN

Created by Rob Thomas and starring Kristen Bell, “Veronica Mars” was a hit when it premiered on UPN back in 2004. Mixing the coming-of-age and teen genres with the intrigue of crime noir, it’s all at once light on its feet, engaging, and shocking.

Ken Marino recurs throughout the series as Vincent “Vinnie” Van Lowe, at first an arch force in the Mars’ private investigation enterprise. Like Veronica and her father, Vinnie is a detective himself — though his interests lie less with solving cases and helping people and more with getting as much money as possible. His loyalty can be easily bought (having literally abandoned an investigation to help its target simply because of a potential payday) and his moral compass points exclusively toward his own wallet. This often makes Vinnie a frustrating presence in Veronica’s life, though his predictability has allowed her to dispatch with him as simply as writing a check. At the same time, the more the two interact, the more Vinnie develops respect for Veronica as a peer and a decent human being, occasionally leading him down a slightly less self-centered path.

Sadly, “Veronica Mars'” later seasons never fully lived up to its first outing (though they’re still enjoyable to watch). It was canceled after three seasons, after which Thomas produced a decent feature film sequel that bombed at the box office. Hulu revived it briefly for a fourth season that was as good as the show has ever been, but it was ultimately canceled a second time. Still, Vinnie and Marino were brought back for each succeeding iteration, showing how much of an impact they both had on the series.

Children’s Hospital

Adult Swim

In the Adult Swim parody series “Children’s Hospital,” Ken Marino joins creator Rob Corddry and reunites with “The State’s” David Wain (as well as Jonathan Stern of “Wet Hot American Summer”) for a hilariously disconcerting send up of hospital dramas like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “ER.” Marino is part of the core cast as Dr. Glenn Richie, the love interest of Lake Bell’s Dr. Catholomule “Cat” Black. He first played this character in Wain’s anthology film “The Ten,” though Wain has since said that “Children’s Hospital” could be considered a loose prequel to the events seen in his movie.

Starting with Season 4, Marino began serving as one of the series’ co-executive producers. This allowed him to have a hand in the creative direction of the season, which took “Children’s Hospital” down a more ambitious road than it had previously sought. “[In Season 4] everything kind of seems like it’s breaking away and we’re doing something slightly special, you know, like they were all special episodes,” Marino told Daily Actor back in 2012 while comparing the style of the season to the special “Do The Right Thing” homage from the one previous.
After nodding to “Community” (which also did ambitiously hyper-stylized episodes and even featured Corddry frome time to time), he opined that the absurdity of the series meant they could take risks other shows wouldn’t. “I mean ‘Children’s Hospital’ just kind of does anything, we have the freedom to do anything on that show, because you don’t have to emotionally connect to the characters,” he continued. “It’s simply there to be funny and to be ridiculous and so that’s the goal each time we write a script or perform it.”

Reaper

The CW

Unless you were paying close attention to genre TV when it was on the air, chances are you haven’t heard of “Reaper.” That doesn’t change the fact that it’s one of the best supernatural comedies ever produced for the medium.

The basic premise is that a college dropout and all-around dead-ender named Sam Oliver (Bret Harrison) learns on his 21st birthday that his parents essentially sold his soul to the devil (Ray Wise) before he was born. Now that Sam is of age, Satan himself has come to collect on the deal by turning him into his own personal grim reaper. Imbued with special powers and given enchanted “vessels” with which to capture spirits, he is charged with returning wayward souls and spiritual entities to the fiery pits from whence they came. 
The pilot episode was directed by Kevin Smith, who revealed to us at the time that it fulfilled a career curiosity of his. “I’ve always been curious about trying my hand at directing something I didn’t write,” he said. “Never had an interest in doing that on the big screen, but ‘Reaper’ presented an excellent opportunity to give it a go in a smaller, yet, ironically, far larger, pond.”

The series flew under the radar for the most part and was unceremoniously canceled after two great seasons. The cast was packed with genuine comedic talent, includin Ken Marino as Sam’s neighbor Tony, a kind-hearted Demon who hopes to one day defeat Satan and his armies. His character is married to Steve, played by “The State” alum Michael Ian Black. In 2009, Marino expressed passionate interest in playing Tony again in a hypothetical “Reaper” movie, despite the extensive demon makeup involved.

Party Down

STARZ

After the cancellation of “Veronica Mars,” Rob Thomas was anxious to get started on his next idea — a straightforward comedy series about Hollywood hopefuls making ends meet as the begrudging employees of a hectic catering business. To do so, Thomas gathered a group of his funniest friends, including future “Glee” sensation Jane Lynch, future “Parks and Recreation” breakout Adam Scott, and “Veronica Mars” alums Ryan Hansen and Ken Marino. They shot a homemade pilot in his backyard for the series — now named “Party Down” after the titular catering company — and wound up with a season order from Starz.

In the “Party Down” ensemble cast, Marino plays team leader Ron Donald. Unlike his coworkers (whom he treats as subordinates), Ron’s dreams lie squarely outside the entertainment industry — in some part because the high-speed Hollywood lifestyle nearly killed him. Speaking to Awards Radar in 2023, Marino described Ron as someone desperate for respect and/or to be seen as a success, even though he’s constantly a victim to his own actions. “Much of Ron’s essence or much like the stories that we see of Ron, he takes one step forward and then he takes 17 steps backwards,” he told the outlet. “He’s got this enormous black cloud over his head. He’s his own worst enemy.”
The talent involved with the series wound up being somewhat of a drawback, as Lynch and Scott were soon much busier thanks to “Glee” and “Parks and Rec.” Combined with low ratings, this caused Starz to cancel the series after only two seasons. It was revived in 2023, however, receiving positive reviews while potentially opening the door to future seasons down the road.

Wet Hot American Summer

Focus Features

A little over five years after “The State” went off the air at MTV, its members got together to make “Wet Hot American Summer,” a film that extended everything about their series into an instant classic. Directed by David Wain and written by Wain and Michael Showalter, it follows a massive ensemble of “teens” who play like caricatures of the protagonists of 1980s sex comedies. In addition to Showalter, Michael Ian Black, Joe Lo Truglio, and, of course, Ken Marino, it stars much of the comedic blockbuster talent that continued to dominate the 2000s and 2010s, such as Elizabeth Banks, H. John Benjamin, Bradley Cooper, Judah Friedlander, Janeane Garofalo, Amy Poehler, and Paul Rudd. Marino plays Victor, a counselor at Camp Firewood whose struggle to lose his virginity becomes his central character trait.

Compared to the cinematic results of other sketch comedy shows (even those that notably air live on a certain day of the week), “Wet Hot American Summer” has had a unique staying power — so much so that Wain and Showalter have been able to successfully spin it off multiple times in the late 2010s. “They were always talking about [a spin-off],” Marino told Under the Radar Mag, “was it a movie, was it a prequel, was it a show? Was it flashing forward ten years into the future, like the one part in the movie? … I don’t think it ever really became fully realized until this wave of Netflix and Yahoo! and these internet companies that are maybe a little more open to letting people’s creative ideas come to fruition as opposed to trying to rework it.”

The Other Two

Max

Ken Marino’s body of work contains a truly upsetting amount of TV shows that, in our view, just didn’t get their due time in the sun. Of all these funny and innovative projects, “The Other Two” was arguably the most baffling to see ignored by so many. The series was certainly successful in its own right, even getting to jump from Comedy Central to HBO Max, where it had a better chance to make waves as the high-concept streaming dramedy it always was. But for a series that so perfectly captured social media culture and what being famous means in the 2020s, it can’t help but feel as though it deserved at least a few more followers.

Created by former Saturday Night Live writers Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider, “The Other Two” tells the story of how two adult siblings (Heléne Yorke and Drew Tarver) react when their waning dreams of stardom are suddenly disrupted by the overnight social media success of their kid brother (Case Walker). His opportunistic new manager Streeter Peter Peters is played by Marino, in a performance that may or may not be unconsciously channeling the energy of infamous music industry executive Scooter Braun. Though his character is squarely focused on the success of his new teenage client ChaseDreams, Marino felt the show had a lot to say about how a family might be affected by this new world.
“To me, I never saw [“The Other Two”] as being about [Chase],” he told LA Mag in 2023. “It was always about the effect his trajectory had on the family.” The series ended that same year, amid some controversy, but it went out with a decisive finish that needs to be witnessed in full.

Burning Love

E!

“Burning Love” might be one of the most bizarre love stories ever put on TV. It also might be one of the best.
Directed by Ken Marino and written and created by his wife Erica Oyama, this passion project is basically a high-fidelity spoof of dating shows like “The Bachelor.” In the first season, Marino stars as Mark Orlando, a sexy and superficial firefighter hoping to fall in love (or at the very least hook up) with one or more of the 16 contestants vying for his affections.

“I have to admit that [Oyama and I] watch a lot of reality TV,” he told Collider in 2012. “My wife was pregnant with our first child… She would watch marathons of ‘The Bachelor’ and ‘The Bachelorette,’ and then she just got this idea. She wrote this fake teaser of a show like that, that she said she thought would be funny to do for the web.” Several of their funny friends (including Adam Scott and Jonathan Stern) read the script and were immediately sold. They then helped put together a sizzle reel that sold Yahoo! on the concept as well.
Like most projects Marino is involved in, “Burning Love” is on fire with comedic talent seemingly due to the fact that folks just like working with him. In addition to Scott (who plays Mark’s psych doctor), the series features the likes of Jennifer Aniston, Kristen Bell, Michael Ian Black, Michael Cera, Ken Jeong, Nick Kroll, Natasha Leggero, Kumail Nanjiani, Paul Rudd, Paul Scheer, and Seth Rogen. Ben Stiller, who also produces, appears in several episodes as the series’ first eligible bachelor. The show as a whole captures the essence of who Marino is as an artist — irreverent, suitably goofy, wonderfully collaborative, and quietly genius.

10 Best Ken Marino Movies & TV Shows, Ranked

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Ken Marino’s career as an actor, writer, and director has been largely defined by two things: comedy and collaboration. After establishing himself via the MTV sketch comedy series “The State” with the comedy troupe of the same name (comprised of his closest friends and creative confidants), he went on to work on some of the funniest, most brilliant, and underrated TV and film projects to come out of Hollywood in the last two decades.

Much of his work is the result either of his own creative will or that of his former troupe-mates, the group having spread through the industry to wreak hilarious havoc. They often explore absurd angles on popular genres such as medical dramas and reality dating shows. At the same time, he’s a familiar face on a smorgasbord of network sitcoms, as well as a few audacious dramedies you’ll certainly want to add to your watch list.

Honorable Mention: The State

MTV

It’s impossible to compare a sketch comedy show like the 1994-1995 MTV series “The State” to anything else in Ken Marino’s work history, and we debated including it all. However, it is without a doubt the most impactful show on Marino’s career, showcasing his work as both actor and writer alongside an ensemble that would support and elevate one another in the decades that followed its end.

In addition to Marino, the ensemble included several comedians who would later be responsible for even larger projects. Some standouts include actor, writer, and stand-up comic Michael Ian Black, “Drop Dead Gorgeous” director Michael Patrick Jann, “Reno 911!” stars Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kenney-Silver, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s” Joe Lo Truglio, and “Wet Hot American Summer” creators David Wain and Michael Showalter.
When asked by Bullz Eye in 2009 if the series ever revealed any partnerships he preferred over others, Marino marveled that the answer was no. “No, I mean, it was always fun working with everybody in the group,” he said. “That was the thing. It’s amazing to think about that now: we all got along. … There’s something about those guys and gal for me that I loved creating with them, and I always did.”

Axe Cop

FX

Based on the cult webcomic of the same name, Fox and FX’s animated action comedy “Axe Cop” is pretty much what it says on the tin — a wild story about a cop who uses an axe. If that sounds like an idea only a five-year-old could come up with, that’s because the comic’s story scribe was indeed five-year-old Malachai Nicolle (with his adult brother, artist Ethan Nicolle, turning Malachai’s ideas into fully drawn comics).

The series was adapted into a TV show seemingly due to the fact that so many in Hollywood were legitimate fans of it in their private lives — Ken Marino included. “‘Axe Cop’ was a graphic novel that I just felt was the best thing out there,” he told Variety in 2013, further describing it as “inspired and pure and real.” Opposite Nick Offerman as the titular hero, Marino voices Flute Cop, his partner in crime fighting.

Black Monday

On Monday, October 19, 1987, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by a whopping 22%, heralding one of the largest stock market crashes in history. Worldwide, traders lost over $1.7 trillion in the span of a few hours. It was a financial disaster so sudden and far reaching it was thereafter known as “Black Monday.” Though economists across the globe have plenty of theories about why this crash happened, there has never been a single official explanation — which is where writers and showrunners Jordan Cahan and David Caspe come in.

Together, they wrote and produced “Black Monday,” a Showtime comedy that imagines what several key, fictional people in the financial industry might have done during the year leading up to the real Black Monday. At the center of this hidden history is Maurice “Mo” Monroe (Don Cheadle), a rockstar stockbroker who’s as ruthless and experienced as he is unpredictable and chaotic. After accidentally spilling a bag of cocaine on an aspiring trader named Blair Pfaf (Andrew Rannells), effectively ruining the young man’s career before it begins, the pair form an unlikely and very toxic partnership. The main cast also features Paul Scheer and Regina Hall as similarly unscrupulous Wall Street players.
While Ken Marino does not star in the series, he appears in many episodes playing the dual roles of Larry and Lenny Lehman — yes, as in the Lehman Brothers, the massive banking institution which was brought crumbling down during the Great Recession. “Black Monday” is sleek, full of energy, and surprisingly insightful, eliciting laughs one moment before leaving you in stunned silence the next. In a crowded market, it’s a hidden gem of prestige TV that you’d be crazy not to invest in.

Marry Me

NBC

Speaking of David Caspe, he and Ken Marino collaborated several years before “Black Monday” (the series, that is) on a very different kind of show. NBC’s “Marry Me” stars Marino and Casey Wilson as a couple struggling to maintain momentum in their relationship after getting engaged. Though they are deeply in love, romantic life has been consumed almost entirely by mundane frustrations and petty arguments that call into question their long-term compatibility.

“Marry Me” is best looked at as a modern network sitcom done really well, made with comforting consistency, laughs, and plenty of heartwarming moments. It’s sort of a spiritual successor to Caspe’s previous project “Happy Endings” (which also starred Marino, Wilson, and many of the “Marry Me” supporting ensemble), but it’s perhaps worse off in some ways due to its significantly shorter tenure. After all, how well can a traditional sitcom perform its role if it disappears from your life after less than 20 episodes?
All the same, Marino shines in one of his few starring roles, given plenty of room to show off the comedic charm that makes him such a memorable actor. If “Happy Endings” made you smile, then “Marry Me” has plenty more to offer.

Veronica Mars

UPN

Created by Rob Thomas and starring Kristen Bell, “Veronica Mars” was a hit when it premiered on UPN back in 2004. Mixing the coming-of-age and teen genres with the intrigue of crime noir, it’s all at once light on its feet, engaging, and shocking.

Ken Marino recurs throughout the series as Vincent “Vinnie” Van Lowe, at first an arch force in the Mars’ private investigation enterprise. Like Veronica and her father, Vinnie is a detective himself — though his interests lie less with solving cases and helping people and more with getting as much money as possible. His loyalty can be easily bought (having literally abandoned an investigation to help its target simply because of a potential payday) and his moral compass points exclusively toward his own wallet. This often makes Vinnie a frustrating presence in Veronica’s life, though his predictability has allowed her to dispatch with him as simply as writing a check. At the same time, the more the two interact, the more Vinnie develops respect for Veronica as a peer and a decent human being, occasionally leading him down a slightly less self-centered path.

Sadly, “Veronica Mars'” later seasons never fully lived up to its first outing (though they’re still enjoyable to watch). It was canceled after three seasons, after which Thomas produced a decent feature film sequel that bombed at the box office. Hulu revived it briefly for a fourth season that was as good as the show has ever been, but it was ultimately canceled a second time. Still, Vinnie and Marino were brought back for each succeeding iteration, showing how much of an impact they both had on the series.

Children’s Hospital

Adult Swim

In the Adult Swim parody series “Children’s Hospital,” Ken Marino joins creator Rob Corddry and reunites with “The State’s” David Wain (as well as Jonathan Stern of “Wet Hot American Summer”) for a hilariously disconcerting send up of hospital dramas like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “ER.” Marino is part of the core cast as Dr. Glenn Richie, the love interest of Lake Bell’s Dr. Catholomule “Cat” Black. He first played this character in Wain’s anthology film “The Ten,” though Wain has since said that “Children’s Hospital” could be considered a loose prequel to the events seen in his movie.

Starting with Season 4, Marino began serving as one of the series’ co-executive producers. This allowed him to have a hand in the creative direction of the season, which took “Children’s Hospital” down a more ambitious road than it had previously sought. “[In Season 4] everything kind of seems like it’s breaking away and we’re doing something slightly special, you know, like they were all special episodes,” Marino told Daily Actor back in 2012 while comparing the style of the season to the special “Do The Right Thing” homage from the one previous.
After nodding to “Community” (which also did ambitiously hyper-stylized episodes and even featured Corddry frome time to time), he opined that the absurdity of the series meant they could take risks other shows wouldn’t. “I mean ‘Children’s Hospital’ just kind of does anything, we have the freedom to do anything on that show, because you don’t have to emotionally connect to the characters,” he continued. “It’s simply there to be funny and to be ridiculous and so that’s the goal each time we write a script or perform it.”

Reaper

The CW

Unless you were paying close attention to genre TV when it was on the air, chances are you haven’t heard of “Reaper.” That doesn’t change the fact that it’s one of the best supernatural comedies ever produced for the medium.

The basic premise is that a college dropout and all-around dead-ender named Sam Oliver (Bret Harrison) learns on his 21st birthday that his parents essentially sold his soul to the devil (Ray Wise) before he was born. Now that Sam is of age, Satan himself has come to collect on the deal by turning him into his own personal grim reaper. Imbued with special powers and given enchanted “vessels” with which to capture spirits, he is charged with returning wayward souls and spiritual entities to the fiery pits from whence they came. 
The pilot episode was directed by Kevin Smith, who revealed to us at the time that it fulfilled a career curiosity of his. “I’ve always been curious about trying my hand at directing something I didn’t write,” he said. “Never had an interest in doing that on the big screen, but ‘Reaper’ presented an excellent opportunity to give it a go in a smaller, yet, ironically, far larger, pond.”

The series flew under the radar for the most part and was unceremoniously canceled after two great seasons. The cast was packed with genuine comedic talent, includin Ken Marino as Sam’s neighbor Tony, a kind-hearted Demon who hopes to one day defeat Satan and his armies. His character is married to Steve, played by “The State” alum Michael Ian Black. In 2009, Marino expressed passionate interest in playing Tony again in a hypothetical “Reaper” movie, despite the extensive demon makeup involved.

Party Down

STARZ

After the cancellation of “Veronica Mars,” Rob Thomas was anxious to get started on his next idea — a straightforward comedy series about Hollywood hopefuls making ends meet as the begrudging employees of a hectic catering business. To do so, Thomas gathered a group of his funniest friends, including future “Glee” sensation Jane Lynch, future “Parks and Recreation” breakout Adam Scott, and “Veronica Mars” alums Ryan Hansen and Ken Marino. They shot a homemade pilot in his backyard for the series — now named “Party Down” after the titular catering company — and wound up with a season order from Starz.

In the “Party Down” ensemble cast, Marino plays team leader Ron Donald. Unlike his coworkers (whom he treats as subordinates), Ron’s dreams lie squarely outside the entertainment industry — in some part because the high-speed Hollywood lifestyle nearly killed him. Speaking to Awards Radar in 2023, Marino described Ron as someone desperate for respect and/or to be seen as a success, even though he’s constantly a victim to his own actions. “Much of Ron’s essence or much like the stories that we see of Ron, he takes one step forward and then he takes 17 steps backwards,” he told the outlet. “He’s got this enormous black cloud over his head. He’s his own worst enemy.”
The talent involved with the series wound up being somewhat of a drawback, as Lynch and Scott were soon much busier thanks to “Glee” and “Parks and Rec.” Combined with low ratings, this caused Starz to cancel the series after only two seasons. It was revived in 2023, however, receiving positive reviews while potentially opening the door to future seasons down the road.

Wet Hot American Summer

Focus Features

A little over five years after “The State” went off the air at MTV, its members got together to make “Wet Hot American Summer,” a film that extended everything about their series into an instant classic. Directed by David Wain and written by Wain and Michael Showalter, it follows a massive ensemble of “teens” who play like caricatures of the protagonists of 1980s sex comedies. In addition to Showalter, Michael Ian Black, Joe Lo Truglio, and, of course, Ken Marino, it stars much of the comedic blockbuster talent that continued to dominate the 2000s and 2010s, such as Elizabeth Banks, H. John Benjamin, Bradley Cooper, Judah Friedlander, Janeane Garofalo, Amy Poehler, and Paul Rudd. Marino plays Victor, a counselor at Camp Firewood whose struggle to lose his virginity becomes his central character trait.

Compared to the cinematic results of other sketch comedy shows (even those that notably air live on a certain day of the week), “Wet Hot American Summer” has had a unique staying power — so much so that Wain and Showalter have been able to successfully spin it off multiple times in the late 2010s. “They were always talking about [a spin-off],” Marino told Under the Radar Mag, “was it a movie, was it a prequel, was it a show? Was it flashing forward ten years into the future, like the one part in the movie? … I don’t think it ever really became fully realized until this wave of Netflix and Yahoo! and these internet companies that are maybe a little more open to letting people’s creative ideas come to fruition as opposed to trying to rework it.”

The Other Two

Max

Ken Marino’s body of work contains a truly upsetting amount of TV shows that, in our view, just didn’t get their due time in the sun. Of all these funny and innovative projects, “The Other Two” was arguably the most baffling to see ignored by so many. The series was certainly successful in its own right, even getting to jump from Comedy Central to HBO Max, where it had a better chance to make waves as the high-concept streaming dramedy it always was. But for a series that so perfectly captured social media culture and what being famous means in the 2020s, it can’t help but feel as though it deserved at least a few more followers.

Created by former Saturday Night Live writers Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider, “The Other Two” tells the story of how two adult siblings (Heléne Yorke and Drew Tarver) react when their waning dreams of stardom are suddenly disrupted by the overnight social media success of their kid brother (Case Walker). His opportunistic new manager Streeter Peter Peters is played by Marino, in a performance that may or may not be unconsciously channeling the energy of infamous music industry executive Scooter Braun. Though his character is squarely focused on the success of his new teenage client ChaseDreams, Marino felt the show had a lot to say about how a family might be affected by this new world.
“To me, I never saw [“The Other Two”] as being about [Chase],” he told LA Mag in 2023. “It was always about the effect his trajectory had on the family.” The series ended that same year, amid some controversy, but it went out with a decisive finish that needs to be witnessed in full.

Burning Love

E!

“Burning Love” might be one of the most bizarre love stories ever put on TV. It also might be one of the best.
Directed by Ken Marino and written and created by his wife Erica Oyama, this passion project is basically a high-fidelity spoof of dating shows like “The Bachelor.” In the first season, Marino stars as Mark Orlando, a sexy and superficial firefighter hoping to fall in love (or at the very least hook up) with one or more of the 16 contestants vying for his affections.

“I have to admit that [Oyama and I] watch a lot of reality TV,” he told Collider in 2012. “My wife was pregnant with our first child… She would watch marathons of ‘The Bachelor’ and ‘The Bachelorette,’ and then she just got this idea. She wrote this fake teaser of a show like that, that she said she thought would be funny to do for the web.” Several of their funny friends (including Adam Scott and Jonathan Stern) read the script and were immediately sold. They then helped put together a sizzle reel that sold Yahoo! on the concept as well.
Like most projects Marino is involved in, “Burning Love” is on fire with comedic talent seemingly due to the fact that folks just like working with him. In addition to Scott (who plays Mark’s psych doctor), the series features the likes of Jennifer Aniston, Kristen Bell, Michael Ian Black, Michael Cera, Ken Jeong, Nick Kroll, Natasha Leggero, Kumail Nanjiani, Paul Rudd, Paul Scheer, and Seth Rogen. Ben Stiller, who also produces, appears in several episodes as the series’ first eligible bachelor. The show as a whole captures the essence of who Marino is as an artist — irreverent, suitably goofy, wonderfully collaborative, and quietly genius.

The 15 Most Anticipated Movies Of 2025, Ranked

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By SlashFilm StaffDec. 18, 2024 8:46 am EST

Despite some excellent movies hitting theaters, 2024 was, to use a sports phrase, a rebuilding year. The 2023 Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA strikes ground Hollywood to a halt before the studios ultimately agreed to some much-needed concessions for the folks who physically make the films and TV shows we all love, and the downstream effects of that unnecessarily drawn-out labor stoppage spilled into 2024. Movies and shows that were supposed to come out needed time to restart production, studios delayed some releases into 2025, and the industry as a whole experienced a contraction. The first half of this year was rough at the box office, but thanks to several major wins near the end of the year, theatrical exhibition managed to stay alive and make up a ton of ground.

While we’ll likely be seeing the effects of the strikes and the subsequent contraction for a while, the floodgates are preparing to open for 2025, and moviegoers will be pummeled with an onslaught of high-profile releases. The industry might never return to the astronomical heights of where it was in 2019 before the pandemic changed everything, but 2025 will arguably be the first year Hollywood will truly be back at full strength, with a new roster of films to show off and plenty of familiar IP to lure stragglers back to theaters. 
Bring it on.
Here are 15 of our most anticipated movies of 2025, including some major sequels, remakes, reimaginings, and — gasp! — original ideas from big time directors.

15. The Bride!

Warner Bros.

Release Date: October 2
James Whale’s “Bride of Frankenstein” is not just the best Universal Monster movie ever made, but it spawned the iconic look of the titular Bride — the only female character in the Universal Monster canon to continually be featured on merchandise, thereby keeping her alive and relevant to new generations. But she’s about to be resurrected in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Bride,” featuring Christian Bale as Frankenstein’s Monster and Jessie Buckley as the eponymous bride. This is yet another collaboration between Gyllenhaal and Buckley, the latter of whom was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards for her performance in Gyllenhaal’s feature directorial debut, “The Lost Daughter.”

Joining the cast is an all-star lineup including Penélope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard, and Annette Bening, with “Joker” cinematographer Lawrence Sher behind the camera. “The Bride” is set in 1930s Chicago and centers on a murder victim who is brought back from the dead and uses her new lease on life to pursue lust and romance, igniting a radical social movement in the process. Oh, did I mention it’s also a punk-rock musical? After the success of “Poor Things,” the world could use more movies about undead women bucking social norms and going after what they want. In the wake of this year’s “Nosferatu” and with Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” also due out in 2025, we’re potentially entering a new era of cinematic gothic greatness. Lucky us. (BJ Colangelo)

14. The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie

Ketchup Entertainment

Release Date: February 28
The Looney Tunes are some of the most iconic animated characters of all time, which makes it crazy that they’ve never really starred in a full feature-length movie that’s completely animated — let alone one that is actually good. Luckily, their time has finally come with the release of “The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie” (full disclosure: I saw an early screening of the film at the 2024 Annecy Animation Film Festival). “Clarence” and “Uncle Grandpa” creator Peter Browngardt, who also made the recent “Looney Tunes Cartoons” on HBO Max spearheads this new film that focuses on Porky and Daffy — reimagined as being raised as siblings — as they desperately try to get a job so they can save their family home while also fending off against an alien invasion.

This is a movie for both longtime fans who know their “Duck Amuck” from their “Porky Pig’s Feat” and also for those who barely know the characters outside of “Space Jam.” Browngardt and his team of storyboard artists and writers update the sense of humor of the characters while still keeping the chaotic randomness of the early cartoons. Plus, the movie gives the spotlight to one of the best Looney Tunes pairings in Daffy and Porky, and gives them proper character arcs and depth to sustain a feature-length story. (Rafael Motamayor)

13. Wildwood

LAIKA

Release Date: 2025
Stop-motion is having a moment, between Guillermo del Toro winning an Oscar for “Pinocchio,” “Memoir of a Snail” making a big splash this year, and Aardman bringing back Wallace and Gromit for a new movie. In 2025, another big stop-motion player is making their return, with Laika releasing their first movie since 2019’s “Missing Link.” Their latest project, “Wildwood,” promises to be an exciting departure for the studio. Adapted from the book of the same name by Colin Meloy and illustrated by Carson Ellis, “Wildwood” is a dark fantasy inspired by classic fantasy novels and folk tale, about two kids adventuring through a dark, magical forest while trying to rescue a baby from crows and getting caught up in a fight for the very freedom of the wilderness.

Laika is known for their beautifully animated movies with magical realism, movies for all ages that are unafraid to get dark and use disturbing imagery to terrify kids and amaze older audiences. “Wildwood” is also going for a bigger-scale dark fantasy tale, one that director Travis Knight teases is the studio’s most ambitious film due to including epic battles and aerial sequences. This is looking up to be one of the biggest animated films of 2025, with a star-studded cast that includes Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett, and Richard E. Grant. (Rafael Motamayor)

12. Avatar: Fire and Ash

20th Century Studios

Release Date: December 19
Never bet against James Cameron. Despite what internet discourse would have you believe, it’s already been proven twice that one of the few things that truly unites the entire planet is our collective love of Jake Sully, the moon of Pandora, and the Na’vi. After the first two “Avatar” movies made a collective bajillion bucks at the box office, expectations are high for the third chapter in the saga, titled “Fire and Ash.”

James Cameron promises to continue expanding the world of Pandora by introducing new biomes, new creatures, and new tribes. “Fire and Ash” has a lot to live up to after the previous movie already gave us the gift of its star, the icon Payakan the space whale, but if there’s one thing this franchise does well it’s transport audiences to exciting new worlds populated by fantastical creatures. Arguably the most exciting promise of the new film is the introduction of a new Na’vi tribe, one set to be more aggressive and violent than the ones we’ve met before, building up to a different conflict than our usual war between underdeveloped tribes and the technologically-advanced humans with machine guns. This is the last movie before the “Avatar” franchise introduces a time jump, so we can expect James Cameron to go out on a high note. (Rafael Motamayor)

11. The Naked Gun

Universal Pictures

Release Date: August 1, 2025
The trio of Jim Abrahams and brothers David & Jerry Zucker, known colloquially as Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker (or ZAZ) delivered some of the finest spoofs in cinema history, including “Airplane!” and “The Naked Gun” franchise. Helping them was the unmatched deadpan skills of Leslie Nielsen. In 2025, we’re extremely excited and curious to see how new life will be breathed into “The Naked Gun” with a big screen revival. 

Directing is Akiva Schaffer, who cut his teeth at “Saturday Night Live” as one-third of another successful comedy trio: The Lonely Island. Along with “SNL” cast member Andy Samberg and writer Jorma Taccone, they defined an entire era of the late night sketch comedy series with SNL Digital Shorts. While their cinematic offerings, such as “Hot Rod” and “Popstar,” not to mention “MacGruber,” have all been box office bombs, many would consider them some of the best comedies of the 21st century. Shaffer also tackled the “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” successor “Chip ‘N’ Dale: Rescue Rangers” with plenty of high praise.
Then there’s the casting of Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr., son of Leslie Nielsen’s original character. He might not be known for comedy, but the brilliance of Neeson’s casting lies in his ability to deliver funny lines while being incredibly serious. Just look at his brief cameo in “Ted 2” (pictured above). 

“The Naked Gun” also stars Paul Walter Hauser, Pamela Anderson, Kevin Durand, and Danny Huston, and we can’t wait to see it. (Ethan Anderton)

10. The Battle of Baktan Cross

Netflix

Release Date: August 8
Any time Paul Thomas Anderson comes out with a new movie, it’s a big deal. Whether your favorite is “Boogie Night,” “There Will be Blood,” “Licorice Pizza,” or one of his other critically acclaimed hits, it’s hard to argue with the director’s track record. It’s even more noteworthy when a director of such high reputation puts out their 10th film, which is exactly what PTA is doing in August 2025 with “The Battle of Baktan Cross.”

Described as a crime thriller, the upcoming movie will be Anderson’s biggest budget ever at a reported $115 million, $20 million of which is going to lead star Leonardo DiCaprio. The rest of the cast includes a ton of big names like Regina Hall, Benicio Del Toro, Teyana Taylor, and Sean Penn. Some rumors say that the film will be a somewhat loose adaptation of the 1990 Thomas Pynchon novel “Vineland.” Anderson previously adapted the postmodernist author’s “Inherent Vice” in 2014 and took inspiration from his novel “V.” when directing “The Master.”
While story details are scarce, there’s already a ton of excitement building around the project. Directors like Anderson are very selective in their work, and he always brings something bold and unique to the table. Add to that a truly star-studded cast, a healthy dose of mystery, and the director’s most expensive script ever, and you’ve got a movie overflowing with intrigue. (Rick Stevenson)

9. The Running Man

Netflix

Release Date: November 21
It’s been a while since we’ve had a solid remake of an ’80s action “classic,” but 2025 could deliver a great one in the form of Edgar Wright’s “The Running Man.” While the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film is fun but a very, very loose adaptation of the Stephen King novel that inspired it, and Wright’s involvement makes the upcoming remake particularly interesting. The director has gained significant acclaim across his career as an incredibly consistent and visually stylish filmmaker, with movies like “Baby Driver,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” and of course, his Cornetto trilogy collaborations with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

2025’s “The Running Man” already has a major box office draw in the form of Glen Powell, who’s emerged over the last couple of years as a sort of ruggedly handsome everyman moviestar with undeniable appeal among moviegoers. Arguably even more compelling is the inclusion of “Love Lies Bleeding” star Katy O’Brian, who’s quickly emerging as a major talent in Hollywood. Josh Brolin, Daniel Ezra, and Lee Pace are also among the cast.
Any Stephen King Adaptation is going to get buzz, and doubly so when it’s being helmed by a director known for so much aesthetic flair. Frequent Star Wars and X-Men writer/producer Simon Kinberg is also heavily involved in the project, which details a violent game show where contestants must survive pursuit by deadly hunters. It should be exciting to see how Wright’s creative eye brings the King novel to the big screen. (Rick Stevenson)

8. 28 Years Later

Sony Pictures Releasing

Release date: June 20
In 2002, Cillian Murphy’s iconic hospital wake-up and walk through an empty London before he meets his first Rage Virus maniacs established Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later” as a genre game-changer. Its running zombies, air of desperation, and strange authenticity still make for an experience that grabs you by the lapels and insists that its events are happening out there right now, that you’re not watching a slick horror movie. In 2007, “28 Weeks Later” introduced a new cast led by Robert Carlyle, and offered a glimpse of a potential better future before crushing all hope under its heel. 

In 2025, Boyle will return to the infected well with “28 Years Later.” What’s more, he’s armed with a script by “28 Days Later” scribe Alex Garland, who’s spent the intervening decades by becoming one of the world’s most interesting filmmakers.
The creepy “28 Years Later” trailer lets you know what you’re in for. Set against Taylor Holmes’ eerie 1915 reading of the poem “Boots” — known for its role in training Navy SEALs to withstand torture — it teases a delightfully crushing fever dream of a movie, with hints of old-school Boyle and Garland in full “Annihilation” gear. Of course, “28 Years Later” also continues the series’ trend of amazing casting, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes, and others thrown into the post-apocalyptic fray. Even Murphy’s character Jim will be back, though not as that skinny zombie you’ve read about. (Pauli Poisuo)

7. Superman

Release Date: July 11
In 2014 Marvel Studios gambled on some misfit heroes composed of a smart-mouthed raccoon and a talking tree. To most they were completely unknown, but now the Guardians of the Galaxy are some of the most beloved characters in the MCU; characters that viewers adore and cried over, repeatedly. Now imagine giving the director responsible for that, James Gunn, the most well-known superhero in history and using him as an entry point into an all-new DC Universe.

That really should be all you need to be sold on “Superman” being one of the hits of 2025, which will see David Corenswet step into the red and blue threads to face Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) and win the heart of Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan). Currently, major plot details are being kept behind lead plates but what we do know is that this new take will skim over Clark Kent’s well-tread origin story and get him and his dog Krypto while going up, up and away into a world where superheroes already are a way of life.
But what will put this Superman apart from other heroes in this universe or anywhere else? Well, according to Gunn (via Variety), Clark will possess “a kindness in a world that thinks of kindness as old fashioned” which might be just what we need. Laser vision and super strength aside, it’s that superpower from the most iconic hero that could really save the day and turn Superman into the hero of 2025. (Nick Staniforth)

6. Predator: Badlands

20th Century Studios

Release date: November 7
“Predator: Badlands” is automatically one of the most anticipated sci-fi films of 2025 thanks to the “Predator” goodwill Dan Trachtenberg earned with the excellent “Prey” (2022). Like its Western predecessor, “Badlands” takes the franchise in a new direction – this time, by making the Predator the movie’s star. Trachtenberg directs and co-wrote the script with fellow “Prey” writer Patrick Aison, and Elle Fanning plays several roles. Oh, and the movie also takes place in a future setting. In other words, whatever “Badlands” intends to slap fans with, it’ll be like no other “Predator” project they’ve seen. 

If that sounds risky, remember that “Prey’s” premise of “Predator meets a 18th century Comanche tribe” was a pretty drastic departure from the norm, too. Yet, hunter aspirant Naru’s (Amber Midthunder) battle with a particularly visceral Yautja (Dane DiLiegro) who wears a bone mask and bench-presses grizzly bears turned out to be a franchise crown jewel, thanks to its original setting and expertly-curated blend of tension and action. The idea of Trachtenberg bringing his unique “Predator” sensibilities to a movie with an even more ambitious premise should get the seal of approval from even the most jaded sci-fi enthusiasts. We’ll know more about “Predator: Badlands” as the year progresses, but right now, it seems like the franchise’s best bet for getting two great consecutive movies since … well, ever. (Pauli Poisuo) 

5. Wake Up Dead Man

Netflix

Release Date: 2025
If you watched Rian Johnson’s masterful whodunit “Knives Out” in 2019 and, like me, thought that Johnson and star Daniel Craig should stick with this impossibly fun formula until they are legally asked to stop, you’re in luck. “Knives Out” is now a bonafide film franchise, which sounds like bad news when you consider how often Hollywood squeezes sequels out of incredible standalone projects with terrible results. Thankfully, that didn’t happen with Johnson’s first sequel, “Glass Onion,” which hit Netflix in late 2022, brought Craig back as the Southern-fried detective Benoit Blanc and stacked the cast with a whole new group of all stars including Kathryn Hahn, Kate Hudson, Janelle Monáe, Edward Norton, and Dave Bautista. At this point, there’s every reason to believe that “Wake Up Dead Man,” the third “Knives Out” film (and third named for a song, with this one by U2), will be just as good as the first two, particularly with Johnson and Craig at the helm.

Not much is known about “Wake Up Dead Man” — which was the case with “Glass Onion” before it — but we do know that Johnson has brought on yet another murderer’s row of great actors to appear alongside Craig. Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, and Thomas Haden Church are all involved in “Wake Up Dead Man,” and with this cast working with Craig and Johnson, nothing could possibly go wrong (I hope). (Nina Starner)

4. Frankenstein

Dark Horse

Release date: 2025.
A new Guillermo del Toro movie will always catch my attention — I’m a sucker for his pulp-Gothic aesthetic dripped over his romantic heart. Next year, del Toro is releasing the movie he was born to make: “Frankenstein.” He’s assembled quite the cast for his dream movie, including Oscar Isaac as the Doctor, Jacob Elordi as the Creature, and supporting players Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, Charles Dance, Ralph Ineson and more. 

We’ve seen little of the film’s visuals (beyond leaked set photos) and one production still from Vanity Fair, but despite the lack of marketing so far, del Toro has been teasing the film’s Scotland shoot on social media. (The best was when he tweeted about his experience of staying in a haunted hotel over there):

Whilst in Aberdeen, I am staying in an old 1800’s hotel. i am in the Most Haunted room of it- which was vacated this morning by one of our producers. Odd electrical and physical occurences scared her into leaving asap. Stay tuned- if anything happens I will report.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) August 20, 2024

It seems that del Toro is going for some variation on the outline of Mary Shelley’s original “Modern Prometheus” novel, the one retold by everyone from James Whale to Terence Fisher to Junji Ito, where Victor Frankenstein creates life and pays the cost. All of del Toro’s films have some “Frankenstein” in their DNA; the bloody Gothic of “Crimson Peak,” the outcast monsters of “Shape of Water” and “Hellboy,” the tumultuous father-and-son relationships of “Nightmare Alley” and “Pinocchio,” etc. Yet, he risks making something familiar by making “Frankenstein” itself — I hope del Toro diving into the comfort of his childhood dreams will spark him to innovate instead. If nothing else, I’m sure he’ll make me cry for the Monster. (Devin Meenan)

3. Mickey 17

Warner Bros.

Release Date: April 18
If you’re not excited for a new Bong Joon-ho movie starring Robert Pattinson, I’m not sure what to tell you. “Mickey 17,” which is slated to hit theaters in the spring of 2025, stars Pattinson — one of Hollywood’s most exciting and audacious actors who also loves doing weird voices and accents — as Mickey Barnes, a guy who has just had enough of living on earth. (I get it, man.) That’s precisely why he volunteers to be part of a project where he serves as an “expendable,” meaning that, out there in space, he lets his employers creatively kill him over and over again, at which point he wakes up in a new (and identical) body with most of his memories intact. So what’s that title about? Well, the 17th version of Mickey survives when he definitely shouldn’t, at which point everything seems like it goes haywire very quickly (based on the delightfully manic trailer, at least).

After Bong’s award-winning 2019 film “Parasite,” which went on to sweep the 2020 Academy Awards — and featured only South Korean actors in the lead roles — the venerated writer-director has assembled an international cast this time; Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo star alongside Pattinson. Ultimately, it’s best to go into a Bong Joon-ho movie completely blind, so go see “Mickey 17” knowing as little as possible … because based on his body of work, you’ll want to experience its surprises for yourself. (Nina Starner)

2. Sinners

Warner Bros. Pictures

Release Date: March 7
As you might’ve heard, vampire flicks are in, with entries like “Abigail” and “Nosferatu” representing the highs of the fanged sub-genre this year. Turns out, Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” will be continuing this trend in 2025 by delivering a moody, intense supernatural horror set in the 1930s. Coogler has once again teamed up with Michael B. Jordan (their joint efforts include “Fruitvale Station,” “Creed,” and the “Black Panther” films), who plays the role of twin brothers doomed to experience an unsettling homecoming. Hailee Steinfeld, Delroy Lindo, Jack O’Connell, Jayme Lawson, Wunmi Mosaku, Omar Benson Miller, and Li Jun Li are also a part of the film’s stacked cast. 

The Coogler-Jordan combo is a good reason in itself to look forward to this horror drama, but one look at the film’s trailer will make it clear that “Sinners” is not your run-of-the-mill vampire extravaganza. The word “vampire” is not even mentioned in the trailer, and there are no allusions to bloodsucking beasts or garlic-averse creatures of the night. Instead, we are teased with the advent of a great evil that leaves the townsfolk teetering at the edge of sanity, pointing to the existence of an otherworldly force. Moreover, cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) gorgeous handling of the dread-inducing night-time shots looks super-promising, and I really, really want to see Michael B. Jordan squaring off against a vampire in a dual role. (Debopriyaa Dutta)

1. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

Paramount Pictures

Release Date: May 23, 2025
If you’re reading this article, then the words “new installment of ‘Mission: Impossible'” should get your movie junkie engine running. If for some reason that’s not enough, well, let me help you: “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” stars THEE Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, and as the film’s gobsmacking first trailer reveals, he’ll be running faster, jumping harder, and flying further than he ever has before. The man has proven numerous times over that he’s dedicated to cinematic excellence to a dangerous extent, and his risk is our continued reward.

Oh, that’s still not enough for you to get hyped? Well, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to remember that “The Final Reckoning” is the second part of 2023’s “Dead Reckoning — Part One,” meaning that we’re going to get some much-needed resolution as to what’s going to happen to Ethan, his IMF team, the evil Entity (and its familiar, Gabriel), the fate of the free world, and whether or not Ilsa Faust actually met her demise (please, please let her be alive). The cast is absolutely stacked with not only returning favorites like Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, and Hayley Atwell, but some great newcomers like Nick Offerman and Katy O’Brian. Plus, this may or may not be the final Hunt adventure, meaning Cruise and co-writer/director Christopher McQuarrie will be leaving everything they have on the table. Excited now? Good, but don’t self-destruct yet, because this movie looks to be the cinematic E-ticket of 2025. (Bill Bria)

The 15 Most Anticipated Movies Of 2025, Ranked

Static Media

By SlashFilm StaffDec. 18, 2024 8:46 am EST

Despite some excellent movies hitting theaters, 2024 was, to use a sports phrase, a rebuilding year. The 2023 Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA strikes ground Hollywood to a halt before the studios ultimately agreed to some much-needed concessions for the folks who physically make the films and TV shows we all love, and the downstream effects of that unnecessarily drawn-out labor stoppage spilled into 2024. Movies and shows that were supposed to come out needed time to restart production, studios delayed some releases into 2025, and the industry as a whole experienced a contraction. The first half of this year was rough at the box office, but thanks to several major wins near the end of the year, theatrical exhibition managed to stay alive and make up a ton of ground.

While we’ll likely be seeing the effects of the strikes and the subsequent contraction for a while, the floodgates are preparing to open for 2025, and moviegoers will be pummeled with an onslaught of high-profile releases. The industry might never return to the astronomical heights of where it was in 2019 before the pandemic changed everything, but 2025 will arguably be the first year Hollywood will truly be back at full strength, with a new roster of films to show off and plenty of familiar IP to lure stragglers back to theaters. 
Bring it on.
Here are 15 of our most anticipated movies of 2025, including some major sequels, remakes, reimaginings, and — gasp! — original ideas from big time directors.

15. The Bride!

Warner Bros.

Release Date: October 2
James Whale’s “Bride of Frankenstein” is not just the best Universal Monster movie ever made, but it spawned the iconic look of the titular Bride — the only female character in the Universal Monster canon to continually be featured on merchandise, thereby keeping her alive and relevant to new generations. But she’s about to be resurrected in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Bride,” featuring Christian Bale as Frankenstein’s Monster and Jessie Buckley as the eponymous bride. This is yet another collaboration between Gyllenhaal and Buckley, the latter of whom was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards for her performance in Gyllenhaal’s feature directorial debut, “The Lost Daughter.”

Joining the cast is an all-star lineup including Penélope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard, and Annette Bening, with “Joker” cinematographer Lawrence Sher behind the camera. “The Bride” is set in 1930s Chicago and centers on a murder victim who is brought back from the dead and uses her new lease on life to pursue lust and romance, igniting a radical social movement in the process. Oh, did I mention it’s also a punk-rock musical? After the success of “Poor Things,” the world could use more movies about undead women bucking social norms and going after what they want. In the wake of this year’s “Nosferatu” and with Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” also due out in 2025, we’re potentially entering a new era of cinematic gothic greatness. Lucky us. (BJ Colangelo)

14. The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie

Ketchup Entertainment

Release Date: February 28
The Looney Tunes are some of the most iconic animated characters of all time, which makes it crazy that they’ve never really starred in a full feature-length movie that’s completely animated — let alone one that is actually good. Luckily, their time has finally come with the release of “The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie” (full disclosure: I saw an early screening of the film at the 2024 Annecy Animation Film Festival). “Clarence” and “Uncle Grandpa” creator Peter Browngardt, who also made the recent “Looney Tunes Cartoons” on HBO Max spearheads this new film that focuses on Porky and Daffy — reimagined as being raised as siblings — as they desperately try to get a job so they can save their family home while also fending off against an alien invasion.

This is a movie for both longtime fans who know their “Duck Amuck” from their “Porky Pig’s Feat” and also for those who barely know the characters outside of “Space Jam.” Browngardt and his team of storyboard artists and writers update the sense of humor of the characters while still keeping the chaotic randomness of the early cartoons. Plus, the movie gives the spotlight to one of the best Looney Tunes pairings in Daffy and Porky, and gives them proper character arcs and depth to sustain a feature-length story. (Rafael Motamayor)

13. Wildwood

LAIKA

Release Date: 2025
Stop-motion is having a moment, between Guillermo del Toro winning an Oscar for “Pinocchio,” “Memoir of a Snail” making a big splash this year, and Aardman bringing back Wallace and Gromit for a new movie. In 2025, another big stop-motion player is making their return, with Laika releasing their first movie since 2019’s “Missing Link.” Their latest project, “Wildwood,” promises to be an exciting departure for the studio. Adapted from the book of the same name by Colin Meloy and illustrated by Carson Ellis, “Wildwood” is a dark fantasy inspired by classic fantasy novels and folk tale, about two kids adventuring through a dark, magical forest while trying to rescue a baby from crows and getting caught up in a fight for the very freedom of the wilderness.

Laika is known for their beautifully animated movies with magical realism, movies for all ages that are unafraid to get dark and use disturbing imagery to terrify kids and amaze older audiences. “Wildwood” is also going for a bigger-scale dark fantasy tale, one that director Travis Knight teases is the studio’s most ambitious film due to including epic battles and aerial sequences. This is looking up to be one of the biggest animated films of 2025, with a star-studded cast that includes Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett, and Richard E. Grant. (Rafael Motamayor)

12. Avatar: Fire and Ash

20th Century Studios

Release Date: December 19
Never bet against James Cameron. Despite what internet discourse would have you believe, it’s already been proven twice that one of the few things that truly unites the entire planet is our collective love of Jake Sully, the moon of Pandora, and the Na’vi. After the first two “Avatar” movies made a collective bajillion bucks at the box office, expectations are high for the third chapter in the saga, titled “Fire and Ash.”

James Cameron promises to continue expanding the world of Pandora by introducing new biomes, new creatures, and new tribes. “Fire and Ash” has a lot to live up to after the previous movie already gave us the gift of its star, the icon Payakan the space whale, but if there’s one thing this franchise does well it’s transport audiences to exciting new worlds populated by fantastical creatures. Arguably the most exciting promise of the new film is the introduction of a new Na’vi tribe, one set to be more aggressive and violent than the ones we’ve met before, building up to a different conflict than our usual war between underdeveloped tribes and the technologically-advanced humans with machine guns. This is the last movie before the “Avatar” franchise introduces a time jump, so we can expect James Cameron to go out on a high note. (Rafael Motamayor)

11. The Naked Gun

Universal Pictures

Release Date: August 1, 2025
The trio of Jim Abrahams and brothers David & Jerry Zucker, known colloquially as Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker (or ZAZ) delivered some of the finest spoofs in cinema history, including “Airplane!” and “The Naked Gun” franchise. Helping them was the unmatched deadpan skills of Leslie Nielsen. In 2025, we’re extremely excited and curious to see how new life will be breathed into “The Naked Gun” with a big screen revival. 

Directing is Akiva Schaffer, who cut his teeth at “Saturday Night Live” as one-third of another successful comedy trio: The Lonely Island. Along with “SNL” cast member Andy Samberg and writer Jorma Taccone, they defined an entire era of the late night sketch comedy series with SNL Digital Shorts. While their cinematic offerings, such as “Hot Rod” and “Popstar,” not to mention “MacGruber,” have all been box office bombs, many would consider them some of the best comedies of the 21st century. Shaffer also tackled the “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” successor “Chip ‘N’ Dale: Rescue Rangers” with plenty of high praise.
Then there’s the casting of Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr., son of Leslie Nielsen’s original character. He might not be known for comedy, but the brilliance of Neeson’s casting lies in his ability to deliver funny lines while being incredibly serious. Just look at his brief cameo in “Ted 2” (pictured above). 

“The Naked Gun” also stars Paul Walter Hauser, Pamela Anderson, Kevin Durand, and Danny Huston, and we can’t wait to see it. (Ethan Anderton)

10. The Battle of Baktan Cross

Netflix

Release Date: August 8
Any time Paul Thomas Anderson comes out with a new movie, it’s a big deal. Whether your favorite is “Boogie Night,” “There Will be Blood,” “Licorice Pizza,” or one of his other critically acclaimed hits, it’s hard to argue with the director’s track record. It’s even more noteworthy when a director of such high reputation puts out their 10th film, which is exactly what PTA is doing in August 2025 with “The Battle of Baktan Cross.”

Described as a crime thriller, the upcoming movie will be Anderson’s biggest budget ever at a reported $115 million, $20 million of which is going to lead star Leonardo DiCaprio. The rest of the cast includes a ton of big names like Regina Hall, Benicio Del Toro, Teyana Taylor, and Sean Penn. Some rumors say that the film will be a somewhat loose adaptation of the 1990 Thomas Pynchon novel “Vineland.” Anderson previously adapted the postmodernist author’s “Inherent Vice” in 2014 and took inspiration from his novel “V.” when directing “The Master.”
While story details are scarce, there’s already a ton of excitement building around the project. Directors like Anderson are very selective in their work, and he always brings something bold and unique to the table. Add to that a truly star-studded cast, a healthy dose of mystery, and the director’s most expensive script ever, and you’ve got a movie overflowing with intrigue. (Rick Stevenson)

9. The Running Man

Netflix

Release Date: November 21
It’s been a while since we’ve had a solid remake of an ’80s action “classic,” but 2025 could deliver a great one in the form of Edgar Wright’s “The Running Man.” While the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film is fun but a very, very loose adaptation of the Stephen King novel that inspired it, and Wright’s involvement makes the upcoming remake particularly interesting. The director has gained significant acclaim across his career as an incredibly consistent and visually stylish filmmaker, with movies like “Baby Driver,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” and of course, his Cornetto trilogy collaborations with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

2025’s “The Running Man” already has a major box office draw in the form of Glen Powell, who’s emerged over the last couple of years as a sort of ruggedly handsome everyman moviestar with undeniable appeal among moviegoers. Arguably even more compelling is the inclusion of “Love Lies Bleeding” star Katy O’Brian, who’s quickly emerging as a major talent in Hollywood. Josh Brolin, Daniel Ezra, and Lee Pace are also among the cast.
Any Stephen King Adaptation is going to get buzz, and doubly so when it’s being helmed by a director known for so much aesthetic flair. Frequent Star Wars and X-Men writer/producer Simon Kinberg is also heavily involved in the project, which details a violent game show where contestants must survive pursuit by deadly hunters. It should be exciting to see how Wright’s creative eye brings the King novel to the big screen. (Rick Stevenson)

8. 28 Years Later

Sony Pictures Releasing

Release date: June 20
In 2002, Cillian Murphy’s iconic hospital wake-up and walk through an empty London before he meets his first Rage Virus maniacs established Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later” as a genre game-changer. Its running zombies, air of desperation, and strange authenticity still make for an experience that grabs you by the lapels and insists that its events are happening out there right now, that you’re not watching a slick horror movie. In 2007, “28 Weeks Later” introduced a new cast led by Robert Carlyle, and offered a glimpse of a potential better future before crushing all hope under its heel. 

In 2025, Boyle will return to the infected well with “28 Years Later.” What’s more, he’s armed with a script by “28 Days Later” scribe Alex Garland, who’s spent the intervening decades by becoming one of the world’s most interesting filmmakers.
The creepy “28 Years Later” trailer lets you know what you’re in for. Set against Taylor Holmes’ eerie 1915 reading of the poem “Boots” — known for its role in training Navy SEALs to withstand torture — it teases a delightfully crushing fever dream of a movie, with hints of old-school Boyle and Garland in full “Annihilation” gear. Of course, “28 Years Later” also continues the series’ trend of amazing casting, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes, and others thrown into the post-apocalyptic fray. Even Murphy’s character Jim will be back, though not as that skinny zombie you’ve read about. (Pauli Poisuo)

7. Superman

Release Date: July 11
In 2014 Marvel Studios gambled on some misfit heroes composed of a smart-mouthed raccoon and a talking tree. To most they were completely unknown, but now the Guardians of the Galaxy are some of the most beloved characters in the MCU; characters that viewers adore and cried over, repeatedly. Now imagine giving the director responsible for that, James Gunn, the most well-known superhero in history and using him as an entry point into an all-new DC Universe.

That really should be all you need to be sold on “Superman” being one of the hits of 2025, which will see David Corenswet step into the red and blue threads to face Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) and win the heart of Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan). Currently, major plot details are being kept behind lead plates but what we do know is that this new take will skim over Clark Kent’s well-tread origin story and get him and his dog Krypto while going up, up and away into a world where superheroes already are a way of life.
But what will put this Superman apart from other heroes in this universe or anywhere else? Well, according to Gunn (via Variety), Clark will possess “a kindness in a world that thinks of kindness as old fashioned” which might be just what we need. Laser vision and super strength aside, it’s that superpower from the most iconic hero that could really save the day and turn Superman into the hero of 2025. (Nick Staniforth)

6. Predator: Badlands

20th Century Studios

Release date: November 7
“Predator: Badlands” is automatically one of the most anticipated sci-fi films of 2025 thanks to the “Predator” goodwill Dan Trachtenberg earned with the excellent “Prey” (2022). Like its Western predecessor, “Badlands” takes the franchise in a new direction – this time, by making the Predator the movie’s star. Trachtenberg directs and co-wrote the script with fellow “Prey” writer Patrick Aison, and Elle Fanning plays several roles. Oh, and the movie also takes place in a future setting. In other words, whatever “Badlands” intends to slap fans with, it’ll be like no other “Predator” project they’ve seen. 

If that sounds risky, remember that “Prey’s” premise of “Predator meets a 18th century Comanche tribe” was a pretty drastic departure from the norm, too. Yet, hunter aspirant Naru’s (Amber Midthunder) battle with a particularly visceral Yautja (Dane DiLiegro) who wears a bone mask and bench-presses grizzly bears turned out to be a franchise crown jewel, thanks to its original setting and expertly-curated blend of tension and action. The idea of Trachtenberg bringing his unique “Predator” sensibilities to a movie with an even more ambitious premise should get the seal of approval from even the most jaded sci-fi enthusiasts. We’ll know more about “Predator: Badlands” as the year progresses, but right now, it seems like the franchise’s best bet for getting two great consecutive movies since … well, ever. (Pauli Poisuo) 

5. Wake Up Dead Man

Netflix

Release Date: 2025
If you watched Rian Johnson’s masterful whodunit “Knives Out” in 2019 and, like me, thought that Johnson and star Daniel Craig should stick with this impossibly fun formula until they are legally asked to stop, you’re in luck. “Knives Out” is now a bonafide film franchise, which sounds like bad news when you consider how often Hollywood squeezes sequels out of incredible standalone projects with terrible results. Thankfully, that didn’t happen with Johnson’s first sequel, “Glass Onion,” which hit Netflix in late 2022, brought Craig back as the Southern-fried detective Benoit Blanc and stacked the cast with a whole new group of all stars including Kathryn Hahn, Kate Hudson, Janelle Monáe, Edward Norton, and Dave Bautista. At this point, there’s every reason to believe that “Wake Up Dead Man,” the third “Knives Out” film (and third named for a song, with this one by U2), will be just as good as the first two, particularly with Johnson and Craig at the helm.

Not much is known about “Wake Up Dead Man” — which was the case with “Glass Onion” before it — but we do know that Johnson has brought on yet another murderer’s row of great actors to appear alongside Craig. Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, and Thomas Haden Church are all involved in “Wake Up Dead Man,” and with this cast working with Craig and Johnson, nothing could possibly go wrong (I hope). (Nina Starner)

4. Frankenstein

Dark Horse

Release date: 2025.
A new Guillermo del Toro movie will always catch my attention — I’m a sucker for his pulp-Gothic aesthetic dripped over his romantic heart. Next year, del Toro is releasing the movie he was born to make: “Frankenstein.” He’s assembled quite the cast for his dream movie, including Oscar Isaac as the Doctor, Jacob Elordi as the Creature, and supporting players Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, Charles Dance, Ralph Ineson and more. 

We’ve seen little of the film’s visuals (beyond leaked set photos) and one production still from Vanity Fair, but despite the lack of marketing so far, del Toro has been teasing the film’s Scotland shoot on social media. (The best was when he tweeted about his experience of staying in a haunted hotel over there):

Whilst in Aberdeen, I am staying in an old 1800’s hotel. i am in the Most Haunted room of it- which was vacated this morning by one of our producers. Odd electrical and physical occurences scared her into leaving asap. Stay tuned- if anything happens I will report.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) August 20, 2024

It seems that del Toro is going for some variation on the outline of Mary Shelley’s original “Modern Prometheus” novel, the one retold by everyone from James Whale to Terence Fisher to Junji Ito, where Victor Frankenstein creates life and pays the cost. All of del Toro’s films have some “Frankenstein” in their DNA; the bloody Gothic of “Crimson Peak,” the outcast monsters of “Shape of Water” and “Hellboy,” the tumultuous father-and-son relationships of “Nightmare Alley” and “Pinocchio,” etc. Yet, he risks making something familiar by making “Frankenstein” itself — I hope del Toro diving into the comfort of his childhood dreams will spark him to innovate instead. If nothing else, I’m sure he’ll make me cry for the Monster. (Devin Meenan)

3. Mickey 17

Warner Bros.

Release Date: April 18
If you’re not excited for a new Bong Joon-ho movie starring Robert Pattinson, I’m not sure what to tell you. “Mickey 17,” which is slated to hit theaters in the spring of 2025, stars Pattinson — one of Hollywood’s most exciting and audacious actors who also loves doing weird voices and accents — as Mickey Barnes, a guy who has just had enough of living on earth. (I get it, man.) That’s precisely why he volunteers to be part of a project where he serves as an “expendable,” meaning that, out there in space, he lets his employers creatively kill him over and over again, at which point he wakes up in a new (and identical) body with most of his memories intact. So what’s that title about? Well, the 17th version of Mickey survives when he definitely shouldn’t, at which point everything seems like it goes haywire very quickly (based on the delightfully manic trailer, at least).

After Bong’s award-winning 2019 film “Parasite,” which went on to sweep the 2020 Academy Awards — and featured only South Korean actors in the lead roles — the venerated writer-director has assembled an international cast this time; Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo star alongside Pattinson. Ultimately, it’s best to go into a Bong Joon-ho movie completely blind, so go see “Mickey 17” knowing as little as possible … because based on his body of work, you’ll want to experience its surprises for yourself. (Nina Starner)

2. Sinners

Warner Bros. Pictures

Release Date: March 7
As you might’ve heard, vampire flicks are in, with entries like “Abigail” and “Nosferatu” representing the highs of the fanged sub-genre this year. Turns out, Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” will be continuing this trend in 2025 by delivering a moody, intense supernatural horror set in the 1930s. Coogler has once again teamed up with Michael B. Jordan (their joint efforts include “Fruitvale Station,” “Creed,” and the “Black Panther” films), who plays the role of twin brothers doomed to experience an unsettling homecoming. Hailee Steinfeld, Delroy Lindo, Jack O’Connell, Jayme Lawson, Wunmi Mosaku, Omar Benson Miller, and Li Jun Li are also a part of the film’s stacked cast. 

The Coogler-Jordan combo is a good reason in itself to look forward to this horror drama, but one look at the film’s trailer will make it clear that “Sinners” is not your run-of-the-mill vampire extravaganza. The word “vampire” is not even mentioned in the trailer, and there are no allusions to bloodsucking beasts or garlic-averse creatures of the night. Instead, we are teased with the advent of a great evil that leaves the townsfolk teetering at the edge of sanity, pointing to the existence of an otherworldly force. Moreover, cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) gorgeous handling of the dread-inducing night-time shots looks super-promising, and I really, really want to see Michael B. Jordan squaring off against a vampire in a dual role. (Debopriyaa Dutta)

1. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

Paramount Pictures

Release Date: May 23, 2025
If you’re reading this article, then the words “new installment of ‘Mission: Impossible'” should get your movie junkie engine running. If for some reason that’s not enough, well, let me help you: “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” stars THEE Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, and as the film’s gobsmacking first trailer reveals, he’ll be running faster, jumping harder, and flying further than he ever has before. The man has proven numerous times over that he’s dedicated to cinematic excellence to a dangerous extent, and his risk is our continued reward.

Oh, that’s still not enough for you to get hyped? Well, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to remember that “The Final Reckoning” is the second part of 2023’s “Dead Reckoning — Part One,” meaning that we’re going to get some much-needed resolution as to what’s going to happen to Ethan, his IMF team, the evil Entity (and its familiar, Gabriel), the fate of the free world, and whether or not Ilsa Faust actually met her demise (please, please let her be alive). The cast is absolutely stacked with not only returning favorites like Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, and Hayley Atwell, but some great newcomers like Nick Offerman and Katy O’Brian. Plus, this may or may not be the final Hunt adventure, meaning Cruise and co-writer/director Christopher McQuarrie will be leaving everything they have on the table. Excited now? Good, but don’t self-destruct yet, because this movie looks to be the cinematic E-ticket of 2025. (Bill Bria)

The 15 Most Anticipated Movies Of 2025, Ranked

Static Media

By SlashFilm StaffDec. 18, 2024 8:46 am EST

Despite some excellent movies hitting theaters, 2024 was, to use a sports phrase, a rebuilding year. The 2023 Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA strikes ground Hollywood to a halt before the studios ultimately agreed to some much-needed concessions for the folks who physically make the films and TV shows we all love, and the downstream effects of that unnecessarily drawn-out labor stoppage spilled into 2024. Movies and shows that were supposed to come out needed time to restart production, studios delayed some releases into 2025, and the industry as a whole experienced a contraction. The first half of this year was rough at the box office, but thanks to several major wins near the end of the year, theatrical exhibition managed to stay alive and make up a ton of ground.

While we’ll likely be seeing the effects of the strikes and the subsequent contraction for a while, the floodgates are preparing to open for 2025, and moviegoers will be pummeled with an onslaught of high-profile releases. The industry might never return to the astronomical heights of where it was in 2019 before the pandemic changed everything, but 2025 will arguably be the first year Hollywood will truly be back at full strength, with a new roster of films to show off and plenty of familiar IP to lure stragglers back to theaters. 
Bring it on.
Here are 15 of our most anticipated movies of 2025, including some major sequels, remakes, reimaginings, and — gasp! — original ideas from big time directors.

15. The Bride!

Warner Bros.

Release Date: October 2
James Whale’s “Bride of Frankenstein” is not just the best Universal Monster movie ever made, but it spawned the iconic look of the titular Bride — the only female character in the Universal Monster canon to continually be featured on merchandise, thereby keeping her alive and relevant to new generations. But she’s about to be resurrected in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Bride,” featuring Christian Bale as Frankenstein’s Monster and Jessie Buckley as the eponymous bride. This is yet another collaboration between Gyllenhaal and Buckley, the latter of whom was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards for her performance in Gyllenhaal’s feature directorial debut, “The Lost Daughter.”

Joining the cast is an all-star lineup including Penélope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard, and Annette Bening, with “Joker” cinematographer Lawrence Sher behind the camera. “The Bride” is set in 1930s Chicago and centers on a murder victim who is brought back from the dead and uses her new lease on life to pursue lust and romance, igniting a radical social movement in the process. Oh, did I mention it’s also a punk-rock musical? After the success of “Poor Things,” the world could use more movies about undead women bucking social norms and going after what they want. In the wake of this year’s “Nosferatu” and with Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” also due out in 2025, we’re potentially entering a new era of cinematic gothic greatness. Lucky us. (BJ Colangelo)

14. The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie

Ketchup Entertainment

Release Date: February 28
The Looney Tunes are some of the most iconic animated characters of all time, which makes it crazy that they’ve never really starred in a full feature-length movie that’s completely animated — let alone one that is actually good. Luckily, their time has finally come with the release of “The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie” (full disclosure: I saw an early screening of the film at the 2024 Annecy Animation Film Festival). “Clarence” and “Uncle Grandpa” creator Peter Browngardt, who also made the recent “Looney Tunes Cartoons” on HBO Max spearheads this new film that focuses on Porky and Daffy — reimagined as being raised as siblings — as they desperately try to get a job so they can save their family home while also fending off against an alien invasion.

This is a movie for both longtime fans who know their “Duck Amuck” from their “Porky Pig’s Feat” and also for those who barely know the characters outside of “Space Jam.” Browngardt and his team of storyboard artists and writers update the sense of humor of the characters while still keeping the chaotic randomness of the early cartoons. Plus, the movie gives the spotlight to one of the best Looney Tunes pairings in Daffy and Porky, and gives them proper character arcs and depth to sustain a feature-length story. (Rafael Motamayor)

13. Wildwood

LAIKA

Release Date: 2025
Stop-motion is having a moment, between Guillermo del Toro winning an Oscar for “Pinocchio,” “Memoir of a Snail” making a big splash this year, and Aardman bringing back Wallace and Gromit for a new movie. In 2025, another big stop-motion player is making their return, with Laika releasing their first movie since 2019’s “Missing Link.” Their latest project, “Wildwood,” promises to be an exciting departure for the studio. Adapted from the book of the same name by Colin Meloy and illustrated by Carson Ellis, “Wildwood” is a dark fantasy inspired by classic fantasy novels and folk tale, about two kids adventuring through a dark, magical forest while trying to rescue a baby from crows and getting caught up in a fight for the very freedom of the wilderness.

Laika is known for their beautifully animated movies with magical realism, movies for all ages that are unafraid to get dark and use disturbing imagery to terrify kids and amaze older audiences. “Wildwood” is also going for a bigger-scale dark fantasy tale, one that director Travis Knight teases is the studio’s most ambitious film due to including epic battles and aerial sequences. This is looking up to be one of the biggest animated films of 2025, with a star-studded cast that includes Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett, and Richard E. Grant. (Rafael Motamayor)

12. Avatar: Fire and Ash

20th Century Studios

Release Date: December 19
Never bet against James Cameron. Despite what internet discourse would have you believe, it’s already been proven twice that one of the few things that truly unites the entire planet is our collective love of Jake Sully, the moon of Pandora, and the Na’vi. After the first two “Avatar” movies made a collective bajillion bucks at the box office, expectations are high for the third chapter in the saga, titled “Fire and Ash.”

James Cameron promises to continue expanding the world of Pandora by introducing new biomes, new creatures, and new tribes. “Fire and Ash” has a lot to live up to after the previous movie already gave us the gift of its star, the icon Payakan the space whale, but if there’s one thing this franchise does well it’s transport audiences to exciting new worlds populated by fantastical creatures. Arguably the most exciting promise of the new film is the introduction of a new Na’vi tribe, one set to be more aggressive and violent than the ones we’ve met before, building up to a different conflict than our usual war between underdeveloped tribes and the technologically-advanced humans with machine guns. This is the last movie before the “Avatar” franchise introduces a time jump, so we can expect James Cameron to go out on a high note. (Rafael Motamayor)

11. The Naked Gun

Universal Pictures

Release Date: August 1, 2025
The trio of Jim Abrahams and brothers David & Jerry Zucker, known colloquially as Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker (or ZAZ) delivered some of the finest spoofs in cinema history, including “Airplane!” and “The Naked Gun” franchise. Helping them was the unmatched deadpan skills of Leslie Nielsen. In 2025, we’re extremely excited and curious to see how new life will be breathed into “The Naked Gun” with a big screen revival. 

Directing is Akiva Schaffer, who cut his teeth at “Saturday Night Live” as one-third of another successful comedy trio: The Lonely Island. Along with “SNL” cast member Andy Samberg and writer Jorma Taccone, they defined an entire era of the late night sketch comedy series with SNL Digital Shorts. While their cinematic offerings, such as “Hot Rod” and “Popstar,” not to mention “MacGruber,” have all been box office bombs, many would consider them some of the best comedies of the 21st century. Shaffer also tackled the “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” successor “Chip ‘N’ Dale: Rescue Rangers” with plenty of high praise.
Then there’s the casting of Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr., son of Leslie Nielsen’s original character. He might not be known for comedy, but the brilliance of Neeson’s casting lies in his ability to deliver funny lines while being incredibly serious. Just look at his brief cameo in “Ted 2” (pictured above). 

“The Naked Gun” also stars Paul Walter Hauser, Pamela Anderson, Kevin Durand, and Danny Huston, and we can’t wait to see it. (Ethan Anderton)

10. The Battle of Baktan Cross

Netflix

Release Date: August 8
Any time Paul Thomas Anderson comes out with a new movie, it’s a big deal. Whether your favorite is “Boogie Night,” “There Will be Blood,” “Licorice Pizza,” or one of his other critically acclaimed hits, it’s hard to argue with the director’s track record. It’s even more noteworthy when a director of such high reputation puts out their 10th film, which is exactly what PTA is doing in August 2025 with “The Battle of Baktan Cross.”

Described as a crime thriller, the upcoming movie will be Anderson’s biggest budget ever at a reported $115 million, $20 million of which is going to lead star Leonardo DiCaprio. The rest of the cast includes a ton of big names like Regina Hall, Benicio Del Toro, Teyana Taylor, and Sean Penn. Some rumors say that the film will be a somewhat loose adaptation of the 1990 Thomas Pynchon novel “Vineland.” Anderson previously adapted the postmodernist author’s “Inherent Vice” in 2014 and took inspiration from his novel “V.” when directing “The Master.”
While story details are scarce, there’s already a ton of excitement building around the project. Directors like Anderson are very selective in their work, and he always brings something bold and unique to the table. Add to that a truly star-studded cast, a healthy dose of mystery, and the director’s most expensive script ever, and you’ve got a movie overflowing with intrigue. (Rick Stevenson)

9. The Running Man

Netflix

Release Date: November 21
It’s been a while since we’ve had a solid remake of an ’80s action “classic,” but 2025 could deliver a great one in the form of Edgar Wright’s “The Running Man.” While the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film is fun but a very, very loose adaptation of the Stephen King novel that inspired it, and Wright’s involvement makes the upcoming remake particularly interesting. The director has gained significant acclaim across his career as an incredibly consistent and visually stylish filmmaker, with movies like “Baby Driver,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” and of course, his Cornetto trilogy collaborations with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

2025’s “The Running Man” already has a major box office draw in the form of Glen Powell, who’s emerged over the last couple of years as a sort of ruggedly handsome everyman moviestar with undeniable appeal among moviegoers. Arguably even more compelling is the inclusion of “Love Lies Bleeding” star Katy O’Brian, who’s quickly emerging as a major talent in Hollywood. Josh Brolin, Daniel Ezra, and Lee Pace are also among the cast.
Any Stephen King Adaptation is going to get buzz, and doubly so when it’s being helmed by a director known for so much aesthetic flair. Frequent Star Wars and X-Men writer/producer Simon Kinberg is also heavily involved in the project, which details a violent game show where contestants must survive pursuit by deadly hunters. It should be exciting to see how Wright’s creative eye brings the King novel to the big screen. (Rick Stevenson)

8. 28 Years Later

Sony Pictures Releasing

Release date: June 20
In 2002, Cillian Murphy’s iconic hospital wake-up and walk through an empty London before he meets his first Rage Virus maniacs established Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later” as a genre game-changer. Its running zombies, air of desperation, and strange authenticity still make for an experience that grabs you by the lapels and insists that its events are happening out there right now, that you’re not watching a slick horror movie. In 2007, “28 Weeks Later” introduced a new cast led by Robert Carlyle, and offered a glimpse of a potential better future before crushing all hope under its heel. 

In 2025, Boyle will return to the infected well with “28 Years Later.” What’s more, he’s armed with a script by “28 Days Later” scribe Alex Garland, who’s spent the intervening decades by becoming one of the world’s most interesting filmmakers.
The creepy “28 Years Later” trailer lets you know what you’re in for. Set against Taylor Holmes’ eerie 1915 reading of the poem “Boots” — known for its role in training Navy SEALs to withstand torture — it teases a delightfully crushing fever dream of a movie, with hints of old-school Boyle and Garland in full “Annihilation” gear. Of course, “28 Years Later” also continues the series’ trend of amazing casting, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes, and others thrown into the post-apocalyptic fray. Even Murphy’s character Jim will be back, though not as that skinny zombie you’ve read about. (Pauli Poisuo)

7. Superman

Release Date: July 11
In 2014 Marvel Studios gambled on some misfit heroes composed of a smart-mouthed raccoon and a talking tree. To most they were completely unknown, but now the Guardians of the Galaxy are some of the most beloved characters in the MCU; characters that viewers adore and cried over, repeatedly. Now imagine giving the director responsible for that, James Gunn, the most well-known superhero in history and using him as an entry point into an all-new DC Universe.

That really should be all you need to be sold on “Superman” being one of the hits of 2025, which will see David Corenswet step into the red and blue threads to face Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) and win the heart of Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan). Currently, major plot details are being kept behind lead plates but what we do know is that this new take will skim over Clark Kent’s well-tread origin story and get him and his dog Krypto while going up, up and away into a world where superheroes already are a way of life.
But what will put this Superman apart from other heroes in this universe or anywhere else? Well, according to Gunn (via Variety), Clark will possess “a kindness in a world that thinks of kindness as old fashioned” which might be just what we need. Laser vision and super strength aside, it’s that superpower from the most iconic hero that could really save the day and turn Superman into the hero of 2025. (Nick Staniforth)

6. Predator: Badlands

20th Century Studios

Release date: November 7
“Predator: Badlands” is automatically one of the most anticipated sci-fi films of 2025 thanks to the “Predator” goodwill Dan Trachtenberg earned with the excellent “Prey” (2022). Like its Western predecessor, “Badlands” takes the franchise in a new direction – this time, by making the Predator the movie’s star. Trachtenberg directs and co-wrote the script with fellow “Prey” writer Patrick Aison, and Elle Fanning plays several roles. Oh, and the movie also takes place in a future setting. In other words, whatever “Badlands” intends to slap fans with, it’ll be like no other “Predator” project they’ve seen. 

If that sounds risky, remember that “Prey’s” premise of “Predator meets a 18th century Comanche tribe” was a pretty drastic departure from the norm, too. Yet, hunter aspirant Naru’s (Amber Midthunder) battle with a particularly visceral Yautja (Dane DiLiegro) who wears a bone mask and bench-presses grizzly bears turned out to be a franchise crown jewel, thanks to its original setting and expertly-curated blend of tension and action. The idea of Trachtenberg bringing his unique “Predator” sensibilities to a movie with an even more ambitious premise should get the seal of approval from even the most jaded sci-fi enthusiasts. We’ll know more about “Predator: Badlands” as the year progresses, but right now, it seems like the franchise’s best bet for getting two great consecutive movies since … well, ever. (Pauli Poisuo) 

5. Wake Up Dead Man

Netflix

Release Date: 2025
If you watched Rian Johnson’s masterful whodunit “Knives Out” in 2019 and, like me, thought that Johnson and star Daniel Craig should stick with this impossibly fun formula until they are legally asked to stop, you’re in luck. “Knives Out” is now a bonafide film franchise, which sounds like bad news when you consider how often Hollywood squeezes sequels out of incredible standalone projects with terrible results. Thankfully, that didn’t happen with Johnson’s first sequel, “Glass Onion,” which hit Netflix in late 2022, brought Craig back as the Southern-fried detective Benoit Blanc and stacked the cast with a whole new group of all stars including Kathryn Hahn, Kate Hudson, Janelle Monáe, Edward Norton, and Dave Bautista. At this point, there’s every reason to believe that “Wake Up Dead Man,” the third “Knives Out” film (and third named for a song, with this one by U2), will be just as good as the first two, particularly with Johnson and Craig at the helm.

Not much is known about “Wake Up Dead Man” — which was the case with “Glass Onion” before it — but we do know that Johnson has brought on yet another murderer’s row of great actors to appear alongside Craig. Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, and Thomas Haden Church are all involved in “Wake Up Dead Man,” and with this cast working with Craig and Johnson, nothing could possibly go wrong (I hope). (Nina Starner)

4. Frankenstein

Dark Horse

Release date: 2025.
A new Guillermo del Toro movie will always catch my attention — I’m a sucker for his pulp-Gothic aesthetic dripped over his romantic heart. Next year, del Toro is releasing the movie he was born to make: “Frankenstein.” He’s assembled quite the cast for his dream movie, including Oscar Isaac as the Doctor, Jacob Elordi as the Creature, and supporting players Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, Charles Dance, Ralph Ineson and more. 

We’ve seen little of the film’s visuals (beyond leaked set photos) and one production still from Vanity Fair, but despite the lack of marketing so far, del Toro has been teasing the film’s Scotland shoot on social media. (The best was when he tweeted about his experience of staying in a haunted hotel over there):

Whilst in Aberdeen, I am staying in an old 1800’s hotel. i am in the Most Haunted room of it- which was vacated this morning by one of our producers. Odd electrical and physical occurences scared her into leaving asap. Stay tuned- if anything happens I will report.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) August 20, 2024

It seems that del Toro is going for some variation on the outline of Mary Shelley’s original “Modern Prometheus” novel, the one retold by everyone from James Whale to Terence Fisher to Junji Ito, where Victor Frankenstein creates life and pays the cost. All of del Toro’s films have some “Frankenstein” in their DNA; the bloody Gothic of “Crimson Peak,” the outcast monsters of “Shape of Water” and “Hellboy,” the tumultuous father-and-son relationships of “Nightmare Alley” and “Pinocchio,” etc. Yet, he risks making something familiar by making “Frankenstein” itself — I hope del Toro diving into the comfort of his childhood dreams will spark him to innovate instead. If nothing else, I’m sure he’ll make me cry for the Monster. (Devin Meenan)

3. Mickey 17

Warner Bros.

Release Date: April 18
If you’re not excited for a new Bong Joon-ho movie starring Robert Pattinson, I’m not sure what to tell you. “Mickey 17,” which is slated to hit theaters in the spring of 2025, stars Pattinson — one of Hollywood’s most exciting and audacious actors who also loves doing weird voices and accents — as Mickey Barnes, a guy who has just had enough of living on earth. (I get it, man.) That’s precisely why he volunteers to be part of a project where he serves as an “expendable,” meaning that, out there in space, he lets his employers creatively kill him over and over again, at which point he wakes up in a new (and identical) body with most of his memories intact. So what’s that title about? Well, the 17th version of Mickey survives when he definitely shouldn’t, at which point everything seems like it goes haywire very quickly (based on the delightfully manic trailer, at least).

After Bong’s award-winning 2019 film “Parasite,” which went on to sweep the 2020 Academy Awards — and featured only South Korean actors in the lead roles — the venerated writer-director has assembled an international cast this time; Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo star alongside Pattinson. Ultimately, it’s best to go into a Bong Joon-ho movie completely blind, so go see “Mickey 17” knowing as little as possible … because based on his body of work, you’ll want to experience its surprises for yourself. (Nina Starner)

2. Sinners

Warner Bros. Pictures

Release Date: March 7
As you might’ve heard, vampire flicks are in, with entries like “Abigail” and “Nosferatu” representing the highs of the fanged sub-genre this year. Turns out, Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” will be continuing this trend in 2025 by delivering a moody, intense supernatural horror set in the 1930s. Coogler has once again teamed up with Michael B. Jordan (their joint efforts include “Fruitvale Station,” “Creed,” and the “Black Panther” films), who plays the role of twin brothers doomed to experience an unsettling homecoming. Hailee Steinfeld, Delroy Lindo, Jack O’Connell, Jayme Lawson, Wunmi Mosaku, Omar Benson Miller, and Li Jun Li are also a part of the film’s stacked cast. 

The Coogler-Jordan combo is a good reason in itself to look forward to this horror drama, but one look at the film’s trailer will make it clear that “Sinners” is not your run-of-the-mill vampire extravaganza. The word “vampire” is not even mentioned in the trailer, and there are no allusions to bloodsucking beasts or garlic-averse creatures of the night. Instead, we are teased with the advent of a great evil that leaves the townsfolk teetering at the edge of sanity, pointing to the existence of an otherworldly force. Moreover, cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) gorgeous handling of the dread-inducing night-time shots looks super-promising, and I really, really want to see Michael B. Jordan squaring off against a vampire in a dual role. (Debopriyaa Dutta)

1. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

Paramount Pictures

Release Date: May 23, 2025
If you’re reading this article, then the words “new installment of ‘Mission: Impossible'” should get your movie junkie engine running. If for some reason that’s not enough, well, let me help you: “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” stars THEE Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, and as the film’s gobsmacking first trailer reveals, he’ll be running faster, jumping harder, and flying further than he ever has before. The man has proven numerous times over that he’s dedicated to cinematic excellence to a dangerous extent, and his risk is our continued reward.

Oh, that’s still not enough for you to get hyped? Well, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to remember that “The Final Reckoning” is the second part of 2023’s “Dead Reckoning — Part One,” meaning that we’re going to get some much-needed resolution as to what’s going to happen to Ethan, his IMF team, the evil Entity (and its familiar, Gabriel), the fate of the free world, and whether or not Ilsa Faust actually met her demise (please, please let her be alive). The cast is absolutely stacked with not only returning favorites like Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, and Hayley Atwell, but some great newcomers like Nick Offerman and Katy O’Brian. Plus, this may or may not be the final Hunt adventure, meaning Cruise and co-writer/director Christopher McQuarrie will be leaving everything they have on the table. Excited now? Good, but don’t self-destruct yet, because this movie looks to be the cinematic E-ticket of 2025. (Bill Bria)

The unknown facts about Home Alone that will blow your mind: The classic Christmas film is one for the ages – but here are the 10 gaffes and plot holes fans won’t know

Have YOU got a story? Email [email protected] By CHARLOTTE DEAN FOR MAILONLINE Published: 08:32 EST, 18 December 2024 | Updated: 09:04 EST, 18 December 2024

The unknown facts about Home Alone that will blow your mind: The classic Christmas film is one for the ages – but here are the 10 gaffes and plot holes fans won’t know

Have YOU got a story? Email [email protected] By CHARLOTTE DEAN FOR MAILONLINE Published: 08:32 EST, 18 December 2024 | Updated: 09:04 EST, 18 December 2024