High-energy particle colliders enable the systematic, direct and conclusive exploration of short-distance fundamental physical laws. Point-like particles such as electrons and muons are particularly suited for this purpose because their collision energy is entirely available to produce short-distance reactions. Unlike electrons, muons are sufficiently heavy to be accelerated in a ring without limitation from synchrotron radiation, allowing to envisage a muon collider energy of 10 TeV or more with a reasonably compact footprint. A muon colliders R&D plan has been established and is being developed by the newly-formed International Muon Collider Collaboration.
I will report on ongoing studies about the potential of such a very high energy muon collider to advance knowledge by direct searches for new particles and by precision measurements, and I will outline future directions of theoretical and experimental investigation towards a conclusive assessment of the muon collider physics case.