The sports-romance movie Challengers has been making audiences break a sweat since it premiered in U.S. theaters on April 26, 2024. But what about watching at home on Netflix?
The film stars Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist as tennis pros engaged in a decades-long love triangle, and it’s a riveting back-and-forth that feels like an actual tennis match in many ways. Critics and audiences are raving about the film, directed by Luca Guadagnino, who also helmed movies like Call Me By Your Name and Bones and All, based on a screenplay by Justin Kuritzkes.
It’s about three young, talented tennis prodigies named Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), Patrick Zweig (O’Connor), and Art Donaldson (Faist), who meet as teenagers in 2006. Art and Patrick are best friends and frequent opponents on the court, but once Tashi enters the picture, their true rivalry begins.
The film follows the would-be throuple for decades, until Patrick and Art are once again facing off at an ATP Challenger tour while Tashi watches anxiously from the stands. By the final moments, viewers can actually feel the tension, and the heart-pounding final moments are exhilarating and life-affirming.
The film earns praise for the strong acting from its young stars and clear directorial vision from Guadagnino. Zendaya is, of course, so beautiful and graceful she’s practically ethereal, and she really shines as the mercurial and hard-hitting Tashi. So far, the film has a score of 88 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
When and where will Challengers stream?
Challengers’ premiere date was pushed back almost a year due to the 2023 entertainment industry strikes, which in turn will delay when the movie leaves theaters and heads to the streamers. Since Netflix was not affiliated with the production in any way, we can only assume that Challengers will not stream on that platform anytime soon.
Conversely, the film was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Amazon MGM Studios is behind the U.S. release of this film, so it stands to reason that Challengers will stream on Amazon Prime Video once it leaves theaters. That’s not to say that Challengers won’t appear on multiple platforms eventually, but look for it on Prime first.
Due to the film’s success at the box office, we’ll likely have to wait several more months before Challengers appears on Amazon Prime, but something tells us this one is worth the wait.
(featured image: Amazon MGM Studios)
