Before Zendaya starred in hit films like “Dune: Part Two” and Marvel’s “Spider-Man” trilogy, she was best known as a teen actress on the Disney Channel series “Shake It Up” and “KC Undercover.” But according to a former Disney Channel casting official, the actress could have been part of another project from the network: the series “Descendants.”
Cornelia Frame, Disney Channel's former vice president of casting and talent relations, revealed in a recent interview on the “Magical Rewind” podcast that Zendaya auditioned for an undisclosed role in “Descendants.”
“Zendaya auditioned multiple times for Descendants, and it was a big deal,” Frame said. “I mean, it was a big deal that she auditioned over and over again. She really wanted it, but it didn’t work out for her in the end.”
Frame noted that Zendaya “put a lot of work and effort” into these auditions, but in the end “it's just one of those things.”
“Now that I think about it, I feel like, 'Could a Spider-Man movie have happened at the same time?' Things happen for a reason, and they often bookend something else amazing when you don't get anything else,” she continued.
Although Zendaya didn't land the role in “Descendants,” she has already appeared in two Disney Channel original movies: 2012's “Frenemies” and 2014's “Zapped.” She then lent her voice to the songs in the 2017 musical “The Greatest Showman,” in which she starred alongside Hugh Jackman and fellow Disney star Zac Efron.
Dove Cameron, Sofia Carson, Booboo Stewart, and Cameron Boyce starred in the first three films in the Descendants series, playing the teenage children of classic Disney villains. The original film was released in 2015, and was followed by two sequels in 2017 and 2019.
