Summary

• Challengers earns Zendaya's best Rotten Tomatoes rating with a Fresh score of 96%.
• The movie beats her previous high of 93%.
• Zendaya has the potential to continue her strong Rotten Tomatoes streak with her next project.

Challengers has bested Dune: Part Two to become the best-performing Zendaya movie on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie is the latest release from director Luca Guadagnino, who has previously helmed titles, including the Oscar-winning Call Me By Your Name and the 2018 remake of Suspiria. It follows the torrid love triangle that forms between three tennis players: former pro turned coach Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), her husband Art (Mike Faist), and Patrick (Josh O'Connor), her ex who was Art's former best friend.

Challengers release date. Although the score will fluctuate somewhat as more reviews are added, with 72 critics weighing in, the movie has earned a Fresh score of 96% at the time of writing. This is the highest score that a narrative feature starring Zendaya has ever earned, beating her previous record of 93%, a score earned by both her recent hit Dune: Part Two and 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Zendaya's Future Has Never Looked Brighter

Challengers Continues The Star's Rotten Tomatoes Hot Streak

Now that she has extended her post-2021 streak with a fourth movie thanks to these strong Challengers reviews, it remains to be seen if Zendaya can keep it going.

This near-perfect score is a huge win for Zendaya, who had previously only received 100% scores for appearing in the Beyoncé visual album Lemonade and the 2023 fashion documentary Invisible Beauty. On top of the movie achieving a record, Zendaya leading the Challengers cast is also continuing her streak of Fresh scores since earning a pair of splats in 2021 for Malcolm & Marie and Space Jam: A New Legacy. Below, see the Rotten Tomatoes critic scores for every Zendaya movie since 2021:

Now that she has extended her post-2021 streak with a fourth movie thanks to these strong Challengers reviews, it remains to be seen if Zendaya can keep it going. However, it seems entirely possible that she will be able to do so. At the time of writing, the only big screen project to which she is likely attached would be the third Dune movie, which is in development and will be adapted from the sequel novel Dune: Messiah.

The sequel, which is currently being written, will likely include Zendaya's character Chani, who plays an important part in the story on the page. While her return in the role has not been officially confirmed, it seems likely that the currently untitled movie will be the next major project to follow Challengers. Returning director Denis Villeneuve's previous two installments in the franchise have received glowing reviews and increasingly positive scores, so it seems likely that the follow-up will help continue her streak.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes