Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers movie was recently released in theatres. The sports romantic drama stars Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor in the lead roles. The movie has received rave reviews from the audience and critics alike. From the first promo itself, cine-goers have shared their excitement for Luca’s movie.
In the movie, Zendaya plays Tashi Duncan, a former Tennis player who’s married to Art Donaldson (Mike Faist), also a Tennis Player. Tashi is not only Art’s wife but also his coach. The couple has a daughter named Lily (AJ Lister). Josh O’Connor plays Patric Zweig, also a Tennis player, who was Tashi’s love interest during college. Luca’s movie is a non-linear narrative of the messed-up love story and the trio’s passion for sport.
Whoever has seen Zendaya’s Challengers must have chuckled at the ‘Spiderverse’ dialogue. In the film, Art and Tashi’s daughter wants to watch the Spiderverse movie with her mother. Was it intentional? Well, the film’s director, Luca Guadagnino, was recently asked if the Spider-Man-related joke was intentional and how he got permission for it.
Luca told EW, “When you get rights for something to be used in a movie, it’s very complicated. Amy Pascal, our amazing producer, was of help there. I said, ‘Amy, can we use one of your catalogue titles so it’s going to be easier to clear them?’ [Lily]’s a girl; she’s not going to choose to watch The Social Network or The Post, but maybe she’s going to watch a Spider-Man cartoon, so I said, ‘Why not Spider-Verse? Now I realize that it sounded like an in-joke, which, you know, the unconscious guides us all the time.”
Meanwhile, Zendaya’s boyfriend and actor Tom Holland, who plays live-action Spider-Man for the MCU, is quite excited to watch Challengers. A few hours ago, the Spider-Man: Far From Home actor shared the movie’s poster on Instagram and wrote, “I know what I’m doing this weekend!”
