Zendaya's dream role is a villain – and we need someone to make that happen

Zendaya in Dune
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

Zendaya has revealed her dream role – and she wants to go to the dark side. 

"I would love to play a villain of sorts," she revealed in a recent interview with ELLE. "Tap into the evil, supervillain vibes, whatever that manifests in. I don't think, necessarily, in a superhero sense, I just mean in, like, an emotional sense. I feel like I usually play the good guy, so I'd like to play the bad guy."

Her past roles have included MJ in Spider-Man: Homecoming (followed by Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home), Anne Wheeler in The Greatest Showman, and Chani in Dune and its upcoming sequel. She's also voiced Meechee the yeti in Smallfoot and Lola Bunny in Space Jam: A New Legacy – and she's right, there's not one "bad guy" in that list.

With a filmography that spans steamy romance (we can't wait to see her in the recently-delayed Challengers, directed by Luca Guadagnino) to musicals to sci-fi epics, it seems likely that she'll continue to diversify and delve into a more villainous role sometime soon. 

Zendaya has also expressed a desire to direct, and she's making her producing debut with Challengers after executive producing on the HBO series Euphoria and the Netflix movie Malcolm & Marie.

Next up for the actor and producer, though, is Dune: Part Two, which arrives on the big screen on March 15, 2024, after being pushed back from its original November release date. In the meantime, get up to speed with our guide to all the other best upcoming movies.

Entertainment Writer

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.