‘Severance’ season 2 

Starring: Adam Scott, Zach Cherry, Britt Lower 

The first season of this darkly humorous sci-fi tinged psychological thriller brought deserved critical acclaim for its creator Dan Erickson, and directors Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdle, as well as its brilliant cast. The show focuses on a group of employees at a mysterious corporation who have agreed to undergo a procedure known as “severance,” which divides their memories between their time in and out of work, thus creating two different lives, with distinct personalities, but who begin to question both the ethics of the procedure, and their own reasons for accepting it.  

‘The Last of Us’ season 2 

Starring: Bella Ramsey, Pedro Pascal, Gabriel Luna 

Not just a great video game adaptation, but a great show in general. This post-apocalyptic drama is set a couple of decades into a pandemic in which a fungal infection turns its hosts into zombie-like monsters and centers on a teenage girl (Ellie) who is somehow immune to infection and the smuggler (Joel) who agreed to escort her on a journey across the US and gradually becomes a father figure to her. The chemistry between Ramsey as Ellie and Pascal as Joel is utterly convincing and the series, like the games it is based on, is a quietly devastating work of art. 

‘Stranger Things’ season 5 

Starring: Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown 

One last visit to the Upside Down, and one last visit to Hawkins, Indiana, to catch up with psychokinetic Eleven and her friends as they fight to save the Earth from the aforementioned alternate dimension. Over the last decade, “Stranger Things” has been one of the biggest shows in the world — an irresistible mix of horror, sci-fi, coming-of-age drama, and Eighties nostalgia. Here’s hoping showrunners The Duffer Brothers can stick the landing. 

‘The Bear’ season 4 

Starring: Jeremy Allen White, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ayo Edebiri 

After the dizzying heights reached in its first two seasons, the third outing of this hyper-tense kitchen-based drama (it barely seems worth repeating that — despite its Emmy categorization — “The Bear” really isn’t a comedy) was something of a stagnant disappointment. But a disappointing episode of “The Bear” still beats the best efforts of 90 percent of what’s on television, and it wouldn’t be a great surprise if season four is a triumphant return to form for ace chef Carmy Berzatto as he strives to make a success of his family’s titular restaurant. There’s a lot on the line, though, with season three ending just as Carmy starts to read the make-or-break restaurant review that could mean he loses his financial backer.  

‘Zero Day’  

Starring: Robert De Niro, Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Plemons 

A political conspiracy thriller that looks like being one of the most intriguing new shows of 2025. With a stellar cast and some serious pedigree among the creators — showrunner Eric Newman (“Narcos”), former NBC News president Noah Oppenheim, and The New York Times’ Washington correspondent Michael S. Schmidt — this story focuses on a former US president, George Mullen (De Niro), who is called out of retirement to investigate a cyberattack responsible for killing thousands of Americans.  

‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ 

Starring: Peter Claffey, Dexter Sol Ansell, Finn Bennett 

If “House of the Dragon” isn’t enough “Game of Thrones” universe for you, then here’s another prequel, this time based on George R.R. Martin’s “Tales of Dunk and Egg” novellas — set almost a century before the events of “Game of Thrones. The show will focus on hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall (Dunk) and his young squire Aegon Targaryen (Egg), who will grow up to become King Aegon V and sit the Iron Throne, and their wanderings across Westeros. Martin has given the show his seal of approval, saying after visiting the set that the cast seemed to have “walked out of the pages of my book.” The approval of the fans may be harder to earn. 

‘Black Mirror’ season 7 

Starring: Awkwafina, Paul Giamatti, Emma Corrin 

Season seven of the acclaimed sci-fi/horror anthology series created by Charlie Brooker is confirmed as returning this year with a run of six episodes, two of which, Brooker told the audience at Netflix’s Geeked Week event in September, are “basically feature-length.” There’s little information about the stories so far, but the little we have is pretty exciting — one will be a sequel to one of the show’s most-loved episodes, the season four opener “USS Callister” (pictured).  

DUBAI: From fortune-making franchises to family-friendly fun, here are some of the biggest films coming out in the next few months.

‘Snow White’ 

Director: Marc Webb 

Starring: Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, Andrew Burnap 

The latest in a flurry of live-action remakes of classic Disney animated movies (see also “Lilo & Stitch,” due out in late May) sees Zegler take on one of the most iconic fairytale princesses from the company’s considerable catalogue. Disney has certainly invested wisely in its writers — the musical fantasy was penned by Erin Cressida Wilson (“Secretary”) and Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird,” “Barbie”) — and with a nostalgia-hungry audience pretty much guaranteed to turn up in theaters, this will likely be one of the year’s biggest hits with families. 

‘Paddington in Peru’ 

Director: Dougal Wilson 

Starring: Ben Whishaw, Hugh Bonneville, Emily Mortimer 

This third instalment of the hugely popular franchise based on Michael Bond’s children’s books sees Paddington and his adoptive family, the Browns, head to Paddington’s homeland of Peru, where — they have learned — Paddington’s Aunt Lucy is pining for him. When they arrive, though, Aunt Lucy has gone missing in the jungle, and during their search for her, Paddington and the Browns are separated. 

‘Captain America: Brave New World’ 

Director: Julius Onah 

Starring: Anthony Mackie, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas 

Onah says this fourth installment in the “Captain America” film series will show Sam Wilson (previously The Falcon) “stepping up to be the leader as Captain America” having been handed the iconic shield by Steve Rogers in “Avengers: Endgame.” When Wilson finds himself at the center of an international incident involving the president, he must use everything he’s learned about being a hero to put things right. 

‘Mickey 17’  

Director: Bong Joon-ho 

Starring: Robert Pattinson, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette 

This long-delayed feature from acclaimed South Korean director Bong Joon-ho (whose 2019 black comedy “Parasite” picked up Best Picture and Best Director Oscars) keeps the dark humor, but shifts to a sci-fi setting. It stars Robert Pattinson as the title character, an ‘expendable’ space traveler sent on a dangerous mission to colonize an ice planet. When one Mickey dies, another is cloned with most of his memories intact. But when the titular 17th iteration accidentally survives, problems naturally arise. 

‘Black Bag’ 

Director: Steven Soderbergh 

Starring: Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Marisa Abela 

Modern indie cinema pioneer Soderbergh has become one of the planet’s finest crime-thriller directors, so giving him actors of the caliber of Blanchett and Fassbender for this spy thriller about a pair of married intelligence agents — George and Kathryn Woodhouse — should pay off handsomely. When Kathryn is accused of betraying her country, George’s loyalties are tested to their limits. 

‘The Amateur’ 

Director: James Hawes 

Starring: Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitriona Balfe 

British director Hawes helms this adaptation of Robert Littell’s 1981 novel. It’s a thriller about a CIA cryptographer Charles Heller (Malek) whose wife is killed in a terrorist attack. Realizing that his bosses are paralyzed by conflicting priorities, Heller blackmails them into training him as a field agent, then sets out to exact his revenge on those responsible for his wife’s death. 

‘Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning’ 

Director: Christopher McQuarrie 

Starring: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames 

Ethan Hunt and the gang return (and, despite the title, probably not for the last time) in this direct sequel to 2023’s “Dead Reckoning — Part One.” It continues the story of Hunt's battle against the Entity, a rogue AI capable of controlling Earth’s defense and financial networks. Cruise will be hoping that the relatively disappointing box-office performance of “Dead Reckoning” was just a blip in the long-running franchise’s success.  

‘A Minecraft Movie’ 

Director: Jared Hess 

Starring: Jack Black, Jason Momoa, Emma Myers 

Given the success of films based on video games or board games in recent years, a movie based on “Minecraft” — the pop-culture phenomenon sandbox game that has sustained its popularity for more than a decade now — was all but inevitable. The resulting adventure comedy centers around a team of misfits who are “pulled through a mysterious portal into the Overworld: a bizarre cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination,” according to a Warner Bros. synopsis. “To get back home, they’ll have to master this world … while embarking on a magical quest with an unexpected, expert crafter.”