{"id":6508,"date":"2026-07-15T16:04:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T15:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/filmshrine\/?p=6508"},"modified":"2026-07-15T16:04:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T15:04:21","slug":"how-tom-holland-accidentally-gave-zendaya-an-unfair-advantage-before-the-odyssey-casting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/filmshrine\/2026\/07\/15\/how-tom-holland-accidentally-gave-zendaya-an-unfair-advantage-before-the-odyssey-casting\/","title":{"rendered":"How Tom Holland accidentally gave Zendaya an unfair advantage before The Odyssey casting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most actors have to wait until they’re cast before they get their hands on a script. Zendaya,<\/a> meanwhile, had a much easier route.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Universal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The actress has admitted she got an early look at Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey <\/a>screenplay thanks to Tom Holland, who already had a copy before she’d officially joined the film.<\/p>\n

Speaking to E! News<\/a> at the movie’s New York premiere, Zendaya joked she’d “kind of cheated a little bit” after spotting the script at home.<\/p>\n

“Tom had the script at home before I got the call,” she said. “So, I did a little peeky peek.”<\/p>\n

Safe to say she liked what she saw. Zendaya described Nolan’s take on Homer’s epic as “extraordinary” and “so moving”, adding: “You would think a piece of literature like this is almost impossible to adapt but if there’s anyone who can do it, it’s Mr. Nolan.”<\/p>\n

\"\"
Universal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The funny part is she still had no clue Nolan was actually thinking about casting her.<\/p>\n

On the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast<\/a>, Zendaya explained she’d been celebrating Tom landing the role of Telemachus and the pair had read through the script together before his first meeting with Nolan. She said she was already “on Cloud Nine” for him, completely unaware she was in the running herself.<\/p>\n

That changed after Holland came home from the meeting.<\/p>\n

“And then he came home and said, ‘I need you to read something’,” she recalled. “And I was like, ‘Is it that thing we were just reading the other night?’.”<\/p>\n

When he told her Nolan had brought up casting her too, she couldn’t quite believe it.<\/p>\n

“I was like, ‘Shut up! You’re joking!'” she said. “It was pretty cool.”<\/p>\n

\"\"
Universal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Zendaya will play Athena in the upcoming film, while Holland stars as Telemachus, making The Odyssey the fifth project the couple have worked on together since first meeting on Spider-Man: Homecoming.<\/p>\n

This time, though, it sounds like one of them got a head start before filming had even begun.<\/p>\n

For all the latest film and TV updates and hot takes, <\/span><\/i>like our Facebook page<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Featured image credit: Universal<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She confessed to ‘cheating’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":6512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[251,23,60],"coauthors":[27],"class_list":["post-6508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-the-odyssey","tag-tom-holland","tag-zendaya"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow Tom Holland accidentally gave Zendaya an unfair advantage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Zendaya has revealed how Tom Holland accidentally gave her an unfair advantage before The Odyssey casting.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thetab.com\/filmshrine\/2026\/07\/15\/how-tom-holland-accidentally-gave-zendaya-an-unfair-advantage-before-the-odyssey-casting\/\" 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