Putting a Crystal Ball on 2025: Pop Culture Predictions
What will be the Moo Deng of 2025?
2024 brought forth an interesting era of pop culture with the Olympics, a convergence of politics and celebrity, and TikTok continuing to prove its sway on the cultural conversation. (Who was saying demure before this year? Would Chappell Roan be as big without the many HOT TO GO! trends?)
This year felt packed full of news, likely because with every passing day, we get more and more access to all the things going on around us. There is an ongoing genocide happening in Gaza and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are still being murdered, many of them children. Yet in the Western world, the news was still captivated by the silliness of our pop culture landscape from Hawk Tuah’s prolonged 15 minutes of fame to the Costco Boys and their adoption of the Rizzler. It’s a harsh and unfortunate double reality, and before moving into the rest of this article of predictions for the new year, I would like to say my number one hope is that politicians will do less of the conversing with celebrities mentioned above and more to end this genocide once and for all. It is unbelievable and horrendous how long this violence, oppression, and displacement has gone on not only in 2024, but for the last century.
With this year-end recap/look ahead, it feels wrong to summarize exciting moments of the entertainment world without acknowledging how devastating this year has been to another piece of the world. I wouldn’t want to shift to a lighter note— and unfortunately take part in this double reality that many of us are beneficiaries of— without making that stance abundantly clear.
With that being said, I’d like to share my top 10 predictions for what I think we’ll be seeing across music, movies, and sports.
Ayo Edebiri has a breakout dramatic performance
Early this month, the lineup for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival was announced, and it included Opus, a horror film starring Ayo Edebiri. It follows a journalist who’s invited to a pop star’s compound, and from logline alone it feels like a shift from her usual comedic performances. While I expect there to be comedy in this film, I think we will hear of more projects that could include a strong dramatic role from one of the most employed stars in Hollywood.
Rachel Zegler does a stint in Hadestown
While it’s just been announced that the Original Broadway Cast will be returning to Hadestown on the West End, I’m predicting that we’ll see another familiar face on the stage in New York. Rachel Zegler has had a fast and full career in the last few years with several movies that have been big but not done especially well at the box office. She made her official Broadway debut this fall with Romeo and Juliet, and it seems to be this scene that she’s thrived the most. Her bold, songbird-like voice would do very well in the role of Eurydice, and she would easily be up there with Eva Noblezada.
Beyonce announces Black Betty Tour, but it’s 10 dates
Last week on Christmas, Beyonce performed her highly anticipated halftime show and quickly took to Instagram to drop a cryptic post teasing something for January 14th. The internet immediately exploded with speculation of what this could mean, whether an album, a tour, or just another collab with Levi’s. Since the beginning of Renaissance and Act 1 of this current artistic run for her, she has kept quiet on what each Act will hold and when they will even come. With Renaissance, she did a full world tour, but with Cowboy Carter, I’m thinking she will switch up with a much shorter, national tour with 10 dates or less. The image above was captured from one of her announcements of Cowboy Carter, and while there’s been no mention of a Black Betty Tour since, I think fans will indeed be fighting for tickets to 10 sold-out dates.
Jacob Elordi x BAGGU collection
After a bigger 2023, it’s been a fairly quiet year for Jacob Elordi. He has grown to become known for his bags and man pursues, and I think one of his moves in 2025 could, and marketing-wise should, be a collab or line with the increasingly popular bag brand BAGGU. It’s been 2 years since he did the GQ 10 Things I Can’t Live Without video and even there, he shared a tote bag as being something he couldn’t live without. He also talked about the rising costs of bags, so it would be a smart and easy move for him and BAGGU to create his own line of affordable man-purses, totes, and saddle bags.
Taylor Swift goes behind the screen with a ring
It’s been 2 years since Variety announced that Taylor Swift will make her feature-directing debut with a film produced by Searchlight Pictures. In that time, she’s been quite busy with the Eras Tour and attending the Superbowl so it’s not a surprise nothing more has been said about this film. That being said, now that the tour is over, I think she will revisit the already-written script and announce production dates and casting later in the year. For another quick Taylor Swift tidbit, shortly after the movie announcement, I see her announcing that she and Travis Kelce secretly wed.
Aaron Rodgers starts a podcast
A self and Netflix-proclaimed enigma, Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers is one of those players who’s always making headlines for the wrong reasons. He’s extremely vocal, anti-vax, and was asked to be a running mate for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a politician known for being anti-vaccine and pro-conspiracy theories. Aaron Rodgers is also known for psychedelic use and dark retreats, day-long stays in a dark cabin with nothing but him and his thoughts. For all of these reasons, I’m surprised that he doesn’t already have a podcast. It’s probably good for us all that he doesn’t, but I think in 2025 he will fall down the same road as other white, male, self-proclaimed health gurus.
Doechii wins Best New Artist Grammy
Fresh off her third mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal, Doechii has had a huge second half of 2024. The critically acclaimed album has 19 songs, and the creativity, storytelling, and authentic sound have quickly propelled the artist as one to watch. While Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter are frontrunners for the Best New Artist award, I could see this album, her Grammy campaign, and support from her label Top Dawg Entertainment pushing her up to deserve the honor.
Colman Domingo debuts Broadway play
Colman Domingo is another actor who is always working on something, and his momentum doesn’t seem to be dying down anytime soon. He starred in 2 films this year (Sing Sing, Drive Away Dolls) and 1 television series (The Madness), and he has built a career off of a wide variety of performances that show his ability to embody a character. In his recent Actors on Actors interview with Kieran Culkin, he describes his layered approach to tackling a character, and this passion for performance and understanding story could easily translate to directing. Not to mention, he began his career in theater and has a slew of directing credits already. In 2025, I see him returning to the stage to direct an original play.
Best Acting Oscars go young
Mikey Madison (Anora) and Timothee Chalamet (A Complete Unknown) are both topping the Oscar prediction charts for their performances in films released this fall. While Chalamet stands at number 2 on Variety’s Best Actor nominee predictions, Madison has become the most awarded actor in awards season thus far. It’s still very early to make reasonable Oscar predictions, but I could see both making it, and especially Timothee Chalamet who would become the youngest actor to ever win.
Nene Leakes Launches Late-Night Talk Show
Grabbing an audience's attention has always come easy to former Real Housewife Nene Leakes. She was the top star for all the years she was on Real Housewives of Atlanta and several of her quotes (A white refrigerator!) have become long-running memes on the internet. This year, she had a show called “Outrageous Love with Nene Leakes” where she gave couples relationship advice. In 2025, I could see her having a Ziwe-type late-night show full of comedy, drama, and her Real Housewives friends.