LGBTQ+ movie and TV fans used to have to scour the archives of the indie and festival scene to find queer-friendly stories. In 2025 weve finally made enough progress that gay-friendly cinema is one of the most relevant genres being made today. Some of Hollywoods most famous stars are willing to attach their names to pride-filled projects, a brave act that catapults these films and series into the mainstream.As we turn the page to a new year its a great time to look forward to plenty of new LGBTQ+ movies and TV series. From cop romance dramas to some of Netflix and Maxs most iconic shows, these are the queer stories were excited to tune in for in the next 12 months.John Lithgow and Olivia Coleman in Jimpa. Photo: Protagonist PicturesJimpaOlivia Coleman and John Lithgow? What more could you ask for? These legendary screen icons will bring much critical and fan attention to Jimpa, one of the most anticipated LGBTQ+ dramas to debut at the Sundance Film Festival in recent times.Coleman will play a character that has a nonbinary child. Lithgow plays the beloved gay grandfather that Colemans child needs in their life. With so many respected actors and Sophie Hyde as the director, Jimpa has the potential to make people rethink the way queer people can support each other within the same family and across generations.PlainclothesPlainclothes is yet another anticipated Sundance Film Festival 2025 movie that fans of feel-good romance movies should look forward to. Russell Tovey plays a cop who accidentally falls in love with a target during an assignment to arrest gay men around New York in the 1990s. The movie is inspired by events such as the Metropolitan Police performing a witchhunt against gay men in London during the same decade. Tovey is familiar to queer audiences with performances in series such as American Horror Story: NYC and Looking.The Wedding BanquetThe Wedding Banquet made big waves in the 1990s. Directed by Ang Lee, the movie is a story of a bisexual man torn between a lavender marriage and his true desires to be with his gay love. This remake will be directed by Andrew Ahn and stars Lily Gladstone and Kelly Marie Tran.It remains unclear whether the story will be a direct translation of the original plot or will tweak the characters. It comes out in theaters on April 18.YellowjacketsHorror and LGBTQ+ are genres that go together like peanut butter and jelly. The lived experience of overcoming the scariest parts of homophobia and societal judgment as a queer person works in perfect unison with scary movies and shows. The frightening elements serve as a fitting analogy for queerness.Yellowjackets follows the journey of a group of high school soccer players when they crash in the wilderness. The show jumps between that timeline and the contemporary one in the 2020s to demonstrate how the past and present are always working in conjunction with each other. With confirmed lesbian romances and ones that are rife with bisexual questioning, Yellowjackets is the quintessential queer adventure series for LGBTQ+ fans. The show returns to Showtime and Paramount+ on February 14.Stranger ThingsYoud be forgiven if you forgot what happened the last time Stranger Things released new episodes on Netflix. Vecna last terrorized the Upside Down in the summer of 2022, but the streamer claims the final season will finally come out sometime in 2025.Set in the 1980s, Stranger Things has been daring in experimenting with queer relationships and characters thus far and in the process has allowed older generations to see their upbringing manifested on the small screen the way it should have been four decades ago. Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) and Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke) are the two LGBTQ+ characters to watch in season 5.The Last of UsPedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey helped make the first season of The Last of Us one of the most successful video game adaptations of all time. While the main relationship drama that pushes the plot forward is the father/daughter dynamic between Joel and Ellie as they adventure through an undead-inundated wasteland, Ellies sexuality will also be explored much more in season two on Max.Ellies girlfriend, Dina (Isabela Merced), will make her debut throughout the new episodes that start releasing some time in April. Mainstream lesbian relationships are severely lacking in recent years on TV. The Last of Us has a burden and responsibility to make this pairing shine and theres no reason to expect anything other than sharp writing and great acting just as we saw in the maiden season.The History of SoundHistorical LGBTQ+ dramas give a voice to those queer people who were silenced. The History of Sound is a World War I film starring Paul Mescal and Josh OConnor as two companions who bond through the trauma of the early 20th centurys greatest human conflict, by recording the songs that soldiers used to capture the loneliness of the battlefield. OConnor already has experience in the queer drama sphere with his starring turn in Challengers. The History of Sound will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.The HousekeeperUma Thurman and Phoebe Dynevor star in this period drama set in the 1930s. A housekeeper and a novelist fall into a secret love affair against all odds while trying to hide their true identities from the world. Set against The Great Depression, The Housekeeper should transport viewers back to a time when being LGBTQ+ was more societally unacceptable, the stress of which was exacerbated by the financial burdens of the decade. It is unannounced when the film will be released but it is tentatively set for sometime in 2025.Kiss of the Spider WomanJennifer Lopez and Diego Luna are the big names in this retelling of Kiss of the Spider Woman, which was previously an award-winning Broadway musical and a novel. Lopez is a film star in the imagination of Luis Molina, a gay man who dreams of a better life while wrongly imprisoned during the Argentine Dirty War. This one will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January.The post LGBTQ+ stories to watch: The most anticipated movies and TV shows of 2025 appeared first on News Is Out.