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Can Zendaya make the leap from tween idol to Hollywood heavyweight?

The 27-year-old American actor has gone from the Disney channel to new classy arthouse threesome drama Challengers, via a massive blockbuster and a hot-button TV series. So can she convince as an Oscar contender?

With the tennis romance Challengers arriving in cinemas, in which she is the central focus, the sci-fi blockbuster Dune: Part Two still reeling in audiences, and acting as the simultaneous cover star of two separate editions of Vogue magazine – the British and the American – Zendaya appears to have achieved a new level. Her career has so far specialised in an impressively high number of attention-grabbing moments, including appearing in a spectacularly bizarre metallic silver “robot suit” at the premiere of Dune: Part Two earlier this year, and the Challengers trailer release in June 2023, with its sexually suggestive premise of a threeway love affair. Challengers, however, represents something of a high-stakes career re-calibration; co-starring Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist and directed by Italian auteur Luca Guadagnino, Zendaya is using it to transition into mature, dramatic roles while not abandoning the teen and tween audience that constitute the bulk of her fanbase.

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