Special Feature - Hot Properties

Forthcoming fan favourites

2025 is lining up to be one of the biggest years for films in quite a while (in part due to the SAG-AFTRA strikes, which saw many movie release dates pushed back from 2024). Toy World takes a look at this year’s movie slate, alongside perennial pre-school properties, games, publishing and more, and ponders how they could shape the world of Toys & Games.

If you’re a fan of films, then 2025 is your year. Disney is releasing some highly anticipated live-action remakes in the coming months. While Snow White, arriving in cinemas 21st March, will be the first to debut, all eyes are on Lilo & Stitch, arriving 23rd May. (Happily, this means we’ll all be back from the Toymaster May Show in time for a trip to the cinema.)

The first teaser trailer was released in late November, showing the titular Stitch – looking reassuringly the same, if a little fluffier – gleefully destroying Disneyesque sandcastles on a beautiful Hawaiian beach. If the fan reaction is anything to go by, the release of Lilo & Stitch could well become one of the toy industry’s most pivotal moments of the year, and licensees are lining up to get a slice of the consumer product action. Toy World has seen a number of licensed Stitch ranges at various previews and can confirm that consumers won’t be short of high-quality product to choose from…

Disney is also releasing Marvel Studio’s Captain America: Brave New World on 14th February –romantic cinema trip for two, anyone? – followed by Marvel Studio’s Thunderbolts on 2nd May and The Fantastic Four: First Steps on 25th July. The studio is also celebrating Toy Story’s 30th anniversary. Being decidedly toyetic, lending themselves particularly well to action figures and play sets, these will all provide new opportunities for licensees.

Other notable live-action releases include How to Train Your Dragon, from Universal’s DreamWorks Animation (13th June). The remake, from Dean Deblois - the director of 2010’s original animation - looks glorious, and with Spin Master expanding its master toy agreement to cover new dolls, action figures, remote control toys, play sets, vehicles, robotics and feature plush, the summer licensing slate continues to hot up.

Universal is also offering audiences another bite at the Jurassic World cherry with Jurassic World: Rebirth, starring Scarlett Johansen as Zora Bennett, a covert ops specialist who ends up decidedly in danger after arriving on an island filled with ferocious dinosaurs (and a few civilians). If this sounds familiar, it’s supposed to; screenwriter David Koepp wrote the first two Jurassic Park movies and says the seventh movie in the franchise will see it return to its beloved roots – much to the delight of fans of the original, who felt the more recent movies strayed just a little too far from the property’s DNA. As they say: “Life, uh, finds a way.”

According to Warner Bros. Discovery, it’s going to be the ‘Summer of Superman’ thanks to James Gunn’s new take on the caped superhero, Superman: Legacy. The studio hasn’t released much info – the first teaser trailer only landed on 19th December, an early Christmas present to the legions of fans who’d been demanding a proper look at David Corenswet in the role for months – and we can’t yet reveal who’s on board as master toy partner (but feel free to guess; we’re saying nothing). If you want to find out what we can reveal about the movie, turn to pages 82 and 84 to read our fabulous exclusive interview with Philippe Roucoule, senior vice president of EMEA Consumer Products at Warner Bros. Discovery. Of course, the focus isn’t only on the big screen this year; pre-schoolers will be spoilt for choice with new content and CP arriving across a raft of perennially popular properties. Disney is preparing for its latest Marvel pre-school expression to hit screens, with Iron Man And His Awesome Friends debuting on Disney Jr and Disney+ later this year, while Blue Zoo is betting big on Mojo Swoptops, an exciting new animated actioncomedy, and Magic Light Pictures’ Pip and Posy will expand into categories such as Greetings, Stationery, Role-Play, Arts & Crafts and Softlines. Paramount’s Paw Patrol (produced by Spin Master Entertainment) will continue to captivate fans with exciting new themes such as Air Rescue, while a new series of spin-off Rubble & Crew will also launch this year. Dora the Explorer turns 25 this year, the same year seasons three and four

of the new animation arrive (and a live-action Dora film, Dora & the Search for Sol Dorado, is scheduled to premiere on Paramount+ in 2025). And while BBC’s Bluey continues to top the viewing charts in the UK and overseas and welcomes new theme ‘Let’s Play Chef’ for 2025, it’s 2027 that fans are looking forward to, with a new feature length Bluey movie now confirmed (literally as this piece was being written). And over at Hasbro, there is big news for its flagship pre-school brand, as Peppa welcomes… well, we’ll tell you more about that when the embargo finally lifts. But it’s big news and this ‘secret development’ will surely give the franchise a healthy boost in 2025.

In gaming franchises, Rovio’s Angry Birds is flying high following its celebratory 15th anniversary in 2024 and the launch of its new longform series, Angry Birds Mystery Island, on Amazon Prime and Kids+. This year, the franchise will introduce fresh content and extend its licensing programme. From birds to cats, Outfit 7’s chatty feline, Talking Tom, is entering the new year having scooped a number of Guinness World Records. And Sonic is poised to unveil new consumer product collaborations, fresh content releases and surprises slated for 2025, as the brand gears up to celebrate its 35th anniversary next year.

Hello Kitty turned 50 in 2024. As she enters a new year, Sanrio’s kawaii cutie will benefit from a fresh range of licensed products from new master toy partner Giochi Preziosi. With its themes of friendship, kindness and

inclusion, the Hello Kitty and Friends range is poised to be a retail success. Miraculous is also celebrating, as 2025 marks the 10th anniversary of Miraculous - Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir. Broadcast in over 150 countries, Miraculous will unveil season six in early 2025, with season seven already in production for a 2026 release. In the UK, the show arrived on CBBC late in 2024 after BBC Children’s and Education secured the broadcast rights from Miraculous Corp, bringing the adventures of Marinette and Adrien to even more children across the globe.

In publishing, Beano is celebrating the enduring ‘a-peel’ of Bananaman, which is celebrating turning the ripe old age of 45 this year by releasing a special anniversary issue of the comic on 12th February. Science Museum is also bringing its education and STEM expertise to bear in a new publishing partnership with Farshore, which is publishing the first ever Science Museum Annaul. Mr. Fib and Little Miss Surprise, meanwhile, joined Sanrio’s Mr Men Little Miss line-up in the form of new books in September 2024, while a new deal with French studio Watch Next will see the characters arrive on the small screen in a new animated pre-school comedy series.