<p>As global demand for meat rises, growth in the livestock industry is increasingly associated with concerns about the environment, human health, and animal welfare. Cultured meat (CM) emerges as a potential solution, promising to meet this demand efficiently, ethically, and in an environmentally friendly way. However, questions remain about the realizability of its proposed potential benefits. This article critically contributes to the discourse around CM by characterizing promissory and counter-narratives on its economic, environmental, and social sustainability, and by synthesizing these to lay out a future direction for this innovation. A systematic literature review was conducted on scientific articles published between 2015 and 2023 discussing CM's sustainability. The promissory narratives emphasize that CM can create new market opportunities, generate jobs with better working conditions, reduce the environmental impact of meat production, improve production ethics, enhance global food security, and mitigate health risks associated with meat production and consumption. In contrast, the counter-narratives point out potential risks, including livelihood disruption, increased economic inequality, consolidation of the meat industry, loss of livestock ecosystem services and cultural traditions, and ethical objections. We build on these narratives to identify underconsidered implications of widespread CM production to distill current research trends and propose foci for future research. The research directions can help anticipate drawbacks and work toward sustainability before CM hits the supermarket shelves.</p>