Okay, every year is a big year for sci-fi these days, but 2025 is looking particularly exciting. Outer space is set to be a major theme in Hollywood this year, whether you’re watching in the cinema or at home on your personal viewscreen (sorry, TV).
Most of the major franchises will be represented, with “Andor”‘s second season taking us back to the grittier corners of that galaxy far, far away, and “Strange New Worlds” season 3 and TV movie “Section 31” representing “Star Trek”‘s final frontier.
In the world of superheroes, “Superman” takes to the skies under the guidance of “Guardians of the Galaxy”‘s James Gunn, while the Fantastic Four finally land in the MCU. And perhaps it’s time to be afraid — very afraid — as Xenomorphs burst into your living room courtesy of new TV show “Alien: Earth.”
Throw in Bong Joon-ho’s “Mickey 17”, a new perspective on the Predator, and James Cameron’s latest excursion to Pandora, and 2025 is looking like a sci-fi fan’s dream come true. So, watch those skies because all of these treats are heading your way!
Upcoming sci-fi movies in 2025
‘Star Trek: Section 31’
- Release date: January 24, 2025
- Where to watch: Paramount+
Michelle Yeoh’s reformed Mirror Universe dictator Philippa Georgiou was the best thing about “Star Trek: Discovery” and now, following the actor’s Oscar-winning turn in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” she’s back to headline her own TV movie. “Section 31” looks set to be “Trek”‘s answer to James Bond, as Georgiou — now back in the 23rd century courtesy of the Guardian of Forever — is recruited to work for the Federation’s best known secret organization.
‘Mickey 17’
- Release date: April 18, 2025
- Where to watch: In cinemas
Korean director Bong Joon-ho follows up the awards-hoovering “Parasite” with a dark outer space comedy. “The Batman” star Robert Pattinson plays the eponymous Mickey, an ordinary guy who signs up to be an “expendable” — essentially, every time he dies, he’ll be regenerated in a new body. Things go wrong, however, when Mickey 17 comes face to face with his successor. The trailer makes this look like a lot of fun — think “Moon” with a lot more laughs.
‘Superman’
- Release date: July 11, 2025
- Where to watch: In cinemas
“Guardians of the Galaxy” writer/director James Gunn was headhunted to run the new-look DC Studios, and the first big-screen release of the new era is his take on Krypton’s most famous son, Superman. With super-pooch Krypto taking a starring role in the first trailer, we’re expecting a significantly lighter movie than Zack Snyder’s 2013 “Man of Steel,” as Supes tries to square his alien heritage with his Kansas upbringing. David Corenswet dons the famous cape, alongside Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor.
‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’
- Release date: July 25, 2025
- Where to watch: In cinemas
Marvel’s first family make their belated MCU debut — aside from the other Reed Richards who cropped up in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” — and hopes are high that this will be a major step up from their previous movie outings. In “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” an alternative version of 1960s New York is under threat from planet-chomping bad guy Galactus, and Earth’s only hope is a new-look quartet played by Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. “WandaVision” director Matt Shakman calls the shots.
‘Predator: Badlands’
- Release date: November 7, 2025
- Where to watch: In cinemas
The galaxy’s greatest hunter got a welcome shot in the arm in 2022, courtesy of back-to-basics prequel “Prey.” Now that movie’s director, Dan Trachtenberg, has the franchise in his sights once again, and he’s planning a massive narrative swerve: in “Badlands” the Predator will be the protagonist, while “The Great”‘s Elle Fanning will play multiple human characters. In other words, this is a great time to be a “Predator” fan — especially with another “secret” movie heading our way.
‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’
- Release date: December 19, 2025
- Where to watch: In cinemas
James Cameron continues his long-running obsession with the distant moon of Pandora in the third “Avatar” movie. After the ocean-based action of “The Way of Water,” “Fire and Ash” introduces the new Mangkwan clan, who will show a different, potentially less friendly side to the Na’vi. According to Cameron, “I wanted to show the Na’vi from another angle because, so far, I have only shown their good sides.”
With both previous “Avatar”s sitting pretty among the top 3 of the highest-grossing movies of all time, don’t be surprised if this is the biggest film of 2025.
Upcoming sci-fi TV shows in 2025
‘Star Wars: Andor’ season 2
- Release date: April 22, 2025
- Where to watch: Disney+
Arguably one of the best “Star Wars” shows, “Andor” returns for its second and final season on Disney+. Creator/showrunner Tony Gilroy (screenwriter on the “Bourne” movies) has confirmed that the 12-episode run will continue the story of Rebel Alliance operative Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) across the four years leading into “Rogue One,” revealing how he came to be part of that movie’s fateful mission. Ben Mendelsohn reprises his “Rogue One” role as bureaucratic Death Star overseer Director Krennic, while Alan Tudyk is back as snarky droid K-2SO.
‘Doctor Who’ season 2
- Release date: Early 2025
- Where to watch: Disney+ (worldwide) / BBC (UK)
Whether you want to call it season 2, series 15, or season 41 (all are correct, depending on your point of view), Ncuti Gatwa’s Time Lord is set to return in 2025. He’ll also have a new Doctor Who companion in the TARDIS, as Varada Sethu — who played a different role, Mundy Flynn, in “Boom” earlier this year — embarks on a series of adventures in space and time as Belinda Chandra. “Snowpiercer”‘s Archie Panjabi is confirmed to play a Doctor Who villain, while former “EastEnders” and “Strictly Come Dancing” star Rose Ayling-Ellis will be “the lead in one episode,” says showrunner Russell T. Davies.
‘Alien: Earth’
- Release date: Summer 2025
- Where to watch: FX (US) / Disney+ (UK)
Apart from the final act of “Alien: Resurrection” and the best-forgotten “Alien vs. Predator” movies, the Xenomorph has tended to give Earth a fairly wide berth. That all changes with the acid-blooded beasties’ first TV jaunt, as “Fargo” showrunner Noah Hawley sets out to ensure that, even when you’re sitting in your living room, everyone can hear you scream. “Alien: Earth” is set two years before Ridley Scott’s original “Alien,” when a group of soldiers search for survivors among the wreckage of a crashed spaceship of unknown origin. As we all know, that’s unlikely to end well…
‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ season 3
- Release date: TBC 2025
- Where to watch: Paramount+
Pike, Spock, and co’s adventures on the final frontier continue in a third season of seeking out, well, strange new worlds. Character arcs are largely under wraps, but early footage has shown the return of reptilian bad guys the Gorn, and Pike, Uhura, La’an, and Chapel being turned into Vulcans. Fascinating.
A fourth season of “Strange New Worlds” has already been confirmed by Paramount+, while “Starfleet Academy”, a 32nd century-set “Discovery” spin-off, is also on the way.
‘Black Mirror’ season 7
- Release date: TBC 2025
- Where to watch: Netflix
Charlie Brooker’s techno-“Twilight Zone” returns for its seventh season with its first ever sequel, a follow-up to classic season 4 episode “USS Callister.” That was a perfectly pitched “Star Trek” pastiche in which an embittered tech boss (played by Jesse Plemons) turned his colleagues (including “The Penguin”‘s Cristin Milioti) into unwilling avatars in his total immersion spaceship simulation. Expect something significantly darker than “Galaxy Quest.”
‘Foundation’ season 3
- Release date: TBC 2025
- Where to watch: Apple TV+
Apple TV+ is yet to confirm a return date for its epic adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation”, but this third outing was confirmed way back in December 2023. While the first two seasons have, at times, felt like a 20-episode exercise in scene-setting, by the end of Foundation season 2 this spectacular interstellar “Game of Thrones” (with added megalomaniac clones) was ready to explode into life. It’s the sort of TV show that makes you crave a bigger TV set.
Apple’s other big-budget space drama, “For All Mankind” has also been confirmed for a new season, along with spin-off show “Star City”.
