Zendaya could have been part of Disney Channel‘s Descendants franchise.
Former Vice President of Casting and Talent Relations at the children’s network Cornelia Frame revealed that the Euphoria star wanted to be part of the franchise and auditioned multiple times.
“Zendaya did audition many times for Descendants, and that was a big deal,” Frame said during an interview on the Magical Rewind podcast. “It was a really big deal. She auditioned over and over and really wanted it. It just ended up not going her way.”
Frame continued, “Now that I think about it, I’m like, ‘Would Spider-Man have happened right at that same time?’ Things happen for a reason, and you do often book this other thing that’s amazing when you don’t get something else.”
The former Disney Channel executive said Zendaya “put so much effort and so much work into it, too. It’s just one of those things.”
Descendants is a musical fantasy television film that premiered in 2015 on the Disney Channel. The film centers around the teenage children of classic Disney villains like Maleficent, the Evil Queen, Jafar, and Cruella de Vil.
When Descendants premiered in July 2015, Zendaya was starring in the Disney Channel series K.C. Undercover, which premiered earlier that year. Zendaya went on to make two more seasons of the spy comedy.
Descendants went on to become a huge franchise for the network with a sequel premiering in 2017 and a third installment released in 2019. Most recently a spinoff film titled Descendants: The Rise of Red premiered on Disney+.
Following her Disney+ days, Zendaya went on to book Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017, which was followed by 2019’s Spider-Man: Far from Home and 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. Zendaya has also starred in the Dune film franchise and most recently starred in the Luca Guadagnino film Challengers.