Zendaya’s ‘Challengers’ Skips Venice Film Festival Launch Due to SAG-AFTRA Strike, Moves to 2024
variety.comChallengers,” starring Zendaya, which had been set as the Venice Film Festival opener, has been pulled from the festival due to promotional complications prompted by the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Venice has announced that the sexy sports comedy — in which Zendaya plays a former tennis prodigy turned coach entangled in a love triangle with two pro tennis players, played by Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist — has changed its distribution strategy.
The film’s promotion has been disrupted by the current actors strike, which prohibits SAG-AFTRA union members from doing any type of promotional activity.
This means Zendaya, O’Connor and Faist would not have been able to launch the film on Aug. 30 on the Venice red carpet. After a week of discussions, Venice organizers confirmed in a statement on Friday that the film “will not participate at the festival following a decision made by the production.” Variety understands that “Challengers” will now get an early summer 2024 release date that will give the movie a wide berth from strike action, and also help the film better reach its target audience.
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