Zendaya commented on a wild movie timeline meme after she became the third leading actor to go from playing Peter Parker's love interest in a Spider-Man movie to portraying a tennis player in a succeeding film.
During an interview on Good Morning America, the 27-year-old Emmy and Golden Globe winner joked that the phenomenon might be some prophecy she needed to fulfill.
Here is how the viral cinematic connection works.
Zendaya currently stars in Luca Guadagnino's sports drama film Challengers playing Tashi Duncan, a former tennis prodigy who helps her pro tennis champion and husband plot his comeback. Things get complicated when he faces off on the tennis court against his best friend and rival who happens to be Tashi's former lover.
The Euphoria star made her feature film debut in 2017 with the character Michelle, the love interest for Tom Holland's Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Homecoming and its two sequel films, Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).
Kirstin Dunst played Mary Jane Watson to Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy from 2002 to 2007. Two years after the first Spider-Man film, she starred as tennis player Lizzie Bradbury opposite Paul Bettany in the 2004 romantic comedy Wimbledon.
Emma Stone rounds out the trio. In 2012, she played Gwen Stacy in Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man and its sequel in 2014.
Three years after her second Spider-Man film, she played former world No. 1 tennis player Billie Jean King in 2017's Battle of the Sexes, loosely based on the 1973 tennis match between her and Bobby Riggs, played by Steve Carell.
A meme picking up on the bizarre coincidence involving the three actors ahead of the release of Zendaya's Challengers has gone viral.
You can see it here.
@blythsdaya/X
It's still gaining traction online.
On the April 23 episode of GMA, host Robin Roberts shared the meme with Zendaya and her Challengers co-stars Josh O'Connor and Mike Faist and asked them if they'd seen it.
After Zendaya confirmed familiarity with it, Roberts asked, "What's this pipeline?"
Zendaya replied:
"I don’t know!"
"We were joking, I was like, maybe it’s just some prophecy that I need to fulfill."
She continued:
"It’s quite funny, isn’t that? I don’t know."
"I guess it worked out for all of them."
You can watch a clip from the GMA appearance here.
Aside from the wild meme, fans thought Zendaya's reaction was so pure.
Speaking of canon, fans theorized it could go deeper.
Social media users also noted that the leading ladies from their respective Spider-Man films dated their Peter Parkers.
Dunst had a fling with her Spidey co-star Tobey Maguire, while Stone and Andrew Garfield dated for four years after working as couples in their respective Spider-Man projects.
Zendaya and Holland have remained a happy couple since they publicly made their relationship official in 2021.
J. Crew
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