‘Challengers’ Director Luca Guadagnino Explains Origins Of The ‘Spider-Verse’ Reference

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details about Challengers.

Luca Guadagnino, director of Challengers, inadvertently linked his latest film to the Spider-Man universe by having Zendaya be that connection.

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Zendaya plays MJ opposite Tom Holland in the latest Spider-Man movies, and she is currently starring as tennis prodigy Tashi in Challengers.

At a point in the film, Tashi is discussing tennis with her husband Art, played by Mike Faist, when their daughter Lily walks in and asks if she can watch the animated Spider-Verse. The Easter egg lit up Spider-Man fans when the Marvel superhero was mentioned.

Although Zendaya doesn’t voice a character in the Spider-Verse animated film, she is part of the Spider-Verse at Sony. Guadagnino is now revealing that the connection wasn’t on purpose.

“When you get rights for something to be used in a movie, it’s very complicated,” Guadagnino said in an interview with EW. “Amy Pascal, our amazing producer, was of help there. I said, ‘Amy, can we use one of your catalog 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?'”

He continued, “Now I realize that it sounded like an in-joke, which, you know, the unconscious guides us all the time.”

Challengers follows Zendaya’s Tashi Duncan, a former tennis prodigy who becomes her husband’s coach. Tashi is married to a tennis champion who is on a losing streak and soon finds himself facing off against his former best friend and Tashi’s ex-boyfriend.

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