Journey Through Sci-Fi: A Science Fiction Film Podcast · James Payne

The Best Sci-fi of 2025: Future Frontiers

·33 min·2 clips

28 Years Later is named as the hosts’ favorite film of 2025, with Danny Boyle and Alex Garland returning.

1. Journey Through Sci-Fi: A Science Fiction Film Podcast uses its Future Frontiers end-of-year episode to look back at the sci-fi films and shows that defined 2025. 2. The hosts are James and Matt, who trade recommendations, compare reviews, and use Patreon and listener messages to shape the year-end round-up. 3. The episode asks whether 2025 was a strong sci-fi year or a weak one, using box office totals, franchise returns, and listener votes as the core test. 4. James opens with Nezha 2, a Chinese animated sequel, and notes that it reached more than 8 billion yen during the Lunar New Year holiday. 5. Matt responds that the box office looks increasingly siloed, while James points out that Minecraft ranked number three and that Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle made the top 10. 6. The hosts place Jurassic World Rebirth at number five and Superman at number nine, then note that Lilo and Stitch counts as sci-fi because of its alien element. 7. James says Marvel has fallen off for him, and Matt says he watched no new MCU films or TV shows this year. 8. They name Thunderbolts, Captain America Brave New World, and Fantastic Four: First Steps as Marvel’s 2025 releases, then contrast them with James Gunn’s rebooted Superman. 9. The conversation turns to a rumored Netflix acquisition of Warner Bros., and Matt worries about what that could mean for James Gunn’s DC plans and theatrical releases. 10. The hosts discuss 28 Years Later, which James calls his favorite film of the year and describes as a fairy-tale version of the 28X Later franchise. 11. Jurassic World Rebirth gets a mixed reaction, with Gareth Edwards, hybrid dinosaurs, and a genetically modified T-Rex cited as the main selling points. 12. Tron Ares is treated as a mixed bag, but both hosts say they are glad to see another Tron movie on screens. 13. Predator fans get two releases in 2025, Predator: Killer of Killers and Predator: Badlands, and the hosts say Dan Trachtenberg is doing different things with the franchise. 14. James says Badlands lands in his top five films of the year, while Killer of Killers is described as fun but clearly built for streaming. 15. On the more original side, Companion is praised as a sci-fi film that may have slipped under many people’s radar. 16. Yorgos Lanthimos’s Begonia becomes James’s number one film of 2025, and he says it goes in every direction and contains memorable moments. 17. The hosts also flag upcoming films from Guillermo del Toro, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Bong Joon-ho, and Edgar Wright, including Frankenstein, The Bride, Mickey 17, and The Running Man. 18. On television, they compare Alien Earth, Severance, Stranger Things, Foundation, Murderbot, Invasion, and Pluribus, with Severance singled out as a cultural standout. 19. Listeners who track franchise sci-fi, box-office rankings, and year-end film debates will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners who want spoiler-free, plot-light coverage of only one film may skip it.

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