Happy New Year! 2025 puts us two years away from the filmmakers and actors strikes of 2023 that really impacted the number of films we got all through 2024. With some distance from that, we have a huge number of films and shows to look forward to. As always, The Review will be here every single week, covering both expected favourites and unmitigated disasters with the same amount of enthusiasm and disgust (when needed!). Below is a smattering of the shows and films that look the most promising (to me!) in the coming year.

 

Films

 

Captain America: Brave New World – February 14

This new take on Marvel’s first superhero, directed by Julius Onah, marks the first Captain America film since Chris Evan’s departure. This is Sam Wilson’s (Anthony Mackie) turn to live up to the name as he finds himself in the midst of an international debacle, having to protect the president (Harrison Ford), who also happens to be the Red Hulk. Among the cast is Rosa Salazar as Diamondback and Liv Tyler (returning after 20 years) as Betty Ross.

 

Mickey 17 – March 7

Robert Pattinson stars as space traveller Mickey 17 in Bong Joon-ho’s sci-fi thriller. Mickey, a “disposable” employee, is sent on a deadly mission to colonize the ice world Niflheim. When one employee dies, he’s cloned with the memories of the traveller who comes before him. Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette co-star.

 

Mission : Impossible – The Final Reckoning – May 23

It could be his last mission: Ethan Hunt and the IMF bring the current chapter of the Mission: Impossible franchise to a close with Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning. Shot at the same time as its predecessor, the film stars Tom Cruise as a renegade secret agent in a race against time to save the world from an evil Artificial Intelligence. Cruise leads an all-star cast of franchise returnees including Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell, and Vanessa Kirby, alongside newcomers Holt McCallany and Hannah Waddingham.

 

F1- June 27

Following a bidding war, a lengthy casting process, and principal photography that included filming during the 2023 British Grand Prix, Brad Pitt’s high-octane racing drama F1 is finally pulling into theaters. The film stars Pitt as Sonny Hayes, a Formula One driver called out of retirement to mentor a rookie prodigy (Damson Idris). In addition to Pitt and Idris, all 10 real-life Formula One teams and their drivers will appear in F1 as themselves.

 

Superman – July 11

Audiences can soon look to the sky as James Gunn is bringing Superman (David Corenswet) back to the big screen as part of Gunn and Peter Safran’s newly rebooted DC Universe. The plot follows Superman as he undergoes a journey to reconcile his heritage with how he was brought up in the human world. Rachel Brosnahan stars as Lois Lane, while Nicholas Hoult will take on the mantle of Lex Luthor.

Fantastic Four: First Steps

​​The Fantastic Four are being rebooted once again, this time assembled by Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch, Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/The Thing. The film will reportedly take place in 1960s New York City with Matt Shakman (WandaVision) directing.

 

TV Shows

 

Daredevil: Born Again (Disney+) – March 4

It’s been a long, long road to get us to Daredevil: Born Again’s release. The long-awaited solo return for Charlie Cox’s blind superhero outside of the short-lived Marvel-Netflix partnership was first announced in 2022, but by 2023 it was undertaking a massive creative overhaul with The Punisher’s Dario Scardapane brought in as showrunner. The show, which has been billed as a continuation of the character’s initial three-season Netflix run rather than a reboot, will bring back series originals Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio as villain Kingpin, and Deborah Ann Woll and Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson and Karen Page to the gritty streets of New York’s Hell’s Kitchen.

 

Yellowjackets Season 3 – March 20

Season 2 of Yellowjackets, the dual-timeline series about a group of teens who got stranded (and cannibalized each other!) in the wilderness, created even more tension and questions than its first outing. In Season 3, it looks like the team is getting hunted by someone who knows their secret—but everyone who knows the story is “us or dead.”

 

A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms (HBO/MAX)

The Game of Thrones universe continues to expand its reach. Along with House of the Dragon, 2025 will see another prequel come our way. The series is set 100 years before House of the Dragon’s Targaryen turf war and is based on the ​​Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas in George R. R. Martin’s original A Song of Ice and Fire series. It revolves around a naive knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his squire known as Egg. Martin will write the series and has said it will have a different tone to its successors, but it’s still Westeros, so “No one is truly safe.”

 

Severance Season 2

The wait between Seasons 1 and 2 of Ben Stiller’s high-concept workplace drama felt longer than that stretch between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. at the office on any given Wednesday, but finally, it’s upon us. Adam Scott is back as Mark, an employee of Lumon, where employees can separate their work memories from their real-life memories. Season 1 gave us plenty of mysteries about what Lumon is actually up to; let’s hope Season 2 gives us some answers before it clocks out for the end of its shift.

 

Boluwatife Adesina
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Boluwatife Adesina is a media writer and the helmer of the Downtown Review page. He’s probably in a cinema near you.