The best upcoming movies of 2024 and 2025

Nightbitch

A stay-at-home mother (Amy Adams) begins to push back against domestic mundanity to the point where she may be transforming into a dog. If nothing else, this horror-comedy-drama looks set to be one of 2024’s weirdest big studio movies.

Rachel Yoder’s bestselling novel has been described as ‘unfilmable’ – so naturally Hollywood had to try and prove the critics wrong. The jury’s still out on whether director Marielle Heller has achieved that, mind you. In December, we’ll all get to have an opinion.

Release date: 6 December 2024

Kraven the Hunter

Sony’s Spider-Man expanded universe (which currently doesn’t feature the wall-crawler himself) has enjoyed something of a rocky ride of late, with Madame Web and Morbius being regarded as two of the biggest cinematic stinkers of recent years. Sony will be praying that this R-rated action movie, focussed on long-time Spidey antagonist Kraven (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson) manages to end this poor run of form.

Going by the trailer, it’s going to be far more explicitly violent than most superhero films, as Kraven takes on a ruthless villain (Alessandro Nivola’s Rhino) while dealing with some family issues courtesy of his creepy brother (Fred Hechinger) and ruthless father (Russell Crowe).

Release date: 13 December 2024

Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

Billed as a prequel to Peter Jackson’s beloved early noughties trilogy, this film is set almost 200 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings and focusses on a legendary king of Rohan (Brian Cox) and his war against an invading army of Dunlendings. Miranda Otto will return to play Éowyn – possibly as a narrator of sorts, given that she wouldn’t have been born when the events of this film take place.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about The War of the Rohirrim is that it’s an anime movie directed by the highly experienced Japanese filmmaker Kenji Kamiyama (who has worked on everything from Akira to Blade Runner: Black Lotus).

Release date: 13 December 2024

Mufasa: The Lion King

Acting as both a prequel and sequel to (both versions of) The Lion King, Disney’s big Christmas theatrical release tells the story of how Simba’s father, an orphaned young lion named Mufasa, came to become the king of the Pride Lands.

Directed by Oscar winner Barry Jenkins and animated in the same photorealistic CGI as the recent Lion King remake, Mufasa will explore the relationship between the titular character and his adoptive brother Taka – the lion who later becomes known as Scar.

The voice cast includes Aaron Pierre, Mads Mikkelsen, Thandiwe Newton, Lennie James and a host of returning actors such as Donald Glover, Beyoncé and Seth Rogen.

Release date: 20 December 2024

Sonic the Hedgehog 3

The first two Sonic films have proven an unlikely success and, strange as the casting seemed at the time, given Jim Carrey a chance to return to his physical comedy roots as villain Dr. Robotnik. This third entry to the burgeoning franchise sees Sonic, Tails and Knuckles face off against a new adversary: fan favourite Shadow the Hedgehog, voiced by none other than Keanu Reeves.

Ben Schwartz, James Marsden, Idris Elba all return to the cast, and Carrey actually plays two roles this time around. While we don’t think the Oscars will come calling for Sonic 3, we suspect that, like the first two movies, it’ll be an enjoyably brisk adventure that’ll delight both kids and aging gamers keen to revisit the 16-bit years.

Release date: 20 December 2024 (USA); 21 December 2024 (UK)

A Complete Unknown

We can’t think of a better director to take charge of this Bob Dylan biopic (based on the book Dylan Goes Electric!) than James Mangold, who did the same for Johnny Cash with 2005’s excellent Walk The Line. The film follows the young Dylan’s rise to prominence in early 1960s New York, and his controversial (at the time, at least) decision to switch from acoustic to electric instruments.

Mangold has cast sharp-chinned heartthrob Timothée Chalamet as Dylan, a choice that may have raised the hackles of some ageing musos. But given that Chalamet is singing and playing live for all the performance scenes (and judging by the trailer, doing a very serviceable imitation of Dylan’s distinctive voice), the jury remains out for now. Edward Norton and Elle Fanning also star.

Release date: 25 December 2024

Nosferatu

One of the iconic cinematic horror stories is coming back – and it’s quite the flex from writer/director Robert Eggers and studio Focus Features to choose to release it on Christmas Day!

Inspired by both Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula and the original 1922 Nosferatu film, Eggers’ reimaging stars Bill Skarsgard as the vampire Count Orlok and Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen Hutter, the young woman with whom he becomes obsessed. This infatuation spells horrific consequences for anyone that stands between the pair, and if Eggers’ previous movies (The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman) are any indicator, we’re in for an audio-visual treat as well as a scare or twenty.

Release date: 25 December 2024

Better Man

A big budget Robbie Williams biopic? Really? Has the ex-Take Thatter really lived an interesting enough life to warrant the Rocket Man treatment? No, he hasn’t – but what if we made Robbie into a CGI chimpanzee and got the director of The Greatest Showman behind the camera? Are you interested now?

Better Man is either going to be the musical movie of 2025 or an absolute disaster, but critics who have seen early screenings have generally been on the favourable side. In our opinion, it certainly can’t be less accurate or more boring than Bohemian Rhapsody, which won multiple Oscars, and we’re tentatively optimistic about this particular bit of cinematic monkey business.

Release date: 25 December 2024 (USA); 26 December 2024 (UK)

Babygirl

Could 2025 be the year when the ‘erotic thriller’ – a genre that seemingly died out at the end of the last century – returns to the fore? While we’re probably never going to have another Basic Instinct moment (things have moved on way too much in our culture for that), this A24 drama starring Nicole Kidman as a high-flying CEO who risks it all for an affair with a youthful intern (Harris Dickinson) seems like a modern take on the form, promising to balance its steaminess with an insightful treatise on power dynamics in both the workplace and relationships. Scorchio!

Release date: 25 December 2024 (USA); 10 January 2025 (UK)

A Real Pain

Jesse Eisenberg (who also wrote and directed the film) and Kieran Culkin play cousins in this road movie, a comedy drama following their exploits on a tour through Poland. Undertaken in honour of the pair’s late grandmother, the trip reopens old wounds in their relationship, even as they explore their shared family history.

With A Real Pain debuting at the Sundance Film Festival back in January, the critics have already had a chance to rate it – and the vast majority of them have declared it a roaring success, with Culkin’s performance coming in for particular praise. We expect a few Oscar nominations further down the line.

Release date: 10 January 2025 (UK)

Wolf Man

Leigh Whannell, who wrote and directed 2020’s superb modern interpretation of The Invisible Man, returns with another classic horror tale reworking. As the name suggests, Wolf Man is a werewolf tale starring Christopher Abbot as a husband and father who, after being attacked by a strange creature during a full moon, begins to change in ways that put his young family at risk.

Originally set to star Ryan Gosling as part of Universal’s abortive ‘Dark Universe’ franchise, the film has been down-budgeted – but looks all the more interesting (and frightening) for it.

Release date: 17 January 2025

Paddington in Peru

Incredibly, it’s been an entire decade since the first Paddington movie arrived in cinemas. Apt, then, that the duffel coat-wearing marmalade fiend is returning for a third film, this time swapping the genteel environs of London for the wilds of the Amazon rainforest. Yes, Paddington Bear is returning to darkest Peru, and he’s bringing his adopted family with him on a quest to track down his lost Aunt Lucy.

Most of the original two films’ casts are returning, along with new additions in the shape of Antonio Banderas and Olivia Colman.

Release date: 17 January 2025 (USA)

You’re Cordially Invited

We don’t see too many mid-budget star-led comedies these days, but this upcoming film from Forgetting Sarah Marshall director Nicholas Stoller looks set to scratch that itch. Skipping a theatrical release and coming straight to Prime Video, it stars Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon as two strangers who clash when they double book a luxury venue for family weddings.

Release date: 30 January 2025

Companion

We know very little about this psychological thriller other than what we can glean from its trailer – which seems to suggest that it’s a violent and disturbing exploration of love and obsession. We have to say that for once it’s nice to see a film teaser trailer that actually teases rather than reveals the entire premise and plot of the movie; it’s also interesting that the film has been described as a ‘sci-fi/horror’ when there don’t appear to be any obvious sci-fi elements in the trailer. Guess we’ll have to wait until the end of January to find out what the hell is going on…

Release date: 31 January 2025

Captain America: Brave New World

The fourth Captain America movie, and Anthony Mackie’s first in the role, Brave New World seems set to take the Marvel series in a slightly different direction – albeit one that still features huge CGI creature smashing things up.

Mackie’s Sam Wilson is just a regular guy, lacking the superpowers that made Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers a natural fit for Cap – and that’s something the film explores in detail, alongside a plot that features Harrison Ford’s newly elected President Ross turning into the Red Hulk and going buck wild on the White House lawn.

Release date: 14 February 2025

The Monkey

James Wan, Osgood Perkins and Stephen King is one heck of a horror triple threat, and The Monkey is the result. Based on a 1980 short story written by King, the film (written and directed by Longlegs’ Perkins, and produced by Wan) follows the lives of twin brothers who apparently unleash a deadly curse after discovering a clockwork toy in the attic. Years later, the now estranged brothers are forced to reconcile when the curse reappears.

Theo James, Elijah Wood and Tatiana Maslany star in a low(ish) budget horror that looks like a cross between Final Destination and It.

Release date: 21 February 2025

Sinners

Fruitvale Station, Black Panther and Creed director Ryan Coogler reunites once again with Michael B. Jordan for this period horror movie, the plot details of which are being kept tightly under wraps. The trailer suggests that Jordan plays twin brothers, at least one of whom teams up with a group of 1930s Deep South townsfolk to fight off some kind of supernatural threat. If we had to guess, we’d say it looks like vampires.

Filmed with IMAX cameras and boasting a strong cast including Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku and Delroy Lindo, Sinners is shaping up to be a bombastic horror – just the thing to liven up what is traditionally a quiet time of the year for movie releases.

Release date: 7 March 2025

The Electric State

Based on Simon Stålenhag’s graphic novel of the same name, this Netflix sci-fi is set in an alternate 1990s where the relationship between humans and robots has become… complicated. The movie seems to have deviated strongly from the source material’s vision, however, becoming a star-studded action-comedy with the sort of wisecracks and emotional beats you’d expect from Joe and Anthony Russo.

The brothers, who directed Avengers: Endgame and The Gray Man, don’t exactly do subtlety, and the casting of the likes of Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt seems to suggest they’re going big and brash rather than wistful and melancholic. Ah well, at least the effects look good…

Release date: 14 March 2025