8 Must-Watch Movies on Peacock Right Now (May 2025)

Marriage isn’t easy — but it’s even tougher when you and your spouse are professional liars. In this thriller from Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brockovich, Ocean’s Eleven), George (Michael Fassbender) and Kathryn (Cate Blanchett) play married British Intelligence agents who are well known for their professional skill and their deep devotion to one another. When plans for a dangerous government weapon are leaked, fellow agent James (Bridgerton‘s Regé-Jean Page) tells George that Kathryn is under suspicion. 

Fassbender and Blanchett are terrific as a couple who try to untangle the web of deception they’ve intentionally woven to keep their marriage safe. It’s a sexy, tense story that touches on love, loyalty and secrecy. Like the weapon at the center of the story, Black Bag feels like it could explode at any moment, and that tension will keep you glued to the screen.

Once upon a time, some people claimed movies starring women weren’t funny. (Okay, some people still probably say that, but they’re jerks.) Bridesmaids proved the haters wrong by becoming Paul Feig’s (A Simple Favor) highest-grossing film so far. It’s a raunchy, clever and brutally honest movie about female friendship starring Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph. It was Melissa McCarthy‘s breakout role and gave us the most iconic wedding dress-shopping scene of all time.

Annie (Wiig) is a down-on-her-luck baker whose only positive relationship is with her best friend Lillian (Rudolph). But when Lillian gets engaged and asks Annie to be her maid of honor, Annie finds herself battling her own feelings of inadequacy, as well as Lillian’s new friend, the seemingly perfect Helen (Rose Byrne). When wedding drama threatens to tear them apart, can Annie and Lillian find their way back to each other?

Murder and comedy? It might seem an unexpected combination, but My Cousin Vinny proves beyond a reasonable doubt that they go together like grits and butter. In this hilarious Joe Pesci film, Bill and Stan (Ralph Macchio and Mitchell Whitfield) are driving out to college when they’re wrongfully arrested for the murder of a grocery clerk in Alabama. Their only hope? Bill’s cousin, Vinny (Pesci), is technically an attorney but has just recently passed the bar and has never tried a case in his life. Vinny and his girlfriend Mona Lisa (Marisa Tomei) roll into the Deep South and find themselves wildly out of place

The relationship between Vinny and Lisa is the heart of the film, and Tomei deservedly won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the role. (She has so many memorable monologues that it’s hard to pick a favorite.) The script is clever and original, with memorable dialogue and fantastic performances. It’s also been praised by actual lawyers for its realistic depiction of courtroom procedure. Do yourself a favor and watch it.

It’s time to try defying gravity. Or at the very least, it’s time to try watching Wicked on Peacock. Cynthia Erivo stars as Elphaba, the green girl with strange powers who would go on to become the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. When Elphaba goes off to Shiz University and is made to room with the spoiled, popular Galinda (Ariana Grande), the two girls find an unexpected kinship that changes their lives forever.

Erivo and Grande’s Oscar-nominated performances are delightful, showcasing their phenomenal singing and acting chops. Jonathan Bailey (of Bridgerton fame) is particularly dreamy as devil-may-care Prince Fiyero, and it’s easy to see why both Elphaba and Galinda find themselves harboring feelings for him. 

The sets, which were built mostly using practical effects, are stunning. (Director Jon M. Chu says the production actually planted nine million tulips to create the colorful landscape of Munchkinland.) But despite the silly-sounding names and the magical setting, Wicked tells a story of a woman bravely standing up for what is right at the cost of her own reputation and happiness. Though Wicked looks like a sugary dessert of a film, it provides plenty of hearty food for thought.

In this animated feature film based on a popular series of children’s books, a helper robot named Roz (Lupita Nyong’o) becomes lost in the forest. Through a series of accidents, she becomes responsible for orphaned gosling Brightbill (Kit Connor) and goes from emotionless automaton to loving mother. With the help of a clever fox (Pedro Pascal) and an entertaining cast of forest creatures (Catherine O’Hara, Mark Hamill and Bill Nighy are a few of the other stars lending their voices to this film), Roz helps Brightbill learn to soar — both literally and metaphorically. 

It’s easy to see why this movie was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film. The visuals in The Wild Robot will take your breath away — the backdrops resemble a watercolor painting while the animal and robot characters are expressive and lifelike. Roz’s devotion to her charge, as well as her frustration with the thankless task, are sure to resonate with parents, while the action and the comedy will certainly entertain kids. It will warm even the most robotic of hearts.

This 2020 adaptation of the Jane Austen novel is warm, stylized and witty. It stars Anya Taylor-Joy as the titular heroine and Bill Nighy as her doting, albeit neurotic, father. Director Autumn de Wilde plays up the quirkiness and the comedy of this story of matchmaking and miscommunication, adding new nuances to a classic tale. 

Taylor-Joy’s performance brings realism to Emma Woodhouse, whose insistence on meddling in the relationships of those around her masks a deep fear of showing any vulnerability herself. The sets and costumes are beautifully designed, full of whimsical pastels and floral motifs that transport you deep into the film’s romantic world. To paraphrase Emma’s love interest, Mr. Knightley (Johnny Flynn), “If we loved this movie less, we might be able to talk about it more.”

While Disney has been churning out live-action remakes of their beloved properties like an assembly line over the past decade, it’s taken DreamWorks until 2025 to release their first live-action remake — a live-action version of How to Train Your Dragon is coming to theaters in June. 

After watching the original film, you’ll see why Universal chose it as their first remake. How to Train Your Dragon is an inspirational, moving animated movie about a boy named Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) who lives in the Viking village of Berk. Berk is constantly under attack from dragons, so the Vikings who live there all must train to fight the fearsome reptiles. But Hiccup, a creative out-of-the-box thinker who’d rather use his head than his small, wiry fists, discovers a secret about the dragons that will change his world forever.

With stellar performances from Baruchel, America Ferrera, Gerard Butler and Craig Ferguson (plus several more comedy stars in supporting roles), a soaring soundtrack and a heartwarming friendship at its core, How to Train Your Dragon is almost certainly DreamWorks’ best animated film. 

While Stranger Than Fiction certainly has its funny moments, it’s mostly a dramatic film, so it might surprise you to learn that Will Ferrell is the leading man — and that he wears the role very well. Ferrell plays Harold Crick, an IRS auditor who abruptly begins hearing a mysterious voice (Emma Thompson) narrating his life. When the voice says that he is about to die, he begins doing all he can to change his fate.  With the help of a literature professor (Dustin Hoffman), he realizes he is the protagonist in a novel and begins seeking out the author who holds his life in her hands.

Stranger Than Fiction is a clever, surprising movie about the strange ways our lives are interconnected. Ferrell reveals a side of his talent that viewers have rarely seen from him before or since. The strange twists and turns of the story result in a sweet, meaningful movie that leaves you questioning what makes a great “life story.”