No Days Off
Zendaya Lands A New A24 Movie After Saying She’d Take A Break
Like a true Disney Channel alum, the actor simply can’t stop.
The greatest legends never truly give themselves a break, no matter how many times they try to retire or go on one last “farewell tour” (see: Cher, Elton John, Tom Brady). Zendaya might be one of them. On Oct. 15, news broke that the actor has landed a new sci-fi role, just months after she said she planned to step away from acting following her whirlwind 2026.
Variety reported that Zendaya will star in writer-director Alex Garland’s new, still-untitled sci-fi film. Plot details and additional casting remain under wraps for now, but production is scheduled to begin in 2027.
A24 is producing the film. The studio is also behind one of Zendaya’s many 2026 projects, The Drama, as well as her Emmy-winning HBO series Euphoria, which wrapped its third and final season in May. She also starred alongside her husband, Tom Holland, in The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day this summer, both of which smashed box office records.
As if that weren’t enough, Zendaya will return for Dune: Part Three, which hits theaters in December. Oh, and she voiced a new character in Shrek 5, due out next year.
So it’s only natural that she told Entertainment Tonight at The Odyssey premiere that she wanted to do “nothing” after 2026. “Just mind my business, you know? And stay to myself,” she said of her plans. “This is such a whirlwind. You’re in a new place every second. It’s fun, and I’m grateful, and I wouldn’t change a thing, but sometimes you need to just disappear for a little bit.”
It only took a few months for Zendaya to go back on those plans, so Garland’s movie must have been exciting enough that she couldn’t say no. Then again, she has never been great at taking time off, as she admitted to Elle in May.
“I just really love my job,” she said. “But I think that after this, I’m going to have to take a little bit of a break. [Though] as soon as I take a break, I start to go crazy. And I’m like, ‘I need to work.’” Spoken like a true Disney Channel star who knows how to do it all.
