After a somewhat rough 2024 for the genre, 2025 has bounced back and been a great year for superhero movies. While the last few years saw superhero films start to feel repetitive and a bit stale, this year managed to shake off the fatigue with a lineup that reminded us why we fell in love with the genre in the first place. Here are the best superhero movies of 2025.
What are the best superhero movies of 2025?
Though there haven’t been too many official releases from DC or the MCU, that’s not a bad thing. As the saying goes, less is more. Still, we got a surprisingly strong and varied lineup: from James Gunn’s long-awaited Superman, to a fantastically Fantastic Four, a new Captain America featuring the franchise’s new lead, the gritty Thunderbolts*, and an unassuming animated superhero film that shattered box office records, grossing over $2 billion to become the highest-earning film of the year.
Ne Zha 2
Written and directed by Jiaozi, Ne Zha 2 is a kid-friendly animated Chinese film that leans just enough into the mythological to count as much of a superhero movie as a fantasy one. It’s the sequel to Ne Zha, released in 2019, which already had a big following and proved that international audiences were more than ready for a different kind of animated hero. But following up a hit like that isn’t easy. Did it pull it off? A resounding yes.
This time around, we pick up with the rebellious boy Ne Zha, born of mortal parents feared by the gods. When a dark force begins upsetting the balance of the heavens, Ne Zha is forced to confront both powerful enemies and his own inner turmoil as the chosen protector of humankind. While the movie has plenty of action-packed adventure and battle sequences, it still finds grounding in the character relationships and the importance of friends and family. Expect a bit of immortal potty humor in this one — it is a movie about a superpowered kid after all.
Captain America: Brave New World
Maybe the least well-received of our superhero movie picks, Captain America: Brave New World marks the fourth Captain America standalone in the Marvel lineup. People are still going to see it, and the gross alone is enough to prove it. Brave New World took in $415 million globally, showing it’s still a character we care about, especially when you give him a new story with a new actor. This time, Anthony Mackie officially steps into the role as the new Captain America, taking up the shield as Sam Wilson. This change has been in the works since The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
Brave New World follows Sam as he navigates his new responsibilities as a global symbol (those are some big boots to step into) while uncovering a conspiracy within the government he’s sworn to serve. We get old allies and new enemies, including Harrison Ford stepping into the role of President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (replacing the late William Hurt). Ross has his own ideas about how superheroes should be managed, putting him directly at odds with Sam’s sense of freedom and accountability. Blending political thriller vibes within the MCU action style, Brave New World is worth a watch even if it doesn’t completely hit the mark. Critics mostly ripped this one apart, but audience response was generally favorable.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
One of the most favorably rated superhero movies of the year, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, is a full-blown redemption story. We’re not just talking about the characters, but about the franchise itself. After the 2015 reboot was a dismal misfire, Marvel finally got their hands on the property and gave us a version that works. It’s the first Fantastic Four film set within the MCU, and the difference is clear.
First Steps takes us into a 1960s retro-future world and follows Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) as they gain their powers after a space expedition goes wrong. We quickly make it through a montage-exposition that doesn’t leave us wanting. Then, we’re right into the confrontation with the Silver Surfer (played by Julia Garner). While there’s plenty of adventure, the film really works thanks to its character writing. Unlike the ensemble dynamics often seen in other MCU films, this has a really touching element: every character has at least one meaty scene with another teammate. You can read more about that in Superherohype’s review here. But beyond the character-driven storytelling, The Fantastic Four: First Steps also delivers some of Marvel’s best visual effects in years.
Thunderbolts*
What works about Thunderbolts* is that it’s not trying to be just another lineup in the MCU canon; instead, it rejects what hasn’t been working in the Marvel superhero universe lately and shakes things up. Thunderbolts* works somewhat like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1, bringing a found-family comedy energy to the franchise. Here, we’ve got the MCU’s version of a team-up movie where the heroes are all, technically, former villains or antiheroes.
The story brings together an unconventional team that includes Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), and John Walker a.k.a. U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), under the direction of Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. That casting choice in itself is a unique take on a villain. We can definitely see what would happen if Veep’s Selina Meyer went to the dark side. Oh, and Bob. We can’t forget Bob (Lewis Pullman). After the team gets caught in a setup designed to wipe them out, they’re forced to band together to take on a new wave of villainous machinations — while also confronting the ghosts of their own pasts.
Superman
Maybe the most anticipated film in the superhero lineup, Superman had the potential to be an utter letdown. But we put our trust in James Gunn, and it didn’t disappoint. Some naysayers will have a different opinion, but for the first film in the DC Universe, Superman is an entertaining ride from start to finish.
The movie doesn’t start with the origin story we’ve all seen a hundred times. This time around, Superman is already established but has been having a rough go of it lately, which we won’t expand on here. Instead, the first scene drops us into a very beat-up Superman (David Corenswet) stranded in the arctic landscape of Krypton, in desperate need of help and calling on his superhero dog, Krypto, to save the day. It’s a confusing, hilarious mix-up that no one saw coming, and it perfectly sets the tone for the kind of movie we’re in for. Nothing is off-limits here, and we’re just along for whatever comes next. You can read more on the film here.
How we picked the best superhero movies of 2025 (so far)
There weren’t too many superhero films to pick from this year, though we could have added a few other contenders for superheroic movies, if not strictly superhero movies. To narrow down our choices, we looked at the films with the best audience and fan feedback, the ones shaking up the genre, and the movies we genuinely had the most fun watching.
