Good things that could potentially happen in 2025

Today (if you happen to be reading this when it publishes) is New Year’s Eve, which means it’s time to say goodbye to the turd of a year that was 2024 and prepare to welcome in the Turd Double Down of 2025, which is sure to bring fresh hells and horrors the likes of which we can likely barely comprehend.

But let’s not dwell on that now! It’s time to start compartmentalizing like a son of a bitch whenever we’re not practicing civil disobedience, and one way we can do that is by trying to focus on the positive. (And also, of course, affect local change in your immediate community and offer support, kindness, empathy, understanding and sanctuary for whoever may need it.) Focus on what you can control, of course, and try not to fixate on the monsters lurking just off the borders of the map.

But we can also hope, and let’s hope for some mostly innocent and potentially positive things that could possibly happen in 2025. Here’s a short list of some maybe-good things that might occur in the coming year. And then we’ll get to No. 2 on our Community Coen Brothers Countdown. The top two are here! Thanks again to everyone for participating with your personal rankings.

1. A New Lonely Island album

There’s no guarantee this could actually happen, but if you’ve been watching Saturday Night Live this season or been listening to the Seth Meyers and Lonely Island podcast (which I absolutely cannot recommend enough; every single episode is spectacular and hilarious), you know that Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer (and possibly Jorma Taccone as well, although he’s been hard at work testing out saunas in Finland) have been working on new music, and have already produced two absolute bangers in the form of “Sushi Glory Hole” and “Here I Go.”

So that means there is at least a possibility that 2025 could be the year we get the fourth Lonely Island album (or sixth, depending on whether you count the soundtracks to Popstar and The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience.) Should that come to pass, it would be definite cause for celebration. If nothing else, 2025 will offer films directed by both Schaffer and Taccone, the former being a reboot of The Naked Gun starring Liam Neeson. Feel however you want to feel about that collection of words, but you can’t deny it’s intriguing.

2. Star Trek

If you happen to subscribe to Paramount+, you may know that there is, like, more Star Trek out right now than any one person can reasonably consume in a given week. But part of that output is Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, the best ongoing Trek series to air since Deep Space Nine. (It’s fine if you don’t share that opinion, but it’s nice to have a series that is good AND fun and stars actual human beings, and features a captain not only with hair, but with exceptional hair.) The third season of SNW will air in 2025, and by the way, if you need a Star Trek podcast to listen to, you should listen to Trek, Marry, Kill, which is hosted by two people very dear to me. (One more than the other, but no offense Bryan).

Another exciting Star Trek thing that happens in 2025 is Star Trek: Section 31, a Paramount+ original Trek movie starring Michelle Yeoh. Neat!

(Oh and also, I’m having a 20% off sale on this Substack from now until January 31, so if you become a paid subscriber now, you get to read the other good things that could happen this year! Neat!)

Become a paid subscriber by January 31 and get 20% off. That’s a good thing that could happen in 2025!