5 Best Zendaya Movies, According To Rotten Tomatoes
by Nina Starner · /FilmZendaya Coleman, who professionally goes by her first name, is, without question, one of the most talented actors working today. After getting her start on the Disney Channel with the shows "Shake it Up" and "K.C. Undercover" (along with other Disney projects like the "Air Bud" spin-off movie "Super Buddies"), Zendaya kicked off her adult career in a big way in 2019 when she took the role of Rue Bennett, a young woman working to overcome an intense addiction to hard drugs, in Sam Levinson's controversial HBO series "Euphoria." Despite the show's basically constant shortcomings, Zendaya definitely earned her two Emmys and made history for the first one alone when she became the youngest person to ever win a statue for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
Beyond all those accolades, Zendaya is just ... cool. The smart, canny actor, who was born in 1996 and still has decades of unbelievable performances ahead of her, manages to split her time between prestigious independent projects and huge tentpole franchises. Not only that, but the franchises Zendaya does lead, two of which are represented in this list, are actually pretty good! Excluding her TV shows (sorry, "Euphoria"), I decided to turn to the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes to figure out what her top films are according to the site's critical consensus.
Whether or not we agree with Rotten Tomatoes is always a struggle. Frankly, this list should be led by "Challengers." Perhaps every movie in Zendaya's top five should be "Challengers," actually. Anyway, honorable mentions to "Challengers" and her 2026 dark dramedy "The Drama," neither of which made the cut. That said, here are Zendaya's five best films according to Rotten Tomatoes.
5. Spider-Man: Far From Home
In 2019's "Spider-Man: Far From Home" (the immediate sequel to 2017's "Spider-Man: Homecoming"), we reunite with Tom Holland's Peter Parker and Zendaya's MJ after the events of "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame," which saw half of all living entities in existence turned into dust by Thanos' (Josh Brolin) fateful snap. As "Far From Home" gets going roughly five years later, all those teenagers who were randomly obliterated into nothing are finally back in high school ... and speaking of high school, Peter, MJ, and their friend Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) are preparing to take a trip abroad to Europe with their classmates. Peter, meanwhile, is still struggling with his grief over the death of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) in "Endgame." So, realizing that life is short, he hopes to tell MJ about his romantic feelings towards her while they're across the pond.
Naturally, that plan is totally derailed by Elemental attacks. Peter fends off the Water Elemental in Venice, but, before he fights the Earth Elemental as Spider-Man in Prague, he's provided assistance by Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal), who claims to be a superhero from another reality in the multiverse. But what about Zendaya's MJ? This is the movie where, vitally, she figures out that her classmate and friend Peter is Spider-Man ... and by the time the credits roll, the two are an official couple. Zendaya gets more to do in "Far From Home" than she did in "Homecoming," but she's still playing second fiddle to Peter's story. Nevertheless, the movie is sitting pretty with a 91% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes.
4. Spider-Man: Homecoming
On the one hand, when the Spider-Man films were rebooted as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with "Spider-Man: Homecoming" in 2017, I wondered if we really needed a third go at this well-worn material. (I held off on watching Andrew Garfield in "The Amazing Spider-Man" until 2026 for similar reasons.) Still, I was encouraged by Tom Holland's introduction as the webhead in the 2016 MCU crossover event movie "Captain America: Civil War," so I decided to give "Homecoming" a shot ... and I was pleasantly surprised. Not only is Holland great as Peter Parker, the Queens native who becomes New York City's friendly neighborhood Spider-Man after getting nibbled on by a radioactive spider, but Zendaya is perfectly deployed as Michelle "MJ" Jones-Watson.
To be fair, though? Zendaya isn't really a big part of "Homecoming," because Peter has a different love interest: Laura Harrier's Liz Toomes, another one of Peter's fellow high schoolers. Still, her presence is intriguing, and "Homecoming," which still has a 92% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes, does a great job of teasing Zendaya's role as the "new" MJ via the sly reveal of her nickname during its conclusion.
3. Dune: Part Two
Denis Villeneuve's first "Dune" movie — which he adapted with screenwriters Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth from Frank Herbert's massive classic sci-fi novel — is great, but it barely features Zendaya at all. Thankfully, "Dune: Part 2," which released in 2024, is in Zendaya's top three films on Rotten Tomatoes with a critical score of 92% ... because she finally gets the chance to fully inhabit her character, Chani, in the sequel.
At the start of "Dune: Part Two," Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) find themselves seemingly stranded on the desolate planet of Arrakis, hunted by enemy Harkonnen forces. Thankfully, they align themselves with a group of Fremen led by Stilgar (Javier Bardem), who brings them to safety in Sietch Tabr after Paul proves himself by defeating Jamis, a Fremen warrior played by Babs Olusanmokun, in a duel (which actually happened during 2021's "Dune"). All of this is to say that, after only seeing her briefly in "Dune: Part One," we finally get acquainted with Zendaya's headstrong young Fremen warrior Chani in "Dune: Part Two."
Chani, as anyone familiar with "Dune" knows, strikes up a romance with Paul ... only for him to utterly betray her in the film's third final act when he declares himself as the Lisan al-Gaib and begins a holy war, pledging to marry Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), daughter of the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken), and breaking Chani's heart. Zendaya absolutely thrives as the quiet yet vivacious Chani, and after "Dune: Part One" spend so much time teasing her importance, "Dune: Part Two" is made all the better by her presence.
2. Spider-Man: No Way Home
By the time we got to see "Spider-Man: No Way Home" in 2021, we all knew that Zendaya and Tom Holland were an item in real life (the two went on to get engaged and have since gotten married), and I don't think there's any question that the duo's real love for each other made "No Way Home" even better. After Peter is revealed to be Spider-Man to the entire world in the final moments of "Far From Home," Peter, MJ, and Ned all discover that their acceptances to the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (aka. MIT) have been revoked and struggle to deal with their new normal. Desperate for a solution, Peter begs Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to cast a spell that makes everyone forget he's Spider-Man. However, when Peter starts meddling to ensure MJ doesn't forget him as well, the spell ends up breaking the multiverse.
Thankfully, Zendaya plays a way bigger role in "No Way Home," working with Peter and Ned to recapture other Spider-Man related figures from previous franchises (like Jamie Foxx's Electro from the "Amazing Spider-Man" films and Willem Dafoe's Dr. Otto Octavius from Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man"), as well as crossing paths with other Spiders-Men. (The scene where MJ and Ned demand that Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker crawl on the ceiling is a true highlight.) The emotional climax of "No Way Home," though, is what makes the movie truly exceptional and might be why it has a 93% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes. After Peter and MJ say a tearful goodbye and prepare for everyone, including MJ, to forget about Peter, he goes to her workplace ... and she doesn't recognize him, leading to one of the MCU's most heartbreaking conclusions.
1. The Odyssey
Zendaya is barely in Christopher Nolan's take on "The Odyssey," but even with such little screen time, she makes an enormous impression ... and her character, such as it is, is integral to Nolan's version of the ancient Greek poem attributed to Homer. Matt Damon leads Nolan's spectacular blockbuster (which has 94% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes) as the titular hero Odysseus, who gets lost at sea for almost two decades after using the legendary Trojan horse to win the Trojan War on behalf of his kingdom of Ithaca. While he eats lotus flowers and forgets his past on a remote beach with Calypso (Charlize Theron), his wife Penelope and son Telemachus (Anne Hathaway and, yep, Tom Holland again) yearn for his safe return despite assuming that he might be long gone.
So, how does Zendaya fit in? Nolan's adaptation of "The Odyssey" largely leaves the physical manifestations of Greek gods out of the narrative (Poseidon and Zeus are referenced but never seen), save for Zendaya's ethereal, wise, and perpetually disappointed Athena. She appears to Odysseus multiple times when he's seemingly in need of counsel and advice, but during the film's third and final act, Athena's presence is finally "explained." (Spoiler alert!)
While Odysseus, hiding in Ithaca as a beggar, explains his Trojan horse gambit to an unwitting Penelope, the audience gets a glimpse at his memories ... and we see a young woman, also played by Zendaya, killed by Ithacan soldiers as they sack and destroy Troy. Whether this woman is a priestess of Athena or even, perhaps, the goddess herself in disguise is left up for debate. What's clear is that this woman's face haunts Odysseus, clarifying the consequences of his war-winning actions. Zendaya earns every second of screen time, and she's incredible in "The Odyssey."