Robert Pattinson and Zendaya in 'The Drama' (2026). Credit : A24
Zendaya’s Star Rises for “The Drama” with Robert Pattinson
Zendaya stars alongside Robert Pattinson in A24’s The Drama, now in theaters. We trace her full career — from Spider-Man to Euphoria to Challengers — and how every role led here.
There’s a particular kind of star who doesn’t just rise — they compound. Every role lands a little heavier than the last. Every director who works with them calls the next director. Every frame becomes a case study. Zendaya is that kind of star, and if you’ve somehow still been waiting for her to prove it on the big screen, The Drama, her new A24 film directed by Kristoffer Borgli and co-starring Robert Pattinson, which hit theaters on April 3rd, 2026, is all the proof you need.
She started where a lot of generational talents start: underestimated, underused, and quietly building. What separates her from the ones who faded is that she never stopped making moves with intention. Let’s walk the whole tape.
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Zendaya made her feature film debut as Michelle in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017. Her screen time was deliberately minimal — sardonic, sharp, a little unknowable. Critics noticed she was doing more with less than almost anyone else in the ensemble. In a movie built around Tom Holland, she managed to be the most interesting person in every scene she walked into. It was a quiet declaration of intent.
The Greatest Showman (2017)
Same year, completely different energy. She starred as Anne Wheeler in the musical drama film The Greatest Showman alongside Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron. The role demanded physicality, emotional range, and the ability to hold her own opposite one of Hollywood’s most magnetic performers. She did all three. What the film proved was that Zendaya’s appeal wasn’t niche — it was universal. She could do prestige blockbuster and musical spectacle, sometimes in the same calendar year.
Euphoria (2019–present)
This is where it all crystallized. For her performance as Rue Bennett, a struggling drug-addicted teenager in the HBO teen drama series Euphoria, Zendaya won two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, becoming the youngest performer to win in the category, and a Golden Globe Award. Rue is one of the most demanding characters in recent television history — chaotic, manipulative, achingly vulnerable, impossible to look away from. Season after season, Zendaya didn’t just hold the weight of the role; she made it look like she was born carrying it. Her work as an executive producer on the project also helped establish her as a decision maker with an unusual amount of control over her projects for a young celebrity.
Malcolm & Marie (2021)
Director Sam Levinson’s black-and-white Netflix film was singled out for the way it served as a two-hander between Zendaya and John David Washington. They play a Hollywood couple unraveling over a single night after a film premiere, the whole story contained within one apartment and two erupting performances. The film had its flaws, but Zendaya’s commitment was never one of them. She held the screen in a pressure-cooker format with no relief valve and no supporting cast to lean on. It showed she could carry a film on her own if the material demanded it — and survive even when the material let her down.
Dune (2021) and Dune: Part Two (2024)
She starred as Chani, the mysterious love interest of Timothée Chalamet’s Paul, in Denis Villeneuve’s science fiction epic Dune. She reprised her role in Dune: Part Two in 2024.
In the first film she operated largely from the periphery, haunting the edges of Paul’s visions. In the sequel, Chani moved to the center — skeptical, fierce, the film’s moral compass in a story where every other character had abandoned theirs. Denis Villeneuve wrote of her: “She is an autonomous creative force herself. A cultural icon in the making. A person driven by pure inspiration, empathy, and respect for her craft, who uses authenticity as a new superpower.”
That’s a director who’s worked with the best in the world telling you something important.
Challengers (2024)
Zendaya starred in and produced the romantic sports drama Challengers, directed by Luca Guadagnino, portraying a former tennis prodigy who suffered a career-ending injury and became a coach.
Tashi Duncan is cold, calculating, and completely in control — a character who weaponizes everyone around her without losing the audience’s sympathy. A critic for the New Statesman wrote that the film was “a brilliant showcase for Zendaya, whose on-screen magnetism has rarely been channelled so effectively.”
Challengers wasn’t just a good performance — it was a statement. She wasn’t the promising young actress anymore. She was the reason to see the movie.
The Drama (2026): The Arrival
All of it — the Disney years spent learning discipline, the Marvel films building global recognition, the Emmy campaigns demanding emotional extremes, the Villeneuve collaborations teaching patience and scale, Challengers proving she could command a prestige adult film — it all feeds directly into what she’s doing in The Drama.
The film follows a happily engaged couple, Emma and Charlie, who are put to the test when an unexpected turn sends their wedding week off the rails.
The twist at the film’s center is genuinely divisive — the Rotten Tomatoes consensus calls it “career-highlight performances by Robert Pattinson and Zendaya.”
Even critics who took issue with Borgli’s direction repeatedly singled her out. One reviewer noted that Zendaya “listens more than she speaks, communicating regret and fragility through the discreet way she holds her body — the internal choices that move with assured agility across her face.”
That’s the sentence that captures it. She’s operating in a completely different register now — no heightened melodrama, no genre scaffolding to lean on. Just the work. Raw, specific, and exactly as good as everyone who’s been watching her since 2017 knew she could be.
Zendaya didn’t arrive overnight. She built this — role by role, choice by choice, year by year. The Drama isn’t a breakout. It’s the payoff.
The Drama is in theaters now.