Zendaya Auditioned Repeatedly for Major Movie Franchise Without Success

So, Descendants 4 just dropped, but let’s rewind a bit. Remember the original squad: Dove Cameron, Sofia Carson, Cameron Boyce, and Booboo Stewart? Well, turns out, Zendaya could have been one of them.

According to Cornelia Frame, a former Vice President of Casting and Talent Relations at Disney, Zendaya auditioned multiple times for the franchise. The same Zendaya we know and love from KC Undercover and Zapped was super close to joining the world of Auradon.

The first Descendants movie started filming back in 2014 and premiered exactly nine years ago on July 31, 2015. At that time, Zendaya was still a Disney starlet, juggling her series and other projects.

Frame spilled the tea on the Magical Rewind podcast, saying, “Zendaya did audition many times for Descendants, and that was a big deal. It was a really big deal that she auditioned over and over.”

“She really wanted it, and it just ended up not going her way,” she continued, noting that Zendaya “definitely put so much effort and so much work into it.”

The role Zendaya was gunning for is still a mystery, but Frame raised an interesting point: “Would Spider-Man have happened right at that same time?”

For the record, Zendaya was announced as part of the Spider-Man cast in March 2016, but Frame noted, “It really is true things happen for a reason, and you do often book this other thing that’s amazing when you don’t get something else.”

Fast forward to now, Descendants is on its fourth installment with tons of spin-offs. And Zendaya? She’s absolutely killing it. From swinging around as MJ in Spider-Man and diving into the epic world of Dune, to starring in Challengers and captivating us all in Euphoria (which will return for season three in 2025), she’s been busy.

Oh, and let’s not forget her status as a style icon—tenniscore, bangs, and killer shoes included.

Moral of the story? Things always have a way of working out.

Source: Cornelia Frame, Magical Rewind podcast