Zendaya has played plenty of iconic characters, but her résumé has developed a delightful pattern: put her beside the hero, whether he is Spider-Man or a messiah, and watch the chemistry begin. The very reason why she is involved in a chemistry crisis at the moment. While Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya appear to generate a different kind of spark in Dune, Tom Holland has spent years fluttering hearts beside her, both on screen and off. This is merely subjective, naturally, and not because Tom Holland might read this before dramatically appearing in Spider-Man costume.

There are, however, a few surprisingly convincing reasons why audiences may prefer Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet together over Zendaya and her real-life husband in the Spider-Man movies.

A genre can be a terrible third wheel, or a remarkably talented matchmaker. Tom Holland and Zendaya have spent the Spider-Man movies flirting, bickering, and surviving increasingly ridiculous disasters in a bright, quip-heavy superhero world, so Peter Parker and MJ naturally feel sweet, awkward, and wonderfully fun. But Dune arrives with politics, prophecy, and the general inconvenience of civilization collapsing.

Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya therefore get to flirt while the universe is practically sharpening a knife. Paul Atreides and Chani are not merely in love; they are trapped between destiny, cultural survival, political manipulation, and a war that threatens everything around them. That makes their chemistry feel far more desperate and visceral, although Spider-Man: Brand New Day may finally give Tom Holland and Zendaya a darker battlefield worthy of the same intensity.

Jon Watts lets chemistry run around in sneakers. His grounded, coming-of-age approach gives Zendaya and Tom Holland room to riff, improvise, and let their real-life banter sneak into Peter Parker and MJ, creating a charmingly spontaneous spark. Even moments such as MJ throwing bread at Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man grew from that loose, playful energy.

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Denis Villeneuve, meanwhile, does not need Paul Atreides and Chani to fill every silence; he lets the silence do the flirting. His highly controlled, mythic direction turns their smallest glances, gestures, and shifts in expression into emotional events, with Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet carrying an entire doomed world between them. 

The characters themselves may be the biggest chemistry cheat code. MJ is funny, sharp, and wonderfully deadpan, but superhero storytelling often reduces her to Peter Parker’s girlfriend, while Chani is Zendaya’s fierce moral counterweight to Paul Atreides. She challenges his messianic rise, defends her people, and refuses to applaud simply because destiny has excellent marketing.

That makes her scenes with Timothée Chalamet crackle with the delicious inconvenience of genuine disagreement, while Tom Holland, who has somehow found himself responding to Zendaya being shipped with Odysseus, and Zendaya thrive on Peter Parker and MJ’s sweeter, more familiar awkwardness. So perhaps Dune wins because Chani gives Zendaya more to fight for, resist, and feel, making her chemistry with Timothée Chalamet seem more electric than her undeniably charming Spider-Man romance with Tom Holland.

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Whose chemistry with Zendaya do you like more, Timothée Chalamet or Tom Holland? Let us know in the comments!