New Year, new reading goals. It’s that season again when anything feels possible: Maybe this is the year you’ll finally tackle that dust-laden copy of “Infinite Jest” sitting on your shelf, or earn your “I finished ‘The Power Broker’” mug. And for binge watchers, it’s also the perfect chance to study up by diving into the books that are being adapted into movies and TV shows in 2025. Here are some of the thrillers, romances, sci-fi page turners and detective novels coming soon to a screen near you.
This is a running list. Check back for more updates as the year goes on.
By Matthew Quirk
Peter Sutherland is an F.B.I. agent who works at the White House, monitoring an emergency phone line that seldom rings. One night, he receives a distressing call from a woman named Rose Larkin, who reports that two people have just been murdered. What follows is a whirlwind of action and suspense as the two become entangled in a conspiracy involving high-level corruption and espionage.
Season 2 of “The Night Agent” premieres on Netflix on Jan. 23.
By Arthur Conan Doyle
There have been no shortage of screen versions of Sherlock Holmes, Doyle’s beloved British detective: According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the persnickety genius is the second-most portrayed literary character in the history of film. In “Watson,” the latest adaptation, however, the focus is on Dr. John Watson, Holmes’s loyal confidant and the frequent narrator of his escapades. Though the series is not inspired by a specific book or story, “A Study in Scarlet” is a delectable primer on the two men’s longstanding friendship.
“Watson” premieres on CBS and Paramount+ on Jan. 26.
By Dav Pilkey
In this spinoff of Pilkey’s “Captain Underpants” universe, Dog Man — a part-dog, part-human police officer — and his eccentric friends battle villains and solve crimes. Blending humor, action and heart, the graphic novel series teaches young readers about friendship and bravery — all brought to life through colorful illustrations and quirky anthropomorphic characters. It has already been adapted into an Off Broadway musical. Now it heads to the big screen.
“Dog Man” premieres in theaters on Jan. 31.
By Helen Fielding
In this third installment of Fielding’s series about an endearingly hapless British diarist, Bridget Jones is adjusting to widowed life after the death of her husband, Mark Darcy. Raising her two young children as a single mother now in her 50s, she juggles her career and navigates romantic mishaps with characteristic wit and self-deprecating humor. The book, our critic wrote, “is not only sharp and humorous, despite its heroine’s aged circumstances, but also snappily written, observationally astute and at times genuinely moving.”
“Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” premieres on Peacock on Feb. 13.
By Michael Bond
Paddington was still in Peru when he first appeared on the big screen in 2014. Now, over a decade later, he returns to his home country with his adopted Brown family in the third installment of this fan-favorite film series, inspired by Bond’s beloved books. Dozens of titles, including novels, picture books and short story collections, have been published since the clumsy brown bear made his print debut in 1958, but “A Bear Called Paddington” remains a perfect introduction to the marmalade enthusiast.
“Paddington in Peru” premieres in theaters on Feb. 14.
By Giuseppe di Lampedusa
In this 1958 novel, now being given the mini-series treatment, Prince Don Fabrizio Corbera grapples with the decline of his aristocratic family’s status in 1860s Sicily, as Giuseppe Garibaldi leads the Risorgimento campaign to overthrow the monarchy and unite Italy as one nation-state. Lampedusa was himself the last in a line of Sicilian princes, and he drew heavily on his own family’s story to craft this tale about the rise of a new bourgeois class and Prince Fabrizio’s struggles to find his place in a rapidly changing world.
“The Leopard” premieres on Netflix on March 5.
By Edward Ashton
Mickey, an “expendable” worker on a remote ice planet, knows he will most likely die on the job. But no matter: Cloning exists in this space colony and, after one version of Mickey dies, a new one will regenerate. After Mickey7 goes missing on a space mission, Mickey8 is immediately created. The only problem? Mickey7 is still alive. (And in case eight regenerations weren’t enough, the director Bong Joon Ho takes it 10 steps further in his film adaptation, “Mickey17,” starring Robert Pattinson as Mickey.)
“Mickey17” premieres in theaters on March 7.
By Dennis Tafoya
Ray and his best friend, Manny, met in a juvenile detention facility. Nearly two decades later, they’ve found a way to make a living by posing as D.E.A. agents and raiding drug houses in Philadelphia. It’s a simple and lucrative grift — until a poorly chosen mark puts them in the cross hairs of a dangerous kingpin. High-speed car chases, bloody violence and many flying bullets ensue.
“Dope Thief” premieres on Apple TV+ on March 14.
By Hilary Mantel
“The Mirror and Light” is the final book in Mantel’s “Wolf Hall” trilogy, which chronicles Thomas Cromwell’s rise to power in Henry VIII’s capricious court. It’s a sinewy, imaginative work of historical fiction that delights in the psyche of a man whose political maneuvering and ambitions lead him to the pinnacle of power — and to his own undoing. The actor Mark Rylance, who won a BAFTA for his portrayal of Cromwell in the 2015 mini series that covered the trilogy’s first two novels, returns for this final chapter.
“Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light” premieres on PBS on March 23.
