Taking a long look into his crystal ball, Dominic Corry considers the most appealing comedy movies coming our way in 2025.
Up until pretty recently, comedies constituted a sizeable chunk of Hollywood’s output. But as tentpole blockbusters became more and more emphasised and the “unified” culture that drove affection for comedies became more fractured, studios have became dramatically less interested in making them.
Ironically, our “serious” movies have became jokier and jokier—every second superhero movie these days crumbles under its shallow “So that just happened” punch-up style quipiness.
Streamers have picked up the slack somewhat for the comedy genre, which is even more ironic, as comedies are arguably the movies best-suited to enjoying with an audience.
But comedies are still being made. And we want to celebrate them. So here are eight upcoming ones that have the potential to induce mirth. As Homer Simpson once said: Are you ready to laugh?
N.B. For the sake of simplicity, we are trying to focus on “pure” comedies here. We’re excluding action comedies, horror comedies and animated films (although the new Wallace & Gromit will probably be the funniest movie of the year), but allowing in some comedies with fantasy elements. And, if it wasn’t obvious: no superhero movies!
You’re Cordially Invited
Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon lead this high-concept, low-stakes, star-driven comedy that feels like it could’ve been made in 2008. Here for it. They play, respectively, the father and older sister of two different brides who discover their destination wedding venue has double-booked them for the same weekend. So two wildly divergent wedding parties are forced to co-mingle, and hilarity ensues. N.B. I have seen this but I am still under embargo. [I loved it].
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
Depressingly a streaming release in the US, this is at least getting a theatrical bow elsewhere, where we know the true comedic value of ageing widows. Like many modern comedies, this feels like a throwback to an earlier, cheerier time, but there is enough audience goodwill for this character that doesn’t feel like a cash-in. The trailers reveal that Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) has popped his clogs, and Bridget (Renée Zellweger) navigating new love interests in the form of the suddenly-everywhere Leo Woodall (The White Lotus S2) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Venom: The Last Dance). Plus Hugh Grant’s Daniel Cleaver appears to be alive after all, and there’s a little Isla Fisher in there for good measure. Lovely.
A Minecraft Movie
It’s hard to know exactly what to make of this enterprise based on that bonkers trailer, but Jason Momoa in pink and Jack Black in any colour suggests that they are going for something funny. Director Jared Hess was the man who gave us Napoleon Dynamite, and the idea of the guy behind that famously threadbare comedy at the helm of a $100 million+ movie is funny in itself.
Untitled Matt Stone/Trey Parker film
South Park co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker haven’t had their names on a live-action comedy since the beloved-by-many-but-rarely-discussed BASEketball (1998), and that was directed by David Zucker. Parker hasn’t directed a live-action film since the slightly less-beloved Orgazmo in 1997. During the interim, however, beyond South Park and its movies, he and Stone made the puppet-centric Team America: World Police and conquered Broadway with The Book of Mormon, so a new comedy musical from them starring Kendrick Lamar is a very enticing prospect indeed. If anyone can get away with “going there” in a race-centric comedy, it’s these guys.
The Naked Gun
Speaking of David Zucker, he constitutes one of the ‘Z’s in ZAZ, the David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker triumvirate who together made all-time comedy classics Flying High!/Airplane! and Top Secret! David directed the original Naked Gun movie on his own, but all three wrote it and it was mostly a retread of their earlier TV collaboration Police Squad! Abrahams just passed away last week, sadly. Hollywood has been threatening a Naked Gun reboot/sequel for a while now, and while earlier incarnations seemed to miss the point entirely (Ed Helms as Frank Drebin? No thanks!), the elements appear to have all lined up nicely here with Liam Neeson in the lead role (as Frank Drebin Jr) and Akiva Schaffer (Hot Rod) directing a Seth McFarlane story. Although there have been a million crummy ZAZ wannabe spoof movies, some even directed by David Zucker, this is the first time a true ZAZ property has been made without any ZAZ involvement since Airplane II. But the talent onboard is cause for hope.
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Freakier Friday
Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis’ comedic chemistry in the 1998 body-swap classic is fondly recalled by all, and now that Lohan appears insurable again, the underlying affection for one of her biggest hits has granted her access back into the House of Mouse. Lindsay and Disney, together again. What a world. Mark Harmon and Chad Michael Murray Arthur Matthew Peter and even Stephen Tobolowsky are amongst the many returning supporting cast members, joined by Julia Butters (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and Manny Jacinto (The Acolyte).
Good Fortune
Poor old Aziz Ansari’s road back from pseudo cancellation hit a snag when Being Mortal, his directorial debut, was cancelled three weeks into production in 2022 following a complaint of sexual harrassment levelled at co-star Bill Murray. Ansari moved on to the next thing, which is this appealing-sounding (and once again, throwback-feeling) fantasy comedy about an angel played by Keanu Reeves whose attempts to mess with the lives of characters played by Ansari and Seth Rogen sees him banished to earth. I think Keanu might actually be an angel sent from heaven.
Special Advance Mention: The Entertainment System is Down (2026)
It drives me nuts when audiences turn on a filmmaker for doing what they have always done. It’s like when viewers finally cotton on to a pattern, they’re so proud of themselves for noticing something, they rail against it. That seems to me what kind of happened with Triangle of Sadness, Ruben Östlund’s first English language movie, which won the top prize at Cannes but found itself a little poo-poooed by the cinematic literati upon release. We should be grateful that filmmakers like Östlund want to explore the areas that he does. Nobody’s committing more resources to interrogating the contradictions and hypocrisies of modern social decorum, and being as funny doing it. Anyway, that rant over, I’m really looking forward to his next film, which takes place on a long-haul flight where the titular technical issue occurs (Östlund had more to say about the upcoming film in this 2023 Flicks interview). The cast includes Nicholas Braun, Kirsten Dunst, Daniel Brühl, Samantha Morton and… Keanu Reeves. But it’s currently scheduled for Cannes 2026. By which point, I will be ready to laugh.
