Zendaya's 6 Best Movie Roles

There are a few actors who are having a mega year, and Zendaya is one of them. If there's a tentpole movie any given month of 2026, chances are Zendaya is in it—Marvel sequels, Christopher Nolan hits, indie breakthroughs, you name it. She's had three Nolan/Villeneuve/Borgli films back-to-back with fellow actor Robert Pattinson (a powerhouse in his own right), just wrapped the Euphoria series, and has producer credits stacking up.

She's not only a talented performer, but she's also incredibly discerning about the roles she chooses. Those roles allow her to demonstrate incredible range across genres.

Today we want to look at six of her best characters and what they can teach filmmakers.

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Challengers

Tashi Duncan, my queen! In Luca Guadagnino's tennis drama/romance, Zendaya is a star player whose career comes to a painful end, and she finds herself sandwiched between two other codependent players (and potential love interests). There's Art (Mike Faist), her sad-puppy husband, and Patrick (Josh O'Connor), a bit of a pathetic loner. She plays the friends against each other almost as a replacement for tennis.

Zendaya told CNN, "It would be very easy to make Tashi the villain. But I think there's so much more to her. It became my challenge to empathize with her and somehow get the audience to."

The film is a three-hander with a bang of an ending. Tashi could be read as manipulative. Zendaya plays up her ambition and grief instead, and asks the audience to sit with a woman who doesn't apologize for wanting to win. It works because all the characters are so well-written.

Zendaya also served as producer on the project.

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Dune: Part Two

As Chani in Denis Villeneuve's Dune trilogy, Zendaya has brought gravitas and tough love to Paul's (Timothée Chalamet) journey. She's good in both films so far, but when their relationship develops further in Part Two, Chani becomes even more important.

Speaking to GamesRadar, Zendaya said, "I think she's one of the few people that is just human—she's not a Bene Gesserit, she doesn't have access to every resource in the world, she's really in a defensive position, and all she has is herself, and her love for the people around her, and her fierce protection of them. So, that's all she cares about, just trying to do right by the people she sees every day, the people that she loves and cares about."

Villeneuve reworked Chani from the original books to give her a perspective of her own in Paul's messianic tale. She's the audience's moral compass, and the film ends with her walking away. It's heartbreaking to see their love so publicly collapse, but at the same time, witness her refusal to bow to him.

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The Odyssey

We've got to include it just because it was such a massive hit this summer. Nolan's telling of Odysseus' epic journey home after the Trojan War sidelines Zendaya a bit as Athena, but she's there again as a heart and moral center for the film.

Despite all her prior experience, she said she was nervous on the film.

Zendaya told the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast, "Here's the thing. I had my lines, and I wanted to have them so down. I psyched myself out a little bit. It was particularly cold. It was in Iceland. My mouth was just frozen. There is nothing coming out. My mouth would not move. Literally" (via Variety).

Nolan reportedly told her the take was "perfect," a note he almost never gives, per Fandango. So, actors, maybe don't overprepare. Even a working pro can psych herself out on day one of a massive production.

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The Drama

In this surprise hit of a black romantic comedy from Kristoffer Borgli, Zendaya is Emma Harwood, a young woman about to marry Charlie Thompson (Pattinson). Over drinks one night, Zendaya divulges something disturbing about her past.

Zendaya told Coup de Main, "The Drama is funny, but it's also deeply uncomfortable, and kind of scary—before it gets sweet and romantic, and then scary again. Kris is uniquely talented at writing about the things we're not supposed to laugh at—and while we might feel uncomfortable with Charlie and Emma's situation, it's also easy to love them and feel hopeful for their future."

Zendaya picks directors with distinct voices (Guadagnino, Villeneuve, Nolan, Borgli) and lets each draw out a different talent in her.

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Malcolm & Marie

This film was the first time Zendaya served as lead. She made the film with some of her Euphoria team opposite John David Washington. It's almost a modern version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? that follows an unraveling marriage in one location.

Zendaya told Elle, "It was an actor's dream. But it was also a little nerve-racking. When you have an idea, and you're putting your own money into it—I mean, I was literally using my own clothes on set and doing my own hair and makeup—it's hard not to get a little bit insecure. Like, 'Oh my gosh, am I really doing this?' It was one of the first times I just went for something, and I'm so grateful and proud of it."

The film was shot in 14 days during the COVID lockdown, and it marked the start of her journey as a producer/star.

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Spider-Man: Homecoming

Who could forget the role that landed her a Marvel franchise? MJ is dry, observant, and uncharming in a genre that usually demands a perfect leading lady.

Turns out she didn't know she was trying for MJ when she auditioned, per GQ.

"We weren’t supposed to know that the script pages that we were reading were for Spider-Man, but I did find out that it was for Spider-Man cause I have good agents. But I didn’t know what role I was auditioning for. I just thought it was 'girl in Spider-Man movie.' I didn’t really know what character, or what kind of character, they would be. Right before the screen test, they were kind of saying, ‘Okay, these are the characters that we’re reading for, MJ being one of them,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, that would be so cool!’"

She's a sidekick without being decorative. The character she built made room for the deeper MJ of Far from Home and No Way Home.

What's your favorite Zendaya role?