A Year in Shadows: Vol 41

Wrapping up the 41st volume of Shadows on the Wall with the 52 covers over the course of 2025. Films featured in order are: Nosferatu, A Real Pain, A Complete Unknown, The Brutalist, Hard Truths, September 5, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Mickey 17, Black Bag, Snow White, Novocaine, A Minecraft Movie, Warfare, Sinners, The Accountant 2, Thunderbolts, The Wedding Banquet, Good One, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, The Phoenician Scheme, Ballerina, How to Train Your Dragon, Elio, F1, Jurassic World: Rebirth, Superman, Smurfs, The Fantastic 4: First Steps, The Naked Gun, Freakier Friday, Materialists, The Life of Chuck, The Roses, The Conjuring: Last Rites, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, The Lost Bus, Dead of Winter, The Smashing Machine, Roofman, Frankenstein, Hedda, Bugonia, Train Dreams, Jay Kelly, Wicked: For Good, Wake Up Dead Man, It Was Just an Accident, Ella MacCay, Avatar: Fire & Ash and Marty Supreme, plus Bafta and Oscar. Full-sized versions can be found in posts here and on social media from throughout the year.

And here's the traditional flurry of unnecessary trivia...

Unusually, only two people appeared on two covers this year: Timothee Chalamet had two all to himself, with A Complete Unknown (in January) and Marty Supreme (in December); Pedro Pascal appears on two alongside his costars in The Fantastic 4: First Steps (in July) and Materialists (in August).

Getting their own solo covers: Adrian Brody, Lily Collias, Kit Connor, David Corenswet, Tom Cruise, Ana de Armas, Benicio del Toro, Tom Hiddleston, Emma Mackey, Robert Pattinson, Brad Pitt, Jack Quaid, Emma Stone, Channing Tatum, Mason Thames, Emma Thompson and Tessa Thompson. And George Clooney shares a cover with his younger self.

Sharing a cover with one or more costars: Ben Affleck, Pamela Anderson, Michele Austin, Ryan Bader, Jonathan Bailey, Leonie Benesch, Jon Bernthal, Jack Black, Cate Blanchett, Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, Miles Caton, Ben Chaplin, Glenn Close, Olivia Colman, Daniel Craig, Kieran Culkin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jamie Lee Curtis, Britain Dalton, Lily-Rose Depp, Joel Edgerton, Jesse Eisenberg, Ali Elyasmehr, Cynthia Erivo, Chris Evans, Vera Farmiga, Michael Fassbender, America Ferrera, Gal Gadot, Lily Gladstone, Ariana Grande, Christopher Guest, Thomas Haden Church, David Harbour, Oscar Isaac, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hannah John-Kamen, Scarlett Johansson, Dakota Johnson, Dwayne Johnson, Felicity Jones, David Jonsson, Michael B Jordan, Vanessa Kirby, Mila Kunis, Lindsay Lohan, John Magaro, James McAvoy, Matthew McConaughey, Daryl McCormack, Michael McKean, Jason Momoa, Wunmi Mosaku, Liam Neeson, Josh O'Connor, Hadis Pakbaten, Madjid Panahi, Lewis Pullman, Florence Pugh, Joseph Quinn, Jeremy Renner, Wyatt Russell, Andrew Scott, Harry Shearer, Bill Skarsgard, Cailee Spaeny, Sebastian Stan, Kelly Marie Tran, Patrick Wilson, Leo Woodall, Letitia Wright, Renee Zellweger, Rachel Zegler, Kerry Washington andSam Worthington.

On a cover but without their face showing - either obscured or as an animated character they voiced: Jacob Elordi (back), Andrew Barth Feldman (dwarf silhouette), Tituss Burgess (dwarf silhouette), James Corden (smurf), John Goodman (smurf), Yonas Kibreab (Elio), Martin Klebba (dwarf silhouette), Jason Kravits (dwarf silhouette), Olga Kurylenko (masked), Billie Lourd (smurf), Natasha Lyonne (poot), Xolo Maridueña (smurf), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (thing), Rihanna (smurf), George Salazar (dwarf silhouette), Jeremy Swift (dwarf silhouette), Andy Grotelueschen (dwarf silhouette) and Matthew Wood (robot).

The most crowded covers: Wake Up Dead Man (11), Snow White (9), September 5 (8), Smurfs (8) and Thunderbolts (7).

There were no animal covers this year, although critters appear in the margins for Snow White, A Minefield Movie and Jurassic Park: Rebirth. There's a big teddy bear for Roofman. And the most prominent creature is Toothless for How to Train Your Dragon.

And finally, here are some outtake covers that were designed but never used for a reason that seemed good at the time: Opus (bumped for Black Bag on 14 Mar), Jurassic World: Rebirth (alternate draft for 4 Jul), Fantastic 4 (alternate draft for 25 Jul), Caught Stealing (bumped for The Roses on 29 Aug), Plainclothes (bumped for The Lost Bus on 19 Sep) and Wake Up Dead Man (an LFF version bumped for Frankenstein on 17 Oct, then rejigged to use on 28 Nov).

A Year in Shadows: Vol 40

And so the 40th year of Shadows on the Wall wraps as another 51 covers have been published over the past year, featuring these films in order: Good Grief, Poor Things, The Holdovers, All of Us Strangers, American Fiction, The Iron Claw, Bob Marley: One Love, Wicked Little Letters, Dune: Part Two, Drive-Away Dolls, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Mothers' Instinct, Io Capitano, Back to Black, The Book of Clarence, Challengers, The Fall Guy, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, IF, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Young Woman and the Sea, The Dead Don't Hurt, Inside Out 2, The Bikeriders, Kinds of Kindness, Unicorns, Fly Me to the Moon, Twisters, Deadpool & Wolverine, Kneecap, Borderlands, Alien: Romulus, The Substance, Black Dog, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, The Critic, Transformers One, Megalopolos, Joker: Folie à Deux, We Live in Time, The Wild Robot, Emilia Pérez, Anora, Paddington in Peru, Wicked: Part I, Maria, Nightbitch, Kraven the Hunter, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and Better Man, plus the Oscar cover. Of course, full-sized versions of these covers have been posted here on the blog throughout the year.

Trivia alert!

Appearing on multiple covers this year were Aaron Taylor-Johnson (one solo and one shared), Olivia Colman (2 shared), Ryan Reynolds (2 shared) and Zendaya (2 shared). Two others appeared once as themselves and once as an animated character they voice:  Emily Blunt (unicorn) and Scarlett Johansson (robot).

Getting a cover all to themselves:  Marisa Abela, Amy Adams, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Karla Sofía Gascón, Angelina Jolie, Mikey Madison,Ian McKellan,Jason Patel, Jesse Plemons, Daisy Ridley, Seydou Sarr, LaKeith Stanfield, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jeffrey Wright and Demi Moore, who shares her cover with herself. 

Sharing a cover with costars: Freya Allen, Antonio Banderas, Cate Blanchett, Emily Blunt, Hugh Bonneville, Jesse Buckley, Austin Butler, Timothée Chalamet, Jessica Chastain, Jodie Comer, Carrie Coon, Jamie Lee Curtis, Harris Dickinson, Adam Driver, Winston Duke, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Zac Efron, Nathalie Emmanuel, Cynthia Erivo, Mike Faist, Cailey Fleming, Lady Gaga, Andrew Garfield, Paul Giamatti, Ryan Gosling, Mckenna Grace, Ariana Grande, Ariana Greenblatt, Madeleine Harris, Kevin Hart, Anne Hathaway, Chris Hemsworth, Lachy Hulme, Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel Joslin, Michael Keaton, Logan Kim, Vicky Krieps, Dan Levy, Paul Mescal, Viggo Mortensen, Emily Mortimer, Florian Munteanu, Ruth Negga, Naoise Ó Cairealláin, Celeste O'Connor, JJ Ó Dochartaigh, Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh, Jenna Ortega, Eddie Peng, Himesh Patel, Glen Powell, Florence Pugh, Margaret Qualley, Anthony Ramos, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Archie Renaux, Ryan Reynolds, Paul Rudd, Mark Ruffalo, Winona Ryder, Andrew Scott, Dominic Sessa, Stanley Simons, Cailee Spaeny, Emma Stone, Channing Tatum, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Anya Taylor-Joy, Geraldine Viswanathan, Hannah Waddingham, Julie Walters, Jeremy Allen White, Finn Wolfhard and Zendaya.

Appearing as an animated character they voiced: Lewis Black (emotion), Emily Blunt (unicorn), Steve Carrell (furball), Kit Connor (goose), Ayo Edebiri (emotion), Adèle Exarchopoulos (emotion), Tony Hale (emotion), Paul Walter Hauser (emotion), Maya Hawke (emotion), Scarlett Johansson (robot), Keegan-Michael Key (robot), Liza Lapira (emotion), Lupita Nyong'o (robot), Pedro Pascal (fox), Amy Poehler (emotion), Reece Shearsmith (gnome), Phyllis Smith (emotion), Owen Teague (ape), Phoebe Waller-Bridge (doll), Ben Whishaw (bear), Ben Whitehead (inventor), Robbie Williams (monkey).

The most crowded covers: Paddington in Peru and Inside Out 2 with 9 each.

And finally, here are three outtake covers that were designed but never used: Kung Fu Panda (which was bumped by the Oscar cover), Broken Bird (which opened FrightFest but was bumped for closing film The Substance) and My Old Ass (bumped by Megalopolis).

A Year in Shadows: 2018

TRIVIA ALERT:

This year's stars, who appeared on two covers: Cate Blanchett, Emily Blunt, Jessica Chastain, Dwayne Johnson, Eddie Redmayne* (once as a plasticine caveman),  John C Reilly* (once as a videogame character)

On one cover on their own: Aml Ameen, Chadwick Boseman*, Cher, Glenn Close, Tom Cruise, Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Ryan Gosling, Lily James, Mindy Kaling, Daniel Kaluuya, Rami Malek, Chloe Grace Moretz, Liam Neeson, Evan Peters, Rosamund Pike, Ryan Reynolds*, Amanda Seyfried, Jason Statham, Tilda Swinton, Charlize Theron, Emma Thompson, Alicia Vikander

On one shared cover: Adeel Akhtar, Jack Black, Helena Bonham Carter, Olivia Colman, Steve Coogan, Bradley Cooper, Sandra Bullock, Rob Brydon, Jim Carter, Sam Claflin, Akwafina, Michael Douglas, Alden Ehrenreich, Chris Evans, Laurence Fishburne, Ben Foster, Lady Gaga, Gael Garcia Bernal*, Rupert Graves, Walton Goggins, Anthony Gonzalez*, Stephen Graham, Danai Guria, Tiffany Haddish, Kevin Hart, Anne Hathaway, Scarlett Johansson, Hannah John-Kamen*, Jake Johnson*, Anna Kendrick, Jude Law, Evangeline Lilly, Blake Lively, Thomasin Harcourt Mackenzie, Daniel Mays, Shameik Moore*, Sarah Paulson, Michael Pena, Chris Pine, Michelle Pfeiffer, Joaquin Phoenix, Chris Pratt, Jonathan Pryce, Florence Pugh, Koyu Rankin*, Rihanna, Margot Robbie, Saoirse Ronan, Paul Rudd, Mark Ruffalo*, Ekaterina Samsonov, Sarah Silverman*, Justice Smith, Hailee Steinfeld*, Emma Stone, Joonas Suotamo*, Thomas Turgoose, Owen Vaccaro, Rachel Weisz

Twice on one cover: Tye Sheridan (once animated)

Nine times on one cover: Jimmy Kimmel

Plus: a pig, a dinosaur, a shark, nine dogs and a crowd of animated Disney princesses.

* includes animated or face-obscured characters

A Year in Shadows: 2017

TRIVIA ALERT: 

This year's stars, who appeared on three covers: Channing Tatum* (once as Lego Superman) and Wonder Woman (twice as Gal Gadot, once as a Lego).

On two covers: Ben Affleck, John Boyega, Tom Cruise, Judi Dench, Vin Diesel*, Adam Driver, Gal Gadot, Jake Gyllenhaal, Sally Hawkins, Tom Holland, Oscar Isaac, Hugh Jackman, Daisy Ridley

On one cover on their own: Brian Cox, Chris Hemsworth, Charlie Hunnam, Jimmy Kimmell, Jennifer Lawrence, Noomi Rapace, Kristin Scott Thomas, Andy Serkis*, Peter Simonischek, Dan Stevens, Charlize Theron, Kristen Wiig*, Katherine Waterston, Emma Watson

On one shared cover: Ewen Bremner, Alan Arkin, Will Arnett, Pilou Asbaek, Jeff Bauman, Dave Bautista, Hugh Bonneville, Kenneth Branagh, Michael Caine, Steve Carell*, Robert Carlyle, Gwendoline Christie*, Pierre Coffin*, Miranda Cosgrove*, Bradley Cooper, Daniel Craig, Penelope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Matt Damon, Anthony Daniels*, Daniel Day-Lewis, Elizabeth Debicki, Johnny Depp, Zac Efron, Taron Egerton, Ali Fazal, Oakes Fegley, Rebecca Ferguson, Carrie Fisher, Ray Fisher, Harrison Ford, Morgan Freeman, Josh Gadd, Dana Gaier*, Karen Gillan, Brendan Gleeson, Emily Gordon, Ryan Gosling, Hugh Grant, Mark Hamill, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Dwayne Johnson, Doug Jones*, Diane Keaton, Dafne Keen, Riley Keough, Pom Klementieff, Vicky Krieps, Brie Larson, Charlotte Le Bon, Lewis MacDougall, Peter Mayhew*, Ewan McGregor, Ezra Miller, Jonny Lee Miller, Maribeth Monroe, Jason Momoa, Julianne Moore, Kumail Nanjiani, Liam Neeson*, Connie Nielsen, Michelle Pfeiffer, Chris Pratt, Ryan Reynolds, Michael Rooker, Zoe Saldana, Nev Scharrel*, Rose Marie Tran, Millicent Simmonds, Harry Styles, Jason Sudeikis, Beat Takeshi, Jimmy Vee*, Ben Whishaw, Fionn Whitehead

And four times on one cover: James McAvoy

* includes animated or face-obscurred characters

A Year in Shadows: 2016

A Year in Shadows: 2015