We may be in the thick of awards season, celebrating all of the great films that 2024 brought, but this year’s docket is already packed with new projects to get excited about. There’s horror maestro Ari Aster’s stab at the Western genre (Eddington) and Black Panther director Ryan Coogler’s take on horror (Sinners). There are two Frankenstein movies (from directors Maggie Gyllenhaal and Guillermo del Toro), and one is a musical (can you guess whose?). Bong Joon-Ho will debut his long-awaited Parasite follow-up, Mickey 17, starring Robert Pattinson in just one of the three major roles he has this year (the other two, Die My Love and The Drama, share billing with Jennifer Lawrence and Zendaya, respectively). Speaking of movie stars, Denzel Washington teamed up with Spike Lee for their fifth movie together, and in Margot Robbie’s first post-Barbie role, she shares the screen with recent Golden Globes-winner Colin Farrell. And with tons of rumored musical biopics in the works, Jeremy Allen White’s portrayal of Bruce Springsteen is already done filming—so prepare yourself for a potential revival of “The Boss.”
Read on for W’s most anticipated movies of 2025 (so far):
The Monkey
Directed by: Osgood Perkins
Starring: Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Elijah Wood
Premieres: February 21
Osgood Perkins terrified audiences last year with the Nicholas Cage-starring Longlegs, and now he’s back with his next horror film, Monkey, based on the 1980 Stephen King short story of the same name. White Lotus alum Theo James stars as a pair of twin brothers who have been cursed with seeing death all around them after a childhood encounter with a toy monkey. It’s classic King, with a Perkins twist.
Sinners
Directed by: Ryan Coogler
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku
Premieres: March 7
Ryan Coogler teamed up with Michael B. Jordan for the pair’s fifth project together—though this time, their upcoming film looks a little scarier than a Creed or Black Panther movie. Originally billed as a vampire story, Sinners is set in the 1930s Jim Crow South, where Jordan plays twin brothers—at least one of whom is haunted by the dark and terrible things he’s seen humans do, and now, possibly, something supernaturally evil, too.
Mickey 17
Directed by: Bong Joon-Ho
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo
Premieres: April 18
Director Bong Joon-Ho’s first film since making Oscars history with 2019’s Parasite is a sci-fi fantasy adventure with a heavy dose of comedy and satire. Robert Pattinson stars as the titular Mickey 17, a “disposable” human employee who signs up to help colonize another planet. Each time his human form dies, another one regenerates, resulting in all kinds of strange and screwball happenings.
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey
Directed by: Kogonada
Starring: Margot Robbie, Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Premieres: May 9
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey marks Margot Robbie’s first post-Barbie role, and with innovative Pachinko director Kogonada behind the lens (and Colin Farrell as her co-star), expectations are high. Seth Reiss, whose co-writer on The Menu appears later on this list, wrote the script for Beautiful Journey, which has been on Hollywood’s prestigious Black List for a few years. The plot of the finished film is being kept under wraps, but the original script was a fantasy romance in which two strangers let a magical GPS guide them on a spontaneous trip together.
The Battle of Baktan Cross
Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, and Sean Penn
Premieres: August 8
A Paul Thomas Anderson film is always an event, and his first since 2021’s Oscar-nominated Licorice Pizza is no exception. Leonardo DiCaprio leads the cast of the big-budget film, which in typical PTA form is shrouded in mystery: The Battle of Baktan Cross might not even be its name. There’s a rumor the film is loosely based on Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, but nothing is confirmed—and likely won’t be until much closer to release.
The Bride!
Directed by: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Starring: Christian Bale, Jessie Buckley, Penelope Cruz, and Annette Bening
Premieres: September 26
In 2024, we explored the world of Dracula with Nosferatu. In 2025, a different historical monster will be featured in not one but two films: Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein (more on that below) and The Bride!, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s take on the misunderstood creature’s love life. Christian Bale plays Frankenstein’s monster, while Jessie Buckley is his bride, in what’s reportedly a “punk” musical set in 1930s Chicago.
Bugonia
Directed by: Yorgos Lanthimos
Starring: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Alicia Silverstone
Premieres: November 7
Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos have been hard at work together, releasing a new movie per year since 2023’s Oscar-winning Poor Things (followed by the three-hourlong Kinds of Kindness). This year’s Bugonia recruits the creative duo’s frequent collaborator Jesse Plemons and Alicia Silverstone to remake the 2003 Korean sci-fi comedy Save the Green Planet. The Menu co-writer Will Tracy penned the script.
Wicked: For Good
Directed by: Jon M. Chu
Starring: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum
Premieres: November 21
One year after the smash success of Wicked: Part One, audiences will be transported back to the Emerald City to witness the second half of Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba and Ariana Grande’s Glinda the Good Witch’s epic story. We can only hope the press tour is as over-the-top this time around.
Marty Supreme
Directed by: Josh Safdie
Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tyler the Creator, Fran Drescher, Penn Jillette, Odessa A’zion
Premieres: December 25
Billed as a cross between Wolf of Wall Street and Catch Me If You Can, with loosely referenced source material about champion ping-pong player Marty Reisman, Marty Supreme stars Timothée Chalamet in the titular role. Chalamet is also a producer on the Josh Safdie-directed film, which was mostly filmed on location in Manhattan. With Fran Drescher in the star-studded cast, Marty Supreme is shaping up to be a classic New York City picture.
The Housemaid
Directed by: Paul Feig
Starring: Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried
Premieres: December 25
Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried star in this murder-mystery thriller from Paul Feig, based on an adaptation of Freida McFadden’s best-selling 2022 novel of the same name. Sweeney plays a young woman out of prison on parole, who takes up a job as a maid for the wealthy Winchester couple—half of which is played by Seyfried. As a logline reads, “Millie soon learns the family’s secrets are far more dangerous than her own.” If The Housemaid is anything like Feig’s twisty A Simple Favor, we’re all in.
The Drama
Directed by: Kristoffer Borgli
Starring: Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Alana Haim, Mamoudou Athie
Premieres: TBA
Any movie headlined by Zendaya and Robert Pattinson is box office gold. The Drama stars the pair as a couple facing a crisis in the days leading up to their wedding. Paparazzi pics from the film’s Boston set have already hit the Internet, naturally.
Materialists
Directed by: Celine Song
Starring: Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, Pedro Pascal
Premieres: TBA
Celine Song broke hearts—and made history—with her last film, Past Lives, becoming the first Asian woman to be nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars. Next up is Materialists, which, like Past Lives, features a love triangle, but unlike that devastating film, this one is billed as a rom-com.
Deliver Me From Nowhere
Directed by: Scott Cooper
Starring: Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Paul Walter Hauser
Premieres: TBA
In Deliver Me From Nowhere, Jeremy Allen White will do for Bruce Springsteen what Timothée Chalamet in A Complete Unknown did for Bob Dylan: introduce a whole new generation to the deep cuts of the Boomer-era superstar. Specifically, this film covers the making of Springsteen’s dark and understated 1982 Nebraska album, which came out as he was recording the much more famous Born in the USA. Springsteen has already praised White’s performance, calling it “an interpretation of me that I think the fans will deeply recognize.”
Mother Mary
Directed by: David Lowery
Starring: Anne Hathaway, Michaela Coel, Hunter Schafer, Kaia Gerber
Premieres: TBA
Jack Antonoff and Charli XCX are making original music for this “epic pop melodrama.” Not that it needed another draw; in Mother Mary, celebrated actresses Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel star as a fictional musician and fashion designer, respectively, with Hunter Schafer, Kaia Gerber, and FKA Twigs adding extra star power to the cast. We can safely assume the press tour will have the Internet referring to everyone involved as “mother.”
Stitches
Directed by: Alice Winocour
Starring: Angelina Jolie
Premieres: TBA
After transforming herself into opera legend Maria Callas for Pablo Larraín’s Maria, Angelina Jolie is returning to Paris for her next role in Stitches: a high-fashion drama set during Paris Fashion Week. That’s about all we know so far, except that Stitches is the first official English-language feature from director Winocour (like her previous film, Proxima, this one will be shot in English and French).
Die My Love
Directed by: Lynne Ramsay
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, Lakeith Stanfield
Premieres: TBA
It’s a big year for RPatz fans. In Die My Love, he stars as the husband of fellow movie star Jennifer Lawrence, who plays a mother struggling to maintain her sanity as she battles with psychosis in the remote countryside, according to a logline. The film from polarizing Scottish director Lynne Ramsay is based on an award-winning, stream-of-conscious style novel by Argentine author Ariana Harwicz that explores the shadow side of motherhood.
Highest 2 Lowest
Directed by: Spike Lee
Starring: Denzel Washington, A$AP Rocky, Ilfenesh Hadera, Jeffrey Wright, Ice Spice
Premieres: TBA
Spike Lee and Denzel Washington are teaming up for their fifth film together—though it’s their first in 18 years, since Inside Job. The film, Highest 2 Lowest, is inspired by 1963 crime thriller High and Low, by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, whom Lee cites as a lifelong influence. The 70-year-old Washington, who is fresh off being the best part of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II, has recently said he plans to retire after his next slew of projects, which includes the next Black Panther, so enjoy him while you can.
Caught Stealing
Directed by: Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Austin Butler, Zoë Kravitz, Regina King, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D’Onofrio, Griffin Dunne, Bad Bunny
Premieres: TBA
Known for dark, edgy films like Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, and Mother!, Darren Aronofsky’s next project takes on the seedy underbelly of 1990s New York City. Billed as a crime thriller, the film stars Butler as a former baseball player forced to navigate the criminal underworld, with Zoë Kravitz as his love interest. Set photos and footage that have hit the Internet are spicy, to say the least.
Eddington
Directed by: Ari Aster
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Austin Butler, Pedro Pascal
Premieres: TBA
Director Ari Aster has been hinting at making a Western film for a while now, and it’ll finally be out this year. Eddington is billed as a black comedy, moving away from the horror genre, for which Aster is known as a master. According to a logline, the film is about a couple that gets stranded during the pandemic in a small New Mexico town, and its ambitious sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix).
The History of Sound
Directed by: Oliver Hermanus
Starring: Josh O’Connor, Paul Mescal
Premieres: TBA
Queer romance The History of Sound has been in pre-production since the early days of the pandemic, when its director Oliver Hermanus (most recently, Mary & George) first landed the script. In the meantime, its leads Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor have become huge stars, leading to scheduling conflicts that prevented the film from moving forward. Now, it’s is on track for a 2025 release. Based on Ben Shattuck’s 2018 short story of the same name, The History of Sound centers the romantic relationship between two men (Mescal and O’Connor) in 1916 rural New England.
I Want Your Sex
Directed by: Gregg Araki
Starring: Olivia Wilde, Cooper Hoffman, Charli XCX, Chase Sui Wonders
Premieres: TBA
Gregg Araki co-wrote the script for I Want Your Sex with sex and relationships writer Karley Sciortino, which is fitting given the title, at least. Much about this buzzy film is strictly under wraps, but we do know that Licorice Pizza’s Cooper Hoffman plays the naive Elliot, who finds himself in over his head when he’s hired to be the erotic muse to a provocative artist (Olivia Wilde). Charli XCX, Johnny Knoxville, Margaret Cho, Daveed Diggs, and Chase Sui Wonders make for an intriguing cast.
Frankenstein
Directed by: Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz
Premieres: TBA
While Maggie Gyllenhaal tells a musical tale of Frankenstein’s bride, Academy Award winner Guillermo del Toro has been working on fulfilling his career dream of making his own adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Gothic 1818 novel. Jacob Elordi will play the monster, and Oscar Isaac, his creator, Dr. Victor Frankenstein. Scream queen Mia Goth plays the doctor’s wife, Elizabeth.
