The second trailer for Challengers dropped on Wednesday, February 21, and has stars Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist, turning up the heat.
The trailer includes multiple new scenes of the tennis three-way love triangle, from more shared kisses between Zendaya and her male costars, to a sexual smoke break innuendo and the sizzling rivalry between O’Connor and Faist’s characters on full display.
In the seductive new film directed by Luca Guadagnino, Challengers centers around tennis prodigy Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), who after sustaining a devastating injury becomes a coach to husband Art (Faist) after he finds himself on a losing streak. Tashi then enters Art into a challenger event, where he’s forced to take on his former best friend and her ex-boyfriend, Patrick (O’Connor).
“He’s not in love with you,” Art declares to Tashi at one point, referring to Patrick, in which she responds: “What makes you think I want someone to be in love with me?”
Another trailer clip has O’Connor asking Zendaya to share a cigarette so they can “talk,” in which she responds, “I don’t smoke, and I’m not talking to you.” Following a brief pause, Zendaya agrees, as it appears that O’Connor was not talking about a cigarette break, after all.
With its unconventional premise, the Euphoria actress gave her own tagline for the film during an interview with Vanity Fair in August 2023.
“I often call this movie, Codependency: The Movie,” she joked, adding, “I love seeing people’s take on the characters when they’ve only seen the trailer. It’s like, ‘Just wait, you have no idea.’”
The tantalizing premise of a sports rivalry-turned-affair promises a large amount of sexual tension, on and off the court. As Guadagnino is known for his provocative filmmaking (the peach scene from Call Me By Your Name of it all), we can expect to see the sexual volume turned up. The sports aspect, however, will likely take a backseat.
“He had no knowledge of tennis going into this,” Faist told Empire in June 2023 of the director’s approach to Challengers. “And I think he had only a vague interest in certain tennis specificities. He was more interested in the bodies and sweat.”
“What Luca’s really good at is finding sensuality and desire,” Zendaya told the outlet. “There’s so much in just glances. The tension builds. Not having the release is a good thing sometimes,” she explained, hinting that the action here will most likely be kept to the court.
“The tennis is the sex,” O’Connor added. “Those moments are so sexy. The film is dealing with the tension before and after. The sex they’re all desperate for is on the court.”
Challengers opens in theaters on April 26.
