Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya are two of Hollywood's brightest stars turned A-listers. And I, for one, feel very grateful that we've already gotten to see them share the screen in not one, not two, but (soon-to-be) three Dune movies.
On the press tours for Dune: Part One and Dune: Part Two in 2021 and 2024, Zendaya and Timothée's off-screen chemistry was on full display.
They laughed...
They danced...
And they even wore matching outfits. That's true friendship.
Now, if their closeness was ever in doubt, Timothée's lengthy birthday message to Zendaya from six years ago has resurfaced on X — and people are REALLY reading into it.
Paying tribute to Z on X (then Twitter) back in 2020, Timmy wrote: "happy birthday to one of the most inspiring people I've met on my short journey. Someone with the strongest ethical character, and a moral compass that is in harmony with a totally fearless creative abandon. happy birthday @Zendaya , hope your day is beautiful, friend.."
First of all, what a genuinely lovely thing to say about someone??? If I were Zendaya, I would feel very moved by that. And on X, six years later, people are playfully appreciating the way that Timmy was "doing the most" for his pal.
While most are reading it as a testament to Timothée and Zendaya's sweet friendship, others are seeing it as an opportunity to reexamine the costars' bond, speculating whether there was actually more going on between them than we may have realized.
For some timeline context, the first Dune movie was shot in 2019 but didn't actually come out until 2021, so Zendaya and Timothée had probably been friends for well over a year by this point. As for their love lives at this time, Zendaya had yet to confirm her romance with her Spider-Man costar (now husband), Tom Holland. Meanwhile, Timmy was briefly linked to Eiza González and seemed to be dating more casually following his split from Lily-Rose Depp.
Looking back at the post now, people are (jokingly and not so jokingly) obsessing over the idea that Timothée could've been into Z romantically. "im telling yall he wanted her so bad," read one new post with over 10,000 likes.
But, before anyone gets too carried away, let's just get a few things clear: Heterosexual men and women can enjoy platonic relationships, and there's never been anything else to suggest that Timothée and Zendaya were anything other than great friends. Besides, someone pointed out that Timmy and Z's posting lengthy birthday tributes is hardly anything unusual — she even returned the favor later that year.
“Happy birthday to one of the coolest mf on the planet,” she wrote on Instagram to celebrate Timothée's birthday in December 2020. "This may not be as eloquent as he would say it, but the love is just as real. It’s an honor to watch his talents at work but even more of an honor to be able to call him a friend. Essentially, he’s the shit. Hope it’s a beautiful one @tchalamet." Bringing this up in light of Timmy's resurfaced tribute, one X user wrote: "Timothée and Zendaya used to post bday messages to each other cuz they're friends. How is that a gotcha of some kind? Folks acting weird af every time they did is why they stopped."
On top of that, it's worth noting that both Timothée and Zendaya have previously shut down chatter about the nature of their relationship, stemming from the fact that they play love interests in the Dune universe. "We’re pushing 30 and have been great friends for years," Timothée said back in 2024, responding to a question about kissing Zendaya in character. "It’s not more complicated than that," he added.
So, though it is fun to hypothesize about an alternate universe where TomDaya is actually TimDaya, I think we're safe to assume that these two are simply the platonic costar besties we always assumed them to be.
Dune: Part Three is coming out later this year, and I'm already holding out hope for some matching fits. Law Roach, let's make it happen.
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