Similar to beloved post-credits scenes, trailers are a part of the meal of a television series or film. They serve as an appetizer, giving us hints of the flavor profiles that comprise the impending main course. We all have a love-hate relationship with these promotional reels. Trailers can incite deep annoyance when sitting through 30 minutes of them in a theater, unless there’s something new that piques our interest.
But it’s absolutely more of a “heart-eyed emoji” feeling when a highly-anticipated trailer drops online and causes a social media frenzy. 2025 is no stranger to incredible TV shows and films that lived up to their awesome trailers as well as those who certainly teased cinematic greatness but missed the mark in their full form. Either way, we cannot resist watching a good trailer over and over again for a quick dopamine hit. Our hats go off to the creatives behind-the-scenes who carefully curate these clips.
In no particular order, here are the best trailers of 2025 so far:
Sinners
Sinners hit theaters relatively early in 2025 and took the world by storm for quite a few valid reasons. Before we even got to see how truly rad this original vampire flick by director Ryan Coogler is, the trailers, specifically the second one, already had fans hooked. That one shows Michael B. Jordan doing double duty as twins Smoke and Stack, who return home to strum up a bluesy good time at a juke joint.
However, when the sun sets, something sinister threatens this safe haven and it suggests they will all have a bad night. The Sinners trailer honors Southern Black American culture and sets itself up as a horrifying period drama. Truly a chef’s kiss all around and one of the best trailers of 2025 for sure.
The Woman in the Yard
Today is the dayyyyy.
The Woman in the Yard didn’t quite live up to the greatness of its trailer in our very humble opinion, but that doesn’t take away from the effectiveness of this clip. It gives you just the right mixture of unsettling chill, dread, and jump scare along with a scary lil poem to make you want to head to the theaters.
Danielle Deadwyler stars as a woman with her two small children in an idyllic home in the country. Their lives go awry when a very scary yet stylish lady in all black shows up in their yard and wants to come in. All horror film trailers are certainly not created equal, but The Woman in the Yard is how you take a film’s highlights and make them shine.
HIM
No one knows how to give you everything yet tell you nothing like Jordan Peele and his Monkeypaw collective. HIM is yet another terrifying installment from this production company, directed by Justin Tipping, with a trailer that leaves us yearning for more.
To us, this clip is better than most films, thanks to striking imagery and Marlon Wayans taking on a more serious and unsettling persona than we’re used to from the beloved comedian. Weaving the world of football with horror is an inspired combination, indeed.
Doctor Who Season 2
Ncuti Gatwa the most stylish Doctor to ever hit our TV screens and incredibly fun to watch. The first season gave us plenty of camp and whimsy interspersed with drama and a dash of folk horror, the latter two resonating with a lot of fans. And, after its big season finale, we got a season two teaser that gave us a look into what seemed like a darker future for the series.
It boasts all the stunning visuals and strangeness we love about Doctor Who with a more serious tone overall. And the latest season is indeed living up to that, with some pretty sobering adventures that tackle painfully timely topics. If a trailer is an appetizer, then a teaser is just a morsel and this one is delicious.
Weapons
The good ole horror trope of creepy kids will never get old. Kids are weird and do strange things, and the thought of them being possessed and possibly murderous is terrifying. The trailer for Weapons gives us some great imagery and sets up the framework of this story without diving into any potentially spoilery specifics.
From what we can tell, it doesn’t dive into the film’s third act, a grave mistake that far too many trailers do. The premise is simple: an entire class of kids goes missing and no one knows why. We see some strange activity, poor Mrs. Gandy is going through it in more ways than one, we wanna know more. That’s the point of the trailer and exactly why Weapons is on our best of 2025 list.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Nearly 30 years ago, Tom Cruise chose to accept his first mission as Ethan Hunt. It’s pretty hard to believe he’s still doing death-defying stunts during high-octane missions around the world. The trailer for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning brings all of his biggest highlights full circle in this trailer, allowing us to relieve decades of action in just a few minutes. It ties perfectly into this final film and mission that will likely end Ethan’s enduring story. While it may not pack a super emotional wallop in the traditional sense, it certainly taps our nostalgia nerves in the best way.
Thunderbolts*
Sure, Thunderbolts* is about a ragtag group of antiheroes tasked to save the world. But, this trailer really taps into the deeper stories beneath that premise, setting up a tale of redemption, healing, and forming a new found family. What does it mean to have a higher calling and rise to the occasion? That’s what Yelena is set to figure out alongside this new band of powerful beings.
There’s not a bad trailer for Thunderbolts* but the final one expertly weaves the past, present, and future of this franchise together. The action, the gravitas… damn, this is a good trailer that reminds us why we fell in love with this franchise. Marvel still gives us some of the best trailers ever in 2025.
Andor Season 2
We can safely say that Andor is one of the best shows of the 21st century. And it is certainly the best Star Wars series to date. So it is no surprise that this series’ trailers are all absolute bangers. Just look at the material! A great rebellion led by the people, Cassian being the total boss that he is, and loads of action all come together for a rad clip.
Andor even gives us the ultimate flex of including quotes about its season one awesomeness while using visuals that say “you ain’t seen nothing yet.” It’s a bold move but the series indeed delivered a dazzling second and final season. Real GOAT vibes all around and an obvious choice for one of the best trailers of 2025.
28 Years Later
Everything about this clip is pure trailer perfection. Snarling undead, uncharted lands, and a poetic voiceover that sticks in your head on a loop are just a few of many things 28 Years Later gets right. Sometimes, it’s hard to get an audience invested in a sequel, especially one with no legacy characters. But, well, there’s nothing like a ruggedly handsome Aaron Taylor-Johnson fighting undead people with the Rage Virus to pique anyone’s attention. This trailer is frightening, frantic, and hella disturbing in a way that makes your heart pound every single time you press play.
From the World of John Wick: Ballerina
It’s no surprise that a John Wick prequel spinoff film would have nothing but the finest slate of trailers. We love them so much that we were willing to sit through watching an ice cube melt just to see new material. Ana de Armas is the graceful assassin Eve, better known as The Ballerina, goes toe to toe with the Baba Yaga as she goes on a mission to avenge her father’s death. Stylish and sleek, Ballerina deftly captures the essence of this gritty underworld of killers.
Superman
The wait for Superman’s official trailer felt far too long. Thankfully, it was worth it. The verbal sparring between Lois as she interviews Superman (she knows him!), the setup of an ungrateful world, and his hero’s journey to do what is just, even when others don’t recognize those efforts, is emotional and effective. Take this clip and inject it into our veins. Play it on a loop. It is addictive, poignant, and just as powerful as this Krypton hero.
Tron: Ares
When the original Tron film dropped in 1982, it was way ahead of its time conceptually and visually. Tron used heavy CGI before the general public really had a grasp on what that entailed. So it’s only right that over 40 years later there would be a sequel with a trailer that uses today’s technology in a dazzling way. Tron: Ares brings the digital world and AI right to humanity’s front door, and that ominous possibility shines brightly in the above clip.
M3GAN 2.0
C’mon, did you really think we’d leave our fave killer doll off the list. M3GAN 2.0‘s trailer is as weird and ridiculous as you’d think it would be. Just when you think it can’t get any more bizarre, it opens up five more suitcases of bizarre. The dancing diva is back after actual villain Gemma revives her to stop a government AI killing machine. Very nuts. Very entertaining. And a good use of a fab Britney Spears song.
Content shared from nerdist.com.