Zendaya has been having a stellar year, having starred in Dune: Part Two then going on to work with Luca Guadagnino on Challengers. While both movies couldn’t be further apart from each other, Zendaya confirms that her prep for Challengers actually helped her out for shooting Dune.
In an interview with Variety (via W Magazine), Zendaya explains:
“What was so great is I had been training with the boys on ‘Challengers’ every day and was in the best shape that I had been in a really long time… For ‘Dune,’ the costumes were very heavy and restrictive. The first few weeks, your body’s quite sore. When I was walking through the sand every day, my butt looked great. So that worked out! I was prepared.”
Admittedly, Challengers has been one of the most sexed up roles that Zendaya has had in her career so far. Though she’s played love interests before, she was mostly covered up in Dune, and it can be argued that her MJ and Rue are pretty sexless in their respective franchises—save that Euphoria has more drug use compared to any of the MCU Spider-Man movies.
Though Dune does get a lot of attention in the geek circles, Challengers has all of Film Twitter abuzz. Just going from the recent Golden Globes, Challengers was able to get nominated for Best Pictures, Best Actress, and Best Original Song; ultimately it only took home the win for Best Original Score from Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (who will also be providing the music for Tron: Ares).
For now, fans are still waiting for the rest of Challengers wins in the year, and Zendaya is set to appear in the next Dune film, Messiah, which is expected to come out in 2026.
