Zendaya Reportedly Offered Lead Role in THE FUGITIVE Remake as Her Hollywood Hot Streak Continues
If you've been following Zendaya's career trajectory over the past couple of years, none of this is going to surprise you. The actress is everywhere right now, and Hollywood apparently can't stop throwing roles at her.
A while back, a rumor started making the rounds that Zendaya was being eyed for the lead in Warner Bros.' remake of The Fugitive. The original source wasn't exactly known for their batting average, so a lot of people shrugged it off.
Well now, insider Daniel Richtman is reporting that Zendaya has actually been offered the part, with David Keith(?) attached to direct.
The Fugitive has been around in one form or another since the 1960s, when it ran as a TV series. The version most people know, though, is the 1993 Harrison Ford film, where Ford plays Dr. Richard Kimble, a man wrongfully accused of killing his wife who escapes custody and goes on the run trying to find the real murderer.
Tommy Lee Jones played the relentless U.S. Marshal on his tail, and the role earned Jones a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. The official synopsis lays it out cleanly:
"Wrongfully accused of murdering his wife, Richard Kimble escapes from the law in an attempt to find her killer and clear his name. Pursuing him is a team of U.S. marshals led by Deputy Samuel Gerard, a determined detective who will not rest until Richard is captured.
“As Richard leads the team through a series of intricate chases, he discovers the secrets behind his wife's death and struggles to expose the killer before it is too late."
It's an awesome thriller and it's easy to see why Warner Bros. wants to bring it back. The question now is what version Zendaya would be stepping into.
The assumption from most corners is that she won't be playing a gender-swapped Richard Kimble, but rather a new character built around the same central conflict. Nothing has been confirmed either way.
What makes this particularly interesting is what Zendaya herself has been saying about the kinds of projects she's drawn to. In a recent interview, she talked about the criteria she uses when evaluating a role:
"I am drawn to complicated characters who I have to earn the audience's empathy and trust for," she said. "I want to expand the roles someone like me is allowed to do, or can do. As a Black woman, what I can do as an actress?"
A wrongfully accused person on the run, fighting to be believed, struggling to earn the trust of strangers while an authority with all the institutional power is hunting them down. That premise lines up almost point for point with what she says she's looking for.
Zendaya's schedule right now reads like a studio executive's fantasy booking sheet. She's reprising her role as MJ in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, heading back to the desert as Chani in Denis Villeneuve's Dune: Part Three, and she plays the goddess Athena in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey.
If The Fugitive does move forward with Zendaya attached, it'll be interesting to see how the project comes together and how it will be reimagined for a new audience.