Denis Villenueve put all of his eggs in the Dune: Part One basket, spending $165 million of Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros.’ money on telling half of a story in the hopes that audiences would respond in kind, powering the sci-fi epic to a box office haul worthy of getting the sequel a green light.
For a while, the chances of that happening were entirely up in the air due to an HBO Max hybrid release, something Villenueve was openly frustrated with. The good news is that Dune: Part Two was officially announced shortly after the opening chapter hit theaters, and the literary adaptation has currently hauled in a solid $353 million and counting at the box office.
Part Two is scheduled to begin production next summer ahead of an October 2023 bow, and one of the main talking points heading into the follow up has been the ideal candidate to play Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, who we can safely say will not be anywhere near as scantily-clad and sweaty as Sting was in the 1984 version.
Speaking to Empire, Villenueve teased the big bad of the in-development blockbuster, but he was naturally reticent too say to much in terms of specifics.
“Definitely. That’s a choice that I personally brought on. There was enough characters that were introduced in this first part, and it will be more elegant to keep Feyd for Part Two. It will be definitely a very, very important character in the second part.”
Given that shooting kicks off in less than eight months, it won’t be too long before we find out who gets to face off opposite Timothee Chalamet’s Paul Atreides as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in Dune: Part Two, and whether or not any of the fan castings will come true.