7 TV Shows And Movies About Polyamory (That Aren’t ‘Challengers’)

As it turns out, Challengers isn’t just that “sexy Zendaya tennis movie.” It’s also that “sexy Zendaya polyamory movie.”

Truly, polyamory has rarely been so casually depicted as it is in Challengers. With its sultry trio of sun-kissed stars, the movie matter-of-factly portrays polyamory as something pure and simple – something natural, something already in our bones. Ultimately, it’s refreshing to see Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) comfortably in love with two men (Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor). It’s an antidote to the tawdry love triangles of past dramas. It may also inspire you to hunt down further sexy polyamory movies. However, since “sexy polyamory movies” is not yet a category available on Netflix, we’ve done the work for you. Here are some of the best (and worst) examples of sexy polyamory movies.

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017)

By using the creator of the Wonder Woman comics, William Moulton Marston, as a case study, this historical drama became the first mainstream Hollywood film to portray polyamory in a thorough, positive light. It’s a shame that more people didn’t see it: Normies could have benefited from learning that Wonder Woman was inspired by S&M fantasies. (That lasso should have been the first clue.) In any case, the movie’s portrayal of Marston (Luke Evans) and his two loves (Rebecca Hall and Bella Heathcote) was multifaceted enough to thrill and delight viewers.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

This movie was written and directed by He Who Must Not Be Named (it rhymes with Shmoody Shmallen), but it also depicts consensual non-monogamy in a non-salacious light. When this movie’s free-spirited Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) shacks up with María Elena (Penélope Cruz) and Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), the union feels as organic as Shmoody Shmallen’s cancelation by modern society. Though the poly drama is sometimes played for laughs, Antonio acts ethically throughout the movie. Additionally, María Elena and Cristina are supportive of each other (until they aren’t), and every relationship in the triad feels equal (until it doesn’t).

Shortbus (2006)

If you want to know what Manhattan was like when it was still cool–before it became a playground for the wealthy–then watch Shortbus. Like any good niche arthouse movie, the film features not just matter-of-fact polyamory, but also a three-way blowjob, a vegan orgy, self-fellatio, and plenty of gay stuff. And all of it was unsimulated. Mind you, this John Cameron Mitchell-directed movie came out in 2006! Veganism was not yet weaponized by Gwyneth Paltrow.  

Sense8 (2015-2017)

The polyamory in this short-lived series was presented as a superpower–something that bound and reinforced its eight main characters. Of course, this sci-fi show was co-created by the Wachowskis, so the eight aforementioned “sensates” were psychically linked by some new age techno mumbo jumbo. However, the sensates’ connection still made them essentially a poly pan octet (octad?) who relied on each other emotionally, physically, and often sexually. In any case, this show was great fun from start to finish.

Savages (2012)

In this twisted (but not twisty; don’t get that twisted) Oliver Stone thriller, Blake Lively starred as the girlfriend of both Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Can you think of a more 2012 sentence? That said, Savages stands out for the way it addresses its central trio’s homoerotic undertones, even though it never presents polyamory as something mutually beneficial for its characters. After all, this is a movie about unlikeable people doing bad things: It’s not intent on exploring the magnanimity of the human spirit. Plus, Hollywood needs bad examples of polyamory for movies like Challengers to show the trope’s potential.

Kinsey (2004)

Before Liam Neeson became the reigning king of B-movie action flicks, he was getting Oscar-nominated for doing gay stuff with Peter Sarsgaard in Kinsey. Yes, it’s true: Hetero Icon Liam Neeson made out with a dude once. But said dalliance was more than just a scandalous scene.

In this movie, Neeson’s character, Alfred Kinsey, is a scientist exploring the depths and limits of human sexuality. But by falling in love with his assistant (Sarsgaard), he realizes that sex is more than a sanctified heterosexual act within the confines of marriage: It’s a multivariant confluence of desires that manifests itself uniquely in every human being (except normies). In any case, Kinsey learns how to juggle his dual loves–Sarsgaard’s character and his wife–and thus sets the groundwork for future positive depictions of polyamory in Hollywood.

The Dreamers (2003)

Considering that two-thirds of this movie’s poly triad are brother and sister, it’s amazing that this movie isn’t ickier. And yet, Michael Pitt’s character Matthew falls in love with both Isabelle (Eva Green) and Théo (Louis Garrel), a very French brother-sister duo, without causing viewers to vomit. That doesn’t mean that the movie is a pristine example of polyamory in movies; in fact, it’s unclear whether this trio’s relationship is ethical non-monogamy or just an average Parisian Tuesday afternoon. Nevertheless, it’s at least poly-adjacent, and in a Hollywood landscape featuring scant poly representation, some members of the poly community have claimed it. Et voilà.