Who Do You Think Will Be PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive For 2025?

It’s almost that time of year again. PEOPLE Magazine has gathered its writers, locked them into the conclave, and told them to pick the next choice for the title of the Sexiest Man Alive. The white smoke will go up over the studios of The Tonight Show next week, so it’s time for the rest of us to speculate.

Democracy doesn’t exist for the SMA battle. We all know it’s a fight of PR and marketing. Whoever can get their client to accept the honour and do the cozy, cute photoshoot in their nicest sweater will land the cover. Last year, it was John Krasinski, a candidate nobody had as their frontrunner, but one who made too much sense. He’s tall, conventionally handsome, white, and non-threatening to the masses. He talked about loving his wife and kids, and being a drama-free actor-director who loves his work. That he had a new film on the horizon, the children’s fantasy IF, certainly didn’t hurt.

So, we have a few expectations for the winner. He’s probably going to be aged between 35 and 55. The chances are he’ll be white, an actor, and married. He won’t be an indie darling but a mainstream figure who your perennially offline mother would recognize. The odds are likely that he’ll have a major project to promote over the autumn/winter season, or he was part of something major in the past ten months. He won’t be a Scandinavian character actor or queer vampire, so I won’t be attracted to him, alas.

Last year, it was widely speculated that Glen Powell would be chosen for the SMA. It wasn’t hard to see why. He was on a rocket ship to the A-List and happily played the media game with every outlet. Instead, in the same week that Krasinski’s issue dropped, Powell was on the cover of the Hollywood issue of Vanity Fair. I thought that was the savvier pick, the more, for lack of a better word, prestigious option. But now, Powell has The Running Man set for a November 14 release, and wouldn’t this be a nice tie-in?

The next most obvious candidate, in my opinion, is Travis Kelce. He’s media-savvy, media-hungry, and eagerly prepping his post-football career. Off the field, he’s a big name in brand endorsements and his side-hustles, like acting, presenting, and podcasting. It would be the least surprising thing ever for him to be on the cover of PEOPLE in some respectable knitwear. And yes, the Taylor Swift of it all would be crucial. They’re engaged, she’s released an album featuring a song about his magical penis, and together they’re a mighty power couple. Landing Travis would be a coup for PEOPLE, if only for the inevitably mega-viral quotes he shares about his fiancée.

In 2023, Patrick Dempsey won the title in a surprise move. He felt like a real throwback choice (although he’s also aged fabulously and still looks incredible). At 57, he was the second-oldest winner, after Sean Connery. Sure, it tied into the release of his newest film, Ferrari, but it was more a choice for McDreamy fans. Nostalgia is potent. So, maybe PEOPLE will go for a pick that’s pure millennial bait? That led me to think about Chad Michael Murray, a 2000s dreamboat who reappeared on our screens with Freakier Friday, to the delight of many. And you know he’d happily sign up for it.

If we’re keeping it nostalgic, then why not give it to George Clooney once more, as he promotes Jay Kelly (which would make him the only person to win it three times)? Or one of the Jonas Brothers, to tie into their Christmas movie? What about Hugh Jackman and that Neil Diamond tribute act biopic? It’d be a good way for him to hard-sell his new romance to a sympathetic publication?

There are also choices like David Corenswet, the new Superman, or the internet’s boyfriend, Pedro Pascal. I’m convinced the latter has been offered it several times and said ‘no’ each time. He has no reason to do it, to be honest. He’s beyond it. That’s also why I can’t see a lot of the online choices getting it. Pascal is hardly edgy, but a Latin-American man who wears thigh-highs and Protect the Dolls t-shirts is definitely too much for a supermarket shelf read. This would also, alas, eliminate any non-straight actor, like Wicked star Jonathan Bailey or Powell’s The Running Man co-star Colman Domingo. Both of those guys would be extremely hot choices, right? Bad Bunny would be a worthy choice, but given that there’s a campaign against him doing the Super Bowl half-time show, I don’t see PEOPLE being that nervy, even though he is extremely sexy.

I expect the announcement to make me go, ‘Huh, okay.’ It’ll be someone totally anodyne who will inspire some solid Discourse but won’t feel like a representation of this moment in time. The men who have defined pop culture in 2025 have not necessarily been easy or safe choices for a magazine like PEOPLE. That’s what your TikTok fancams are for, friends!