Austin Butler seemingly confirmed that he has joined the cast of Dune Part Two this week while promoting his role in Baz Luhrman’s ELVIS. Butler told an interview with The New York Times that he will play Fey-Rautha, the heir to House Harkonnen and rival of Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet). Butler even said that he has begun intensive knife-fight training in order to prepare for their climactic showdown.
Butler will be in theaters next month as Elvis Presley in a controversial new biopic where Butler’s performance has been the highest point of praise by critics so far. However, many fans are more interested in the news that he has officially joined the cast of the Dune sequel. Deadline reported back in March that Butler was in talks to take on the role of Feyd-Rautha, which was sorely missed in the first installment of this sci-fi adaptation. Now, the actor himself has confirmed his participation, and it sounds like he won’t hold back on the action.
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The film adaptation of Dune that premiered last year was a massive success, and it only told the first half of the story in Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel by the same name. Dune Part Two will finish that story and introduce some of the major characters that were absent from the first installment. In addition to Feyd-Rautha, that includes Emperor Shaddam IV and his daughter, Princess Irulan.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Christopher Walken has now officially been confirmed in the role of the emperor, and Florence Pugh has been confirmed to be playing Irulan. These characters will play a huge part in the climax of the movie, and if Villeneuve has his way, in another sequel. The director has expressed interest in adapting Herbert’s next book, Dune Messiah to the screen as well, creating a trilogy of films to tell all of Paul Atreides’ story.
Herbert wrote six novels in the Dune series with at least one more planned before his death in 1986. The fact that Villeneuve has only discussed adapting the first two novels into films has become a bit of a meme among fans online since many feel that the third book is where the series “gets weird.” There are also many sequels, prequels and spinoff novels co-written by Herbert’s son Brian Herbert and author Kevin J. Anderson. These other works may serve as the basis for an expanded cinematic universe in the years to come, with one TV spinoff already in the works.
Dune Part Two goes into production in July and is scheduled to premiere in theaters on Oct. 23, 2022. ELVIS hits theaters in the U.S. on Friday, June 24. Dune Part One is streaming now on HBO Max.
