The best upcoming movies in 2025 | Stuff

Jurassic World Rebirth

An abandoned island facility that developed the original dinosaurs for the first Jurassic Park now holds the lizards considered too terrible to be in close proximity to the public. And, wouldn’t you know, it’s the one place where our rag-tag team, led by Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali, must travel to obtain some vital scientific research.

The trailer for this latest Jurassic Park franchise reboot makes Rebirth look like it has a healthy dose of Tomb Raider or Indiana Jones thrown in, perhaps in an effort to take the long-running series in a slightly new direction. Don’t worry, though: there will be plenty of hungry dinosaurs looking to make an easy meal out of our swashbuckling heroes.

Release date: 2 July 2025

Superman

Here’s yet another reboot of the classic American superhero story we all know and (some of us) love. But while it might be hard (and unwise) to get too excited about tripping down the familiar narrative pathway of small-town boy and erstwhile alien refugee Clark Kent finding his way in the big city while saving the world, we’re willing to give this one a chance. It is, after all, directed by James Gunn, who has given us some of the most enjoyable superhero movies of the past decade. Can Gunn restore Superman’s stock after several years of D.C.’s mishandling? We’ll find out in July.

Release date: 11 July 2025

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Set in a retro-futuristic version of New York clearly inspired by the comics’ 1960s origins, this new Fantastic Four reboot brings the team – an all-star cast of Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach – firmly into the Marvel Cinematic Universe fold while prepping the ground for them to reappear in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars films coming in 2026 and 2027.

The movie reportedly skips the Four’s well-trod origin story in favour of dropping them straight into a new adventure, where they must defend the world from the planet-eating cosmic being Galactus and his enigmatic herald, the Silver Surfer.

Release date: 25 July 2025

The Naked Gun

This really shouldn’t work at all. A re-imagining of the 80s slapstick cop classic, replacing the impeccable Leslie Nielsen with Liam Neeson. The world has moved on from the kind of visual gags that made the original Naked Gun so beloved, and Neeson just can’t do comedy like Nielsen…

But then we watched the teaser trailer, and it made us guffaw twice – once for a sight gag featuring Neeson and once for a brilliant and slightly risky self-referential gag concerning a disgraced former cast member. And then we saw it was directed by The Lonely Island’s Akiva Schaeffer and thought, yes, we’re completely won over. This is a film we want to watch now.

Release date: 1 August 2025

Nobody 2

2021’s Nobody – a brilliantly fun action-thriller in which a mild-mannered, middle-aged pencil pusher got shoved too far and violently brought down a criminal gang – was something of a sleepr hit, so this sequel’s arrival should surprise nobody.

We’re more than ready to see the return of Bob Odenkirk’s Hutch Mansell, former government trigger man turned family man. After all, who doesn’t love watching a comedian playing against type? And the fact that Odenkirk has co-written the screenplay this time around (alongside John Wick creator Derek Kolstad) suggests the original’s winning blend of bone-crunching fight sequences and laughs will remain very much in place.

Most of the original cast is back (including Michael Ironside, Christopher Lloyd and RZA), while the villains this time round will be played by Sharon Stone and Colin Hanks.

Release date: 15 August 2025

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere

Did you enjoy last year’s A Complete Unknown and its focus on Bob Dylan at a very specific point in his career? Then you’re probably going to love Deliver Me from Nowhere, which zeros in on the recording of Bruce Springsteen’s seminal 1982 album Nebraska. With ‘The Boss’ on the verge of superstardom, Nebraska’s stripped-back lo-fi sound, recorded on a simple 4-track tape machine in a bedroom, represented a major departure from his usual bombastic stadium-rock style – and was not the kind of record his label wanted at that time.

Fresh from The Bear’s brutal kitchen, Jeremy Allen White stars as Springsteen – and reportedly delivers vocals that even the real Bruce himself couldn’t discern from his originals. The supporting cast includes Jeremy Strong, Paul Walter Hauser, Stephen Graham and Gaby Hoffman, while director Scott Cooper has form in music-centric movies, having previously directed Crazy Heart.

Release date: 24 October 2025

Frankenstein

It’s alive, it’s alive! Guillermo del Toro had been dreaming of writing and directing his own adaptation of Mary Shelley’s iconic gothic novel for decades. He refused to do so until he felt he could do it justice. Netflix has given him the creative freedom – and budget – to make Frankenstein and, while we’re a little sad that this movie won’t be given the theatrical release it deserves, we’re very excited for what’s in store. Del Toro is arguably the greatest horror director of his generation; it’ll be interesting to see how he breathes new life into this well-worn tale.

Oscar Isaac leads the cast as mercurial scientist Victor Frankenstein, pushing technical innovation a little too far, alongside Mia Goth (who, as always, has the perfect name for a horror movie actress), Charles Dance, Christoph Waltz – and teen heartthrob Jacob Elordi as the monster.

Release date: November 2025