‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Star Zendaya Saw a ‘Spider-Man’ Movie on Her First Date
Talk about coming full circle. Long before Zendaya joined the cast of the latest Spider-Man trilogy, starring Tom Holland, she fell in love with the franchise on her very first date. Here’s what she said about the experience and why she so strongly resonated with the Spider-Man franchise.
Zendaya joined the ‘Spider-Man’ cast in 2017
The former Shake It Up star joined Marvel’s superhero films when she was 19 years old in 2017. Zendaya played Michelle “MJ” Jones in Spider-Man: Homecoming and later reprised the role in the 2019 follow-up Spider-Man: Far From Home.
MJ is a classmate of Peter Parker’s, aka Spider-Man, at Midtown School of Science and Technology. She became one of Spider-Man’s allies, and the two began dating in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
Zendaya will appear again in the trilogy’s final film, Spider-Man: No Way Home, in December 2021. It’s unclear if she’ll join any more Spider-Man films after that, but she did reveal that she and her co-stars have prepared to make this their last movie in the series.
“We don’t know if we’re gonna do another one,” she told E! News in July. “Like, is it just gonna be three and done? Normally you do three movies, and that’s pretty much it, so I think we just were all absorbing and taking the time to just enjoy the moment, being with each other, and being so grateful for that experience…It’s pretty special to have grown up all together.”
Zendaya’s first date was a ‘Spider-Man’ movie
Zendaya may have joined the Spider-Man films at 19 years old, but she’s loved them since she was 16. The Euphoria actor revealed on Good Morning America in 2017 that she went to see a Spider-Man movie for her very first date as a teen. Zendaya didn’t specify which film she saw, but The Amazing Spider-Man with Andrew Garfield was in theaters when she was 16.
“My first date was to Spider-Man, and I was obsessed with it immediately,” she said, as ABC News reported. “I’ve always kind of related to Spider-Man. I think a lot of people do because he’s a real person. He’s not just the superhero all the time. He is, at the end of the day, Peter Parker, who is a 15-year-old kid, which we all can relate to.”
Zendaya continued on to share that she thought Spider-Man was the “realest” hero because of how relatable he was.
“We’ve all been that awkward teenager and had that time in our life,” she added. “Everybody has. So I think he was the realest superhero. He was tangible to people. It just happened that was my first date and, then, here we are now. It’s crazy.”
The actor is now dating her co-star, Tom Holland
To make that full-circle moment even bigger, Zendaya is now dating her Spider-Man co-star. Rumors of her relationship with Holland began after Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017, but Zendaya denied it, as Us Weekly reported. However, the rumors continued off-and-on for years.
Finally, in July 2021, the two were spotted kissing, seemingly confirming their relationship. Holland later shared an adorable birthday tribute for Zendaya in September.
“My MJ, have the happiest of birthdays. Gimme a call when your [sic] up xxx,” he wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of him and Zendaya.
Spider-Man: No Way Home hits theaters on Dec. 17, 2021.
