Sofia Carson’s Down-to-Earth Charm Has Made Her Netflix’s Next Big Romance Star (2025)

Gen Z Disney kids grew up knowing Sofia Carson as Evie, the blue-haired BFF to Mal in the Disney Channel Original musical franchise, Descendants. Now, after hits like Purple Hearts, Carry-On, and the new Netflix original romance, The Life List—which began streaming on Friday—the former Disney star is getting comfortable in her new home at Netflix. And fans have been more than happy to come along for the ride.

In the last five years, Carson has taken on the role of Netflix’s favorite female romantic lead, at least when it comes to adults. Before Carson’s time at the streamer, teen star Lana Condor saw great success with her To All the Boys franchise, which arguably launched a rom-com revival, and certainly kick-started the streamer’s interest in the genre. But Condor has since moved on from the streamer to movies like Max’s Moonshot and the theatrically-released Valiant One.

Joey King of The Kissing Booth fame is another young Netflix romance lead success story. She still comes back to Netflix occasionally, like for 2024’s A Family Affair. But King’s most recent Netflix project, Uglies failed to connect with audiences, with the sci-fi YA story quickly falling off of the streamer’s top titles list. Then there’s Lindsay Lohan, who is currently building an audience out of nostalgia with her holiday-themed Hallmark knock-offs. But Carson’s broad, down-to-earth appeal makes her, arguably, Netflix’s top original romance star of the moment.

Though Purple Hearts was Carson’s first big Netflix hit, the 31-year-old actress first began her stint at the streamer with the 2020’s Feel the Beat. Carson starred asa twenty-something, self-centered dancer named April, who is forced to leave New York City and return to her small Wisconsin hometown. When she runs into her old dance teacher at the grocery store, she’s offered a chance to coach the local children’s dance team. April thinks it’s an opportunity to become a star—the judges for the final round are Broadway bigwigs—but, of course, it’s really an opportunity for her to grow as a person.

Though Feel the Beat wasn’t a huge hit for Netflix, it was an enjoyable, heartwarming little film, that’s perfect to throw on in the background while doing chores. Anyone who’s seen Descendants knows Carson has comedy chops, but it was still a chance for her to lean into self-deprecating humor. But Carson’s real success at Netflix came around just two years later, with Purple Hearts.

Purple Hearts was the movie that cemented Carson as a romantic lead for Netflix. The movie isa classic fake-dating romance, centered on two very different people who get married for the purpose of reaping the military benefits. Carson stars as struggling singer-songwriter named Casey, opposite the brooding-and-troubled marine, played by Nicholas Galitzine (whose own career has recently surged, via romances like Red, White & Royal Blue and The Idea of You).

Sure, there might have some cringe-worthy military industrial complex bootlicking, but the draw of Carson and Galitzine’s irresistible chemistry—and Carson’s gorgeous singing voice—made the movie a hit for Netflix. It was one of the most popular English-language Netflix original movies of 2022, spending six weeks in the streamer’s “top 10” list, racking up 228,690,000 hours viewed in the 28 days after its release. (Netflix doesn’t keep publicly available all-time data for every title, so we don’t have exact, up-to-date viewership data for Purple Hearts. But rest assured, the film was a hit.)

And Carson would go on to top that just two years later, with Carry-On.

Carry-On was a new kind of movie for Carson. Not only was it her first action flick—and she does a brief but significant action sequence of her own in the film—it was also her first time playing the love interest to an already-established Hollywood star, Taron Egerton. Unlike Purple Hearts, which operated as an even two-hander, Carson was relegated to a supporting romance role in Carry-On, as the pregnant girlfriend of a TSA agent (Edgerton), who is forced to help a dangerous terrorist smuggle a bomb through security.

But Carson fought to give herself more agency in the role, and she succeeded. In an interview with Decider, she saidinsisted she be the one to knock out the bad guy in her big climactic fight scene, rather than have Egerton rush in to save her.

“It wasn’t originally written like that,” Carson told Decider. “But Jaume [Collet-Serra, the director] was completely on board with making sure that Nora saves herself.”

It was a savvy move on Carson’s part, as this action thriller went on to become Netflix’s second most-popular original film of all time, with over 172 million views and counting.

That brings us to The Life List, Carson’s new romantic comedy that released on Netflix on Friday. Written and directed by Adam Brooks (also known for the 2008 rom-comDefinitely, Maybe), who adapted the2013 best-selling novelof the same name by Lori Nelson Spielman,The Life Liststars Carson as a woman struggling to find herself in life. After her mother (played by Emmy-nominated actor Connie Britton) dies a slow death of cancer, Alex is surprised to learn that she will not be receiving the same inheritance as her siblings. At least, not until she completes her “life list,” aka a list of goals she wrote for herself when she was 13 years old. It’s her mother’s way of helping her daughter get out of a rut, even from beyond the grave.

While I don’t expect to be The Life List to be quite as big as hit as Carry On—or Purple Hearts, for that matter—it’s an undeniably charming movie anchored by Carson’s grounded, genuine performance. Alex’s struggle of feeling stuck in her life is a relatable struggle to any adult over 25. It’s a nice fantasy to imagine our loved ones forcing us to take control of our destiny. And yes, there’s a cute romance between Alex and her mom’s baby-faced lawyer, played by Kyle Allen.

We’ll have to wait and see how Netflix audiences respond to Carson’s latest, but I have a feeling it will do well. After The Life List, Carson already has her next Netflix project on the books: Another romantic comedy, My Oxford Year, starring Carson as an American exchange student who meets a charming young man, played by young Bridgerton actor Corey Mylchreest. No release date yet, but filming wrapped up in Oxford last September, so we expect to see it streaming either later this year or early next.

Netflix has worked hard to create a home for feel-good romantic movies in the last decade. In order to do that, the streamer needs charming, likable stars. In the last five years, Lana Condor and Joey King have passed the torch, it seems, to Carson. And she’s crushing it. It’s certainly a more stable path than a lot of former Disney stars take, and we’re here for it. All hail our Netflix queen.