Timothée Chalamet, Oscar-nominated actor, movie star and man of the moment, has played a worm-riding messiah in “Dune,” the legendary chocolatier in “Wonka” and even Bob Dylan. But his next movie presents an even greater challenge: playing pingpong.
Directed by Josh Safdie, “Marty Supreme” is a different kind of sports drama. Chalamet plays Marty Mauser, an up-and-coming table tennis star in 1950s New York City. Without the filmmaking pedigree behind it, “Marty Supreme” sounds more like a comedy than an Oscar contender. Can Chalamet make pingpong, typically seen as a hobby reserved for basements, sexy enough for audiences?
For many, it already is.
“In my experience growing up, table tennis was never taken very seriously,” said Cherie Ma, a member of Northeastern University Table Tennis Club who has been playing for a decade. “[In most movies] it’s just for fun or a silly thing in the background. I think it’s really nice that this movie is highlighting the more professional side of it, and that people are taking it more seriously.”
Globally, table tennis is the sixth-most popular sport with 850 million fans, putting it ahead of basketball, according to USA Table Tennis. But in the U.S., “Marty Supreme” is the culmination of a meteoric rise in popularity for the sport over the last five years.
USA Table Tennis, the governing body for competitive table tennis in the U.S., has doubled its membership in that time. Major League Table Tennis, the first professional league for the sport in the U.S., has seen a 1,200% growth in viewership from its first season in 2023.
“It is such a good time to spotlight our sport, to show that it is competitive and professional and also really fun and intense and intellectual, all those things that people maybe don’t think about with table tennis,” said Barbara Wei, media director for USA Table Tennis.
In “Marty Supreme,” Timothée Chalamet plays a rising table tennis star in 1950s New York City. The film centers competitive table tennis in an unprecedented way. A24
Table tennis is in its Hollywood era, but what accounts for its spike in popularity?
There have been active attempts to grow the sport in the U.S. for decades, but those efforts have only recently started paying off. The U.S. is now hosting the sport’s biggest events, bringing the world’s best players in front of American audiences, said Wei, who has been playing table tennis competitively since age 9 and first made the U.S. junior national team at 12.
Rising American table tennis stars like Kanak Jha, the 25-year-old five-time U.S. national champion and three-time Olympian, have helped spark interest in America. The Olympics, which table tennis has been a part of since 1988, have also played a significant role in the trajectory of the sport, Wei said.
More media coverage around the Olympics has spotlighted U.S. table tennis players, who have been performing better at the games in recent years. The social media frenzy around recent Olympic Games has certainly helped, too, spawning viral moments both on and off the court.
Northeastern Table Tennis Club members Aditya Mitra and Caden Caver volley back and forth in a round at the Paws Plays game room in the Curry Student Center on the Boston campus. Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University
12/04/25 – BOSTON, MA – Northeastern Table Tennis club member Caden Caver returns a volley during a game at the Paws Plays game room in the Curry Student Center on Thursday, Dec. 4,2025. Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University
12/04/25 – BOSTON, MA – Northeastern Table Tennis club member Cherie Ma serves the ball during a game at the Paws Plays game room in the Curry Student Center on Thursday, Dec. 4,2025. Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University
12/04/25 – BOSTON, MA – Northeastern Table Tennis club members Aditya Mitra and Caden Caver volley back and forth in a round at the Paws Plays game room in the Curry Student Center on Thursday, Dec. 4,2025. Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University
Table tennis organizations are hopeful about “Marty Supreme.” Northeastern Table Tennis club members Aditya Mitra (top left), Caden Caver (top right) and Cherie Ma (bottom left) are already excited to use the film as a recruiting tool for the next generation of players. Photos by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University
“At the highest levels you’re just like, ‘Wow, that looks superhuman. How did you do that? There’s no way you can react that fast,’” Wei said.
While table tennis has skyrocketed in popularity stateside, in Asia and Europe the sport has long been a staple. Table tennis has been China’s national sport since the 1949 Communist Revolution. It was even used as a diplomatic tool to ease tensions between the U.S. and China starting in the 1970s, giving rise to so-called “pingpong diplomacy.”
Until recently, table tennis in the U.S. hasn’t had the same kind of infrastructure. Professional leagues and training programs are the norm in Asia and Europe, but not in the U.S. That changed in 2023 with Major League Table Tennis entering the scene in the hopes of further legitimizing the sport.
The league has “codified its status as a sport on the national scale,” said Dan Lebowitz, executive director of Northeastern’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society.
It helps that table tennis is niche but not unknown in the U.S. The sport has historically been seen as a casual game, but all those basement tables have helped make it nearly ubiquitous in the U.S.
“[Its] construct as a social convening activity, and its ability to live at the intersection of both casual and competitive activity, makes it an ideal entry point for both high-tuned athletes and weekend warriors to engage,” Lebowitz said. “Table tennis is relatable, not overwhelming to the part-time participant, and a pathway to making social connection that resonates with everyone from baby boomers to Gen Z.”
Even with all the sport’s recent success, some might wonder if it’s worthy of the big screen. The public at large might find the idea of a kinetic drama about table tennis strange, but Wei said the sport is perfectly suited for movies. It’s fast-paced, with rapid swings between tension and release and split-second decisions making the difference between victory and defeat.
Translating all of those elements into a movie with one of Hollywood’s rising stars is “massive for the sport,” said Northeastern Table Tennis Club member Aditya Mitra. It has the potential to bring even more eyes –– and hopefully paddles –– to table tennis.
“We want people to come and enjoy the sport for all it has, for all the community,” Wei said. “It’s such a good bridge.”
