After a boffo 2024 that saw Inside Out 2 (the highest grossing animated film ever), and Deadpool & Wolverine (a blockbuster farewell to the Fox/Marvel franchises, the Walt Disney studios have a lot of opportunities in 2025 to shine…and to flop. What are our expectations for the 2025 slate?
And yes, we're going international with this list—because you can never predict what will and won't end up on Disney+. GIVE US SCARECROW OF ROMNEY MARSH RIGHT NOW, DISNEY+!
MMA - Meu Melhor Amigo
Release Date: January 16, 2025
Director: José Alvarenga Jr.
Cast: Marcos Mion, Antonio Fagundes, Guilherme Tavares, Andréia Horta
A Brazilian film from Star Distribution, Disney's Latin American arm, Meu Melhor Amigo translates to "My Best Friend" but its initials spell "MMA," so… you see what they did there. Mixed martial artist Maxs (Marcos Mion) learns he has an 8-year-old son with autism while recovering from an injury. The film follows him as he builds a bridge to his child while also struggling to return to the octagon.
Should You Get Excited? Mion's a known quantity in Brazil already, with a lot of TV under his belt and several gigs hosting variety programs. This is a personal film for him, as the father of a son with autism in real life. I can't imagine he'd fumble such a meaningful project, so hopes are pretty high. Fingers crossed it comes to Disney+.
Mikaela
Release Date: January 31, 2025
Director: Daniel Calparsoro
Cast: Adriana Torrebejano, Cristina Kovani, Antonio Resines
Disney's Buena Vista Distribution is launching this crime thriller from filmmaker Daniel Calparsoro in Spain. Trapped in a traffic jam during a snowstorm, a near-the-end-of-his-rope policeman (Antonio Resines), must stop an armored car robbery with the help of an aspiring policewoman. The battle against the thieves is only made more dangerous by the whiteout conditions.
Should You Get Excited? Calparsoro and Resines's past films have middling reviews, and while Resines won a Goya Award in 1998, it's been 15 years since his last nomination. We're predicting a fast-paced action thriller, but nothing groundbreaking. Prove us wrong, Calparsoro!
Captain America: Brave New World
Release Date: February 14, 2025
Director: Julius Onah
Cast: Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny Ramirez, Tim Blake Nelson
Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson gets his spotlight Cap film as he takes over the franchise from Chris Evans. Tim Blake Nelson's character Samuel Sterns (a.k.a. The Leader) is coming back from 2008's Incredible Hulk, as is Liv Tyler's Betty Ross. Cap and friends deal with an international incident, members of the Serpent Society, and the appearance of Thunderbolt Ross (Harrison Ford stepping in for the late William Hurt) as the Red Hulk.
Should You Get Excited? It's not looking good. The production of this film has stumbled quite a bit, after controversies and boycotts around the Israeli character Sabra (Shira Haas) and the original title "New World Order," re-edited trailers to remove an assassination attempt after something similar happened to Trump, multiple reshoots, and pushed off release dates. Willing to be surprised, but not optimistic.
Snow White
Release Date: March 21, 2025
Director: Marc Webb
Cast: Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, Andrew Burnap, Ansu Kabia
The live-action magic wand has sprinkled its pixie dust over the Disney company's first full-length animated film, with a retelling by filmmaker Marc Webb and starring Rachel Zegler as the titular heroine, a diamond in the rough and the fairest in the land. Yes, I know I mashed several Disney films there. Like the other Disney live-action remakes, it will take the familiar story from 1937 and add new context, characters, and music, this time by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (The Greatest Showman, Aladdin)
Should You Get Excited? Get cautiously excited. Love them or hate them, Disney's live-action films have been huge hits almost across the board, and this feels like a different flavor of a winning formula. But like Captain America: Brave New World, Snow White has been plagued by delays and controversy, both legit (the portrayal of dwarves in the film as itinerant fantasy creatures) and stupid (Snow White is not played by a caucasian person).
The Amateur
Release Date: April 11, 2025
Director: James Hawes
Cast: Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, Laurence Fishburne
Academy Award winner Rami Malek teams with Emmy Award winner Rachel Brosnahan and BAFTA nominee director James Hawes for an espionage thriller involving a CIA cryptographer going after the terrorists who killed his wife. The conceit is that while Malek's Charles Heller character works for the CIA, he's better suited behind a desk breaking code than out in the field.
Should You Get Excited? The idea of a codebreaker blackmailing the CIA to train him to be a spy is intriguing. If you're into action thrillers where a clever man fights the bureaucracy, this seems to be a winner. Director Hawes is mostly known for TV, but he's worked on hits like Penny Dreadful and Black Mirror, so he knows what he's doing when it comes to dark, clever pictures.
Thunderbolts*
Release Date: May 2, 2025
Director: Jake Schreier
Cast: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Marvel's own Suicide Squad is unleashed in their own spotlight feature, including Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova, David Harbour's Red Guardian, Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes, Hannah John-Kamen's Ghost, Olga Kurylenko's Taskmaster, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus's Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine. It's safe to assume that they will fight something big and mostly CGI, while also fighting each other.
Should You Get Excited? A lot of paths led to this film, both from Disney+ streaming (characters from Falcon and the Winter Soldier appear) and Marvel theatrical (the antagonists from Black Widow, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier). All signs point to this being a fun ensemble to watch, as well as the culmination of several Marvel Cinematic Universe plot threads that have been running for years now.
Lilo & Stitch
Release Date: May 23, 2025
Director: Dean Fleischer Camp
Cast: Maia Kealoha, Chris Sanders, Zach Galifianakis, Tia Carrere
While March's Snow White live action remake drips with old world style and royal aesthetics, Lilo & Stitch's foray into the real world promises more of the same chaos that we got in the 2002 animated original. Newcomer Maia Kealoha leads as Lilo, relative newcomer Sydney Agudong is Nani, and original voice Chris Sanders is back as alien Stitch. Billy Magnussen, Zach Galifianakis, and Courtney B. Vance step into other roles. And yes, Vance is playing Cobra Bubbles. Cobra. Bubbles.
Should You Get Excited? I don't see a reason not to. The 2002 Lilo & Stitch was an absolute joy to watch and the franchise only refined its better qualities over the course of multiple animated series. If we're not getting another animated sequel film anytime soon (there were already four), a live-action remake should be just as enjoyable. Prepare for Disney parks to go overboard in cross-promotion, just like they did last time (Toilet. Paper. On. The. Castle.)
Elio
Release Date: June 13, 2025
Director: Domee Shi, Madeline Sharafian, Adrian Molina
Cast: Yonas Kibreab, Jameela Jamil, Brad Garrett, Zoe Saldaña
Pixar doing a political comedy? And it's in space? Yup! Elio is the story of a regular kid (Yonas Kibreab) called upon by the alien United Nations "Communiverse" to represent Earth as its unlikely ambassador. When an alien says "take me to your leader," how easy do you think that is? Can you even get your representative on the phone these days? Just go yourself!
Should You Get Excited? This is a hand's down "yes" from me, dawg. Coco was a celebration of every emotion that we're faced with on this planet, and I want to feel those feels on some other planet. Lots of hype around this one, but it's all good. Like most Pixar films, the story and cast have changed around a bit since it was first announced, but for Pixar, that's kind of the name of the game.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Release Date: July 25, 2025
Director: Matt Shakman
Cast: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach
Marvel Comics's first family is finally brought into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Big expectations for this one, considering that three other FF films have been released in the last 20 years (not counting the unreleased Roger Corman cheapie). It looks like the Fantastic Four are going to be battling Galactus — and he's not going to be a damn cloud in this one.
Should You Get Excited? Disney has rolled this summer blockbuster out correctly: teases of the big stars, a celebration of the big reveal of those big stars, bringing FF creators from years past to the set to show off their bona fides, and good behind-the-scenes photos of the Thing in costume. Expectations are high, and Marvel knows they absolutely have to deliver on this launch after a very rocky few years. And it's a period piece, which Marvel has shown they do really, really well (Captain America: The First Avenger, Agent Carter). I'm psyched.
Freakier Friday
Release Date: August 8, 2025
Director: Nisha Ganatra
Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Mark Harmon, Chad Michael Murray, Manny Jacinto
Disney already proved that going back to the body-swapping well brings up tasty water that does box office magic when they remade the original 1976 Freaky Friday in 2003. Since then, Curtis won an Oscar and reinvented her career, and Lohan has… settled down and gotten back to acting. Freakier Friday promises most of the original cast from 2003 returning to a story that now spans generations, as Lohan's character of Anna Coleman is a mother herself.
Should You Get Excited? Yeah, bud, do it up. Curtis is a winner in everything she does and original cast members Mark Harmon, Chad Michael Murray, and Stephen Tobolowsky wouldn't have returned if the script was a dud. Feeling optimistic on this one since it doesn't have as much riding on its shoulders as an animated film or Marvel movie that's expected to bring in billions of dollars.
Tron: Ares
Release Date: October 10, 2025
Director: Joachim Rønning
Cast: Evan Peters, Jared Leto, Jeff Bridges, Gillian Anderson
The third and (supposedly) last installment of the Tron series, flips the formula as Ares (Jared Leto), a character from the computer world, enters the real world. With debates about AI creations invading our media, this one seems fairly relevant. Jeff Bridges's Kevin Flynn returns from 1982's Tron and 2010's Tron: Legacy.
Should You Get Excited? If you loved the original Tron, this is for you. If you got on board with Tron: Legacy, this was literally made for you. I don't think it's for everyone. Tron was more or less forgotten until the sequel released 28 years after the original. Now, 15 years later we get the third part, which has been super slow in development and seemingly not a priority for Disney. It will probably be a fun film, but with the long development process, I'm super cautious on this one. Too much technobabble spoils the broth.
Predator: Badlands
Release Date: November 7, 2025
Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Cast: Elle Fanning
The combo of Predator plus America's past paid off big time with Prey in 2022, and director Dan Trachtenberg is coming back to deliver the next installment with Badlands. This one's even getting a theatrical release! So far only Elle Fanning has been named as part of this project, but rumors say that she'll be playing identical twin sisters who fight a Predator. Filming wrapped in New Zealand at the end of October, but there's news in the wind of another Predator project releasing before Badlands, probably on streaming.
Should You Get Excited? Prey was a brilliant reimagining of a 35-year-old franchise that breathed a new life and new enthusiasm into a character that had seen some middling films in the interim. Trachtenberg has a vision and really, it's in all of our best interests to follow that. I'm expecting great things, you should get excited.
Zootopia 2
Release Date: November 26, 2025)
Director: Jared Bush, Byron Howard
Cast: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Ke Huy Quan, Fortune Feimster
Releasing the day before Thanksgiving, Disney is letting us back into the city of Zootopia for another go-round. 2017's Zootopia was a great whodunit mystery as well as a huge hit that branched out into theme park lands and comic books. The film also gave us a wily fox named Nick Wilde, played by Jason Bateman, who is what all of us imagined when we imagined Jason Bateman as a fox.
Should You Get Excited? Frankly, yeah. The first film was a massive success with a ton of talented people working on it, and the addition of Ke Huy Quan and Fortune Feimster to the cast only makes Zootopia 2 more of a sure thing. Plus, Disney is banking hard on Zootopia as a franchise and wants to convince investors and the public that has legs to move the needle on some merchandise and ticket sales. Kind of a "too-big-to-fail" situation.
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Release Date: December 19, 2025
Director: James Cameron
Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Giovanni Ribisi, Kate Winslet
The third massive battleship in the Avatar fleet launches right before Christmas 2025 — although according to director James Cameron, 95% of this film was done five years before and it's just been waiting in port to set sail. We'll see more conflict with the RVA and Pandora explored even further, with two new Na'vi tribes — including the Fire tribe.
Should You Get Excited? We're wo movies in and no one seems to get excited about Avatar. It doesn't have the rabid fanbase that Star Wars does, but they're well made films that people go see in fucking droves, even if they're not counting down the days on their calendars. Go see it. It promises to be a good time, but I'm not camping outside the theater for tickets.
Deliver Me From Nowhere
Release Date: TBA; 2025
Director: Scott Cooper
Cast: Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Paul Walter Hauser, Odessa Young
The Bear's Jeremy Allen White plays a Bruce Springsteen that's struggling to complete his masterpiece, Nebraska. It's a biopic. It's Jeremy Allen White. It's The Boss. It's written and directed by Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart, Hostiles).
Should I get excited? Deliver Me From Nowhere has everything going for it. It should appeal to Boomers and Gen Xers who love Springsteen, film buffs who love biopics and Cooper, and anyone who watches premium TV who loves White, Stephen Graham, and Jeremy Strong. If you fall into any of those categories, you should get excited for this film.
Ella McCay
Release Date: TBA; 2025
Director: James L. Brooks
Cast: Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis, Woody Harrelson, Ayo Edebiri, Kumail Nanjiani
Emma Mackey (Barbie, Death on the Nile) stars as idealistic politician Ella McCay (was her name a factor in casting?) who tries to juggle her family and work life as she takes over for a well-respected governor. The big news for Ella McCay is that it's James L. Brooks's first film since 2010, and Brooks is a big deal because, well, Simpsons. The cast is all winners too, from Woody Harrelson to Jamie Lee Curtis to Ayo Edebiri to Albert Brooks, who, despite not being related to James L. Brooks, always winds up in his projects.
Should I get excited? Unlike Avatar and Predator and Tron, this one isn't part of a franchise that Disney's pushing during the holiday season and it's one of the few films releasing this year that isn't a sequel or a live action remake. But with one of the writers and producers of the Simpsons behind the wheel, I'm thinking it could be a comedy that flies under the radar but shines brighter than Freakier Friday. Brooks's As Good As It Gets was a multiple Oscar winner, with his screenplay nominated as well, this could repeat that feat.
