For all the joys of revisiting this past year’s standouts, looking ahead is just as—if not more—exciting. City-transforming museum and transit projects loom on the horizon, as do some tremendous sporting events and much-anticipated theme park additions. Yes, 2026 is going to be huge—oh wait, sorry, we’re talking about 2025? Well, that’ll be alright too, we guess. For the types of leisure-focused topics we cover at Time Out, some years are undoubtedly bigger than others. And 2025? It has some excitement on tap, for sure. But it’s also just as notable for the things that only a year or so ago would’ve made it onto this list: The LAX People Mover, LACMA’s brand-new building, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing were all slated for 2025 at one point but have since been pushed back to 2026. We’re all about optimism, though, and we think there’s still plenty in 2025 that’ll make you glad you live in Los Angeles. (We’re also about realistic expectations, so while we’d love to see Dreamstar’s L.A.-to-SF night train or the Cinerama Dome’s revival on this list, we haven’t seen quite enough recent concrete info to merit their inclusion.) We’ve combed through everything announced for 2025 so far—from Disneyland’s 70th anniversary and Oasis’s Rose Bowl reunion to the arrival of Bojangles and an Erewhon in Glendale—and narrowed things down to these eight standouts that we’re most looking forward to. Two new major Metro extensions will let you ditch your car more often L.A.’s rail system keeps on stretching to the farthest expanses of the county, but it’s a nearly four-mile addition in the heart of the city that just might be one of the most momentous changes yet. The D Line, the stubby subway line that currently runs between DTLA and Koreatown, will finally open the first phase of its Westside extension. That means by the end of 2025, you’ll be able to take a train across city lines into Beverly Hills—a fact that we’re sure the tony town’s residents are just thrilled about. But for the rest of us, the D Line extension could be a revelation: It’ll include stops at Wilshire and La Brea, about a half block down from République; at Wilshire and Fairfax, right next to the Petersen Automotive Museum and across the street from LACMA and the Academy Museum; and at Wilshire and La Cienega, just past the Saban Theatre. Eventually, the line will—assuming these dates stick—also expand to near Rodeo Drive and at the edge of Century City in 2026, and by UCLA and the VA in 2027. That’s not the only project set to start service next year, though. The already-sprawling A Line, which runs from Long Beach up to DTLA and through Pasadena and the SGV, will continue its ever-growing Foothill Extension with four new stations east of Azusa: Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne and Pomona—which will be about a half-hour ride from Pasadena and an hour to DTLA. It’s also expected the agency will break ground next year on another extension to Claremont and Montclair. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child apparates into Pantages Seeing this on-stage follow-up to the book series was once an all-day affair: During its initial run, the illusion-filled spectacle was split into two parts. But now it’s been shrunk down into a single—albeit long—three-and-a-half-hour production, one that our theater critic in New York awarded five stars. Catch it at Pantages from February 15 to June 22.   Courtesy Gensler   “Access to Hollywood” will make the Walk of Fame a little more pedestrian friendly Harry Potter and the Cursed Child might not be the only reason to head to the Walk of Fame next year: The global icon and local pariah is taking some pretty major steps toward becoming the kind of place you might actually want to show off. A so-called “quick-build” implementation of the “Access to Hollywood” plan will bring bus-only lanes and boarding platforms to a stretch of Hollywood Boulevard between Orange Drive and Gower Street; about four parking spaces per block will be eliminated to expand the sidewalk for pedestrians, with space for seating and landscaping. The enhancements come after the addition of bike lines to the eastern expanse of the street over this past year, and a few years ahead of a more permanent iteration of the program.   Image: Courtesy of DATALAND   Dataland, a museum of AI art, debuts in DTLA You might be a little bit hesitant about the idea of a museum of AI art, but Refik Anadol’s works aren’t the sorts of pieces that hallucinate extra fingers. The L.A. artist’s works use AI to crunch data into mesmerizing video installations—you’ve likely seen them already, whether inside a gallery, on the side of the Walt Disney Concert Hall or at the new Intuit Dome (and, as a result, on your social media feed). Now, Anadol will launch an entire museum around these sorts of AI-and-data-fueled works. Along with studio partner Efsun Erkiliç, he’ll be setting up DATALAND at the Grand L.A. sometime in 2025. Though we’re still waiting on more details, so far we know that the DTLA space will debut with an exhibition based around the studio’s open source AI model based on nature data—which has so far yielded photographic scenes of the natural world that morph into each other, as well as massive videos of undulating particles that are driven by real-time data. Cannabis cafes and drinking in public could transform how you go out New year, new laws. Come January 1, two new statewide laws could alter the state of how you get into an altered state. We’ll start with AB 1775, which green lights California cities to allow Amsterdam-style cannabis cafes where you can sell food and nonalcoholic beverages in the same space as marijuana. West Hollywood already has some weed-focused lounges sort of like this, but you need to purchase food from one section of a business and then bring it into a smoking-designated area—that won’t need to be the case anymore once this new law goes into effect. Then there’s SB 969, which allows local governments to establish “entertainment zones,” open-air districts where you can drink on the sidewalk or in the street. Don’t expect all of L.A. to suddenly become Vegas or the French Quarter, though: A San Francisco-specific version of the law that launched earlier last year established small zones specifically tied to special events, and so far there’s no word if any L.A.-area cities will adopt their own versions. “Made in L.A.,” the city’s best art biennial, returns Like clockwork, another edition of the Hammer Museum’s “Made in L.A.” biennial is on the horizon. We don’t know the theme or the lineup of the three-dozen-or-so artists yet, but this every-other-year exhibition of under-recognized local artists is so consistently excellent that its fall return warrants a spot on this list. Rendering: Courtesy San Pedro Fish Market West Harbor will begin to transform the San Pedro waterfront Could San Pedro become L.A.’s next booming coastal destination? The folks behind West Harbor sure hope so. A replacement for Ports O’ Call Village, this harborfront development replaces the aging, thinning shopping district with a more contemporary-looking series of tent-like warehouse spaces. Some of the juiciest components of the development—a Ferris wheel, an amphitheater and an outpost of Yamashiro—are still to come in later phases, but 2025 will see the debut of immersive art space Hopscotch as well as a handful of restaurants, including Downtown brunch fave Poppy + Rose (and the storied San Pedro Fish Market just announced it signed a 49-year lease to stick around in the area and move into the development in the next two to three years). Ki, one of L.A.’s most anticipated new restaurants, will open in Little Tokyo The elegantly minimalist tasting menu at Koreatown’s Kinn was memorable enough to land on our list of the best new restaurants of 2022. And though the spot has since shuttered, chef Ki Kim is set to return in January with Ki, a Little Tokyo chef’s counter with a $285 Korean-influenced menu. Though that’s certainly a steep entry price, it’s worth pointing out that it’ll share the same venue and partners as Sushi Kaneyoshi and Bar Sawa—both of which we awarded five stars.