Nature-inspired interfacial materials with special wettability have received considerable attention owing to their superior properties and promising multifunctional applications. Owing to the unique interfacial phase contacts and liquid–repellent property, the interfacial materials with special wettability provide a great potential for corrosion inhibition and biofouling suppression. Thus, this brief review and perspective study provides an overview about the characteristics, fabrication and recent advances of three types of interfacial materials with special wettability, namely superhydrophobic, superamphiphobic and slippery liquid-infused porous surface (SLIPS) toward anti-corrosion and anti-biofouling applications. The bottlenecks and future research priorities of the functional interfacial materials with special wettability were pointed out to accelerate the comprehensive understanding and the development of this research field.