By this time of year, most of us are usually ready to turn the page on the year that was—to say goodbye and good riddance to that grizzled old annum, greet a new calendar and hope for better times ahead.
But this year, it feels like 2025 beat us to the punch. The year was filled with many a farewell itself.
Catholics lost their leader, Pope Francis. The entertainment world lost such seminal performers as Gene Hackman, Diane Keaton and Robert Redford. The United States lost its penny. The Louvre lost about $100 million worth of jewels. Even here, at Plugged In, we waved farewell to our Plugged In Podcast.
But while the year was filled with goodbyes, we greeted a brave, new world in the form of increasingly integrated artificial intelligence, impacting how we research, write and even what we watch and listen to. Oh, and if you don’t believe me, just ask ChatGPT. It totally agrees with me.
But while the world was filled with sad farewells and shiny new faces in 2025, some things don’t change. Take, for instance, this blog. Every year around this time, we at Plugged In like to take a look at some of the people (be they real, fictional or even metaphorical) who shaped the world of entertainment and technology this year … for good or ill. So let’s dive in.
Beyoncé
Queen Bey began her 2025 with a little bit of history—becoming the first Black woman in history to win a Grammy for Best Country Album. In fact, Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter won Best Album of the Year, too. And she and Miley Cyrus took home yet another Grammy for best country duo/group performance (for the song “II Most Wanted”). Beyoncé took a few American Music Awards for good measure, and she even added an Emmy to her ever-growing trophy case (for her NFL halftime show on Netflix). Think Beyoncé’s year was all about the hardware? The artist’s Cowboy Carter Tour became the highest-grossing country tour ever, earning more than $400 million and attracting more than 1.5 million attendees over three months. Yep, in 2025, Queen Bey still reigned.
Bugs Bunny
OK, so Bugs himself didn’t do much in 2025. (Give the rabbit a break; he’s 85 years old.) But he’s pretty much synonymous with Warner Bros., and that venerable studio has been in the news a lot lately. First off, they’ve had some stellar cinematic success this year, giving us two of the year’s three biggest blockbusters (A Minecraft Movie at No. 1 and Superman at No. 3). But the real reason Warner Bros. lands on this list is its impending sale. In December, the studio and Netflix announced a deal worth $72 billion to buy Warner Bros. and all its film and streaming subsidiaries, including HBO Max. Paramount Skydance countered with a $78 billion bid for the entire company. Warner Bros. reportedly still favors Netflix’s offer, which is subject to review by the U.S. Justice Department. But if the deal goes through, it would be a huge body blow to the theatrical film industry and cement Netflix as the 8 bazillion-pound gorilla in the streaming world. Whatever comes of this, though, the movie house that Bugs built is undergoing a big change of ownership.
Stephen King
The best-selling writer is 78 years old now—not that much younger than ol’ Bugs Bunny himself. But the so-called King of Horror nevertheless had a banner year on screens both big and small. No fewer than four movies came out based on King stories: The Long Walk, The Monkey, The Running Man and The Life of Chuck. Not wanting to feel left out, apparently, MGM+ adapted King’s The Institute for television. Meanwhile, HBO decided to give King’s novel IT a prequel that nobody asked for (IT: Welcome to Derry) and turned it into a massive hit—averaging a staggering 20 million viewers worldwide per episode. And we haven’t even talked about the final season of Netflix’s Stranger Things—a show clearly inspired by King. Oh, and by the way, the author released another book, too, titled Never Flinch. Here’s betting that we see an adaptation of that by, oh, the time you finish reading this blog.
Charlie Kirk
We don’t typically include political activists on this list. But Kirk’s footprint on traditional and social media was undeniable. He hosted a three-hour radio talk show called The Charlie Kirk Show—one that turned into one of the country’s most popular podcasts, too. Videos he posted on TikTok could tally upwards of 50 million views. And while Kirk’s work received criticism, he also helped trigger new interest in Christianity—especially among young people. According to Barna, Gen Z men are 15% more likely to embrace Christianity than they were in 2019. The stats for Millennials are even higher, with adherence rates for Millennial men rising 19 points. While this growth can be attributed to a lot of different factors—a desire for authenticity and a search for purpose are often cited—Kirk’s influence played a role, too, particularly after his tragic Sept. 10 assassination. That impact even has a name: The Charlie Kirk Effect.
Pedro Pascal
It seems like the Chilean-born actor was everywhere this year. According to Google, Pascal was the most searched-for actor (a stat that, ironically, I used Google to search), and no wonder. He starred in everything from massive blockbusters (The Fantastic Four: First Steps) to prickly rom-coms (Materialists) to weird indie films (Eddington). He also starred in HBO’s The Last of Us, which has become a popular and critical hit. (Pascal, in fact, was nominated for an Emmy for his work there.) Oh, and wasn’t that him hocking AirPods on TV, too?
Solomon Ray
On Nov. 7, Ray—described on his Spotify profile as a “Mississippi-made soul singer carrying a Southern soul revival into the present”—released a five-track EP album to the world. Days later, it was No. 1 on iTunes Top 100 Christian and Gospel Albums chart, and two songs from it were listed at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, on Billboard’s Gospel Digital Song Sales chart. Funny thing, though: This “soul singer” is, quite literally, soul-less. He’s the artificial intelligence creation of hip-hop artist Christopher “Topher” Townsend. Ray’s not alone in the world of music: several AI “artists,” from Xania Monet to The Velvet Sundown, have drawn millions of fans … and their share of controversy. But that might especially be true in Ray’s case. “At minimum, AI does not have the Holy Spirit inside of it,” said chart-topping Christian artist Forrest Frank on social media. “So I think that it’s really weird to be opening up your spirit to something that has no spirit.” Townsend argues that Ray’s just an extension of his own creativity. But whether Ray has spirit or not, the issue behind his creation certainly has legs.
Rob Reiner
Of all the entertainers we lost in 2025, none was so shocking as that of Rob Reiner. The famous director and his wife, Michele, were found stabbed to death in their California home on Dec. 15. Los Angeles police quickly said that their 32-year-old son, Nick, was “responsible” for their shocking deaths. While new details emerge every day and Nick Reiner has not been convicted of anything, the story potentially serves as a tragic exclamation point to an important fact: Mental illness is a real and growing problem in the United States, with nearly a quarter of U.S. adults dealing with some form of mental illness in 2024. But there’s good news, too. Youth mental health appears to be getting better. Awareness continues to grow.
Rumi
Quick: What was the year’s most popular movie in America? Well, if you look at the box-office tallies, you might point to A Minecraft Movie or the live-action Lilo & Stitch. But when it comes to actual viewers, Netflix’s straight-to-streaming KPop Demon Hunters has ‘em both beat—with plenty of room to spare. Netflix says that the movie was viewed more than 325 million times in its first three months—making it Netflix’s most popular original movie ever. Its soundtrack landed four of its songs in Billboard’s top 10 at the same time, and “Golden” was No. 1 for eight weeks. If you had to single out the animated movie’s central character, it would be Rumi Kang, lead singer for the movie’s fictional KPop group Huntrix. Her character inspired the year’s most popular Halloween outfit, after all. But let’s be honest: With other KPop Demon Hunters characters filling slots 2 through 5, there’s not a lot of difference here. You could argue that the success of KPop Demon Hunters was the entertainment story of 2025. So, brace yourself for the planned 2029 sequel.
Taylor Swift
Beyoncé may have had quite the 2025. But fellow pop star Swift wasn’t going to let Queen Bey hog the spotlight. After a long, contentious battle, Swift reclaimed the masters of her first six studio albums, closing a long, arduous chapter in her career. In August, she and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce announced they were engaged. And then in October, Swift released her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl—which sold more than 4 million album equivalents in its first week. The album’s release was accompanied by a movie (Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl) and followed by a six-episode docuseries on Disney+ (The End of an Era). Yeah, so, in other words, a pretty ho-hum year for the superstar, all things considered.
Ryan Trahan
Fans need no introduction to Trahan. He’s a YouTube star with nearly 22 million subscribers. But what lands him on this list was his “50 States in 50 Days” challenge, where Trahan and his wife hopped through Airbnbs and raised more than $11.5 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. That sort of event has come to be typical for the creator, who’s known for combining outrageous stunts with resonant philanthropy. Moreover, he’s one of the platform’s most popular Christian entertainers. “Now, [Christianity] is my source of joy, it is my source of love, it is my source of everything,” Trahan said in an interview with fellow YouTuber, Anthony Padilla. “Because I have that, I can go out into the world and do unto others what I feel like I already have.” Do unto others. Now, hopefully that’s an attitude we can see more of in 2026.
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