Marvel. THE most successful film franchise has been floundering recently. Although box office hits such as Deadpool & Wolverine and critical hits like Agatha All Along are enough to keep the franchise relevant, massive failures like Ant-Man 3, The Marvels, Secret Invasion, and the 2023 SAG AFTRA strike scared Marvel for 2024. However, in 2025, we are back to the tried and true THREE Marvel movies this year and SIX TV shows. This year’s lineup is pretty interesting, so I’ll go through each one and give my thoughts.

January: Your Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman was released in late January, and tackles an alternate timeline version of the MCU Spiderman where Norman Osborn recruited Peter Parker instead of Tony Stark. This means it won’t tie into the MCU, but still will feature many MCU actor appearances, like Charlie Cox and Vincent D’onofrio. It also features Oscar-nominated actor Colman Domingo as Norman Osborn. I have not seen it yet, but I was very disappointed to hear that the new voice actor for Spiderman’s “biggest fear was that “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” would be annoying and woke” (via Variety). Come on man! Spiderman has always been “woke!” And since when is being “woke” annoying?

February: Captain America: Brave New World. This stars Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson, the former Falcon, who took over the mantle of Captain America. He will face off against Harrison Ford’s Thunderbolt Ross, (the “Red Hulk”) Giancarlo Esposito as “SideWinder,” and the triumphant return of Tim Blake Nelson as “The Leader.” I’m not very excited about this movie, as it has delays, a title change, and many, many reshoots. I just hope it’s not a messy film. 

March: Daredevil: Born Again. Charlie Cox is back as Daredevil, after he came back in Spider-Man No Way Home…and She-Hulk…and Echo…and Friendly Neighborhood. Okay so maybe he’s been back for a while, but it’s amazing to see what is essentially Daredevil Season 4 FINALLY be releasing! The story will follow Matt Murdock as he fights crime in New York, with Vincent D’onofrios Kingpin now mayor. It will also feature the return of The Punisher, Bullseye, Foggy Nelson, and Karen Page. It seems that the new show is keeping the very dark and violent nature of the original and I am extremely excited for this show as I LOVED the original Netflix Daredevil show, and Daredevil is one of my favorite comic characters ever. 

May: THUNDERBOLTS*. This stars antihero characters like Bucky Barnes, Yelena Belova, Red Guardian, USAgent, Ghost, and TaskMaster. Not much has been revealed about the plot of the movie besides the appearance of Bill Pullman as Bob (or, the superhero Sentry). My worry about this movie is that many of the heroes who are members of the team have very similar fighting styles, and I hope that they all feel unique. I also pray that we get good fight choreography and cinematography.

June: IRONHEART. Dominique Thorne returns as Riri Williams (Ironheart) from 2022s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. She will battle with The Hood (Anthony Ramos) in her brand new Iron Man-esque suit in the show. I don’t know much about this show, but I find it very strange that they waited 3 whole years to release this TV show, and i think it would’ve been better if it had come out BEFORE Black Panther. But I like all the actors involved so i’ll be interested to see what this show does.

July: Fantastic Four: First Steps. This is the long-awaited return of the F4 since the abysmal Fant4stic. The film will follow Mr. Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), and The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) as they protect their alternate reality from Galactus and Silver Surfer. I’m very excited about this as I love ALL of the actors playing the F4, and I am very interested in how the powers will be portrayed, along with the “retrofuturistic” world in which the movie takes place.

The back half of the year has 3 new television shows, none of which we know all too much about. That includes EYES OF WAKANDA, a show that will show missions throughout history by Wakandan warriors traveling the world and recovering ancient Vibranium artifacts. Then, MARVEL ZOMBIES, an animated spinoff of the awesome WHAT IF…? episode, featuring Marvel characters as, you guessed it, Zombies. Finally, to round off the year, WONDER MAN. Starring Yaha Abdul Mateen ii as “Wonder Man,” a superpowered actor, who plays a superpowered actor. Pretty meta. Not much is known about the show but I’m very excited to see where this leads.

And that’s it! It’s a pretty stacked year for Marvel. Just wait for 2026, when we are getting our next Avengers movie AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY. I am very worried about that movie, but it’s a long way away. I am very hopeful that Marvel will learn from its mistakes of poorly written CGI slop of the past, but do I think that’s going to happen? No.

And James Gunns Superman will be better than anything this year.